The North West Medieval Studies Reading Group is an interdisciplinary, student-led reading group for postgraduate students and early career researchers in the North West working on topics related to the Middle Ages. The group is designed to strengthen networks and provide an informal space to share ideas and collaborate.
Every month, one participant undertakes to lead our reading group on a topic of their choice. They pick a primary source relevant to their research, a piece of secondary literature, and approximately three questions to serve as a starting point for the discussion. The chosen reading materials are distributed to members in the week before the meeting. We meet monthly via Zoom (for the time being). The reading group is the perfect place to talk over new ideas, to receive peer feedback on thoughts, and to get experience in leading a seminar. If you are interested in leading a session or being added to the mailing list, please contact nwmsreading@gmail.com . The postgraduate branch of nwms is run by Meaghan Allen (Manchester) and Anna Probert (Liverpool).
Listen to our podcast ‘Modern Medieval: A NWMSN Podcast’ here: https://modernmedieval.podbean.com/
Reading Group 2023-2024
January 24, 2024 – Welcome Back Meeting!
Past Programme
The reading group has been running since 2016 . This is a list of our past sessions.
2023-2024
March 6, 2024
Will Curtis, University of Manchester
February 21, 2024
Carole Pinnington, University of Liverpool
January 24, 2024
Welcome back zoom meeting!
November 22, 2023
Eddie Meehan, University of Liverpool, ‘Nominoe of Brittany, Advice Literature and the Carolingian ‘Other’
November 8, 2023
Joshua Coulthard, Edge Hill University, ‘The Dream of Emperor Maxen’
2022-2023
October 20, 2022
Meaghan Allen, University of Manchester, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer & the Hagiographic Genre’
November 17, 2022
Emily Harless, University of Manchester, ‘Vedanta Meets Eckhart: Premodern Mysticisms in the Works of Christopher Isherwood’
February 23, 2023
Anna Probert, University of Liverpool, ‘How medieval chroniclers use their sources
March 23, 2023
Edward Meehan, University of Liverpool, ‘Carolingian Royal Advice Literature’
May 24, 2023
Joe Burton, University of Manchester, ‘Between Creation and Destruction: Reading Repair on the Halton Cross’
2021-2022
14th April
‘Royal Accession and the Ritualisation of Crisis: Æthelstan as Example’, Jonathan Tickle
24th February
Re-examining the evidence: Gender-nonconformity in Early Anglo-Saxon cultural zones, James Davidson,
27th January
What on Earth are Medieval Emotions, and How Do We Go About Studying Them? – Holly Dempster-Edwards
16 December
Warriors, Wenches, and Witches: The Reimagining of Power for Medieval Women in Japanese Dating-Simulations – Calum Leatham
25 November
Diaspora, East Asian ‘Medievalisms’, and Larissa Lai’s When Fox is a Thousand – Emily Harless
28 October
Consent in Lord-Peasant Relationships – Stuart Pracy
2020 – 2021
29 April 2021
A Medievalism of the Self: A Discussion of Critical Theory in Medieval Studies and Michel Foucault’s Model of the Self – Emily Harless
18 March 2021
‘Strong in a strong place, beautiful in a beautiful place’: High Politics and the Longing for Lincoln – Lee Brooks
25 February 2021
Trans-corporeality and Sanctity – Meaghan Allen
28 January 2021
Representations of Death in Late Middle English Drama – Alex Claridge
23 December 2020
Exploring the Framework of the Moral Economy and its Applicability to the Medieval Period – Stuart Pracy
3 December 2020
‘Thynke On My Modyr’: The Role of Saint Anne in The Book of Margery Kempe – Emily Harless
29 October 2020
‘Dealing with a Narrative Void: The Earliest Textual Sources for Medieval Sardinia’ – Hervin Fernández-Aceves
2019 – 2020
28 November 2019
‘Europe’s Forgotten Empire: Bulgaria in the Tenth Century’ – Domantas Audronis
30 October 2019
‘Unmasking the Vikings in Movies and Investigating Medievalism’ – Danica Ramsey-Brimberg
25 September 2019
‘Legendary Skin, Stigmata and Reading the Skin of Margery Kemp’ – Emily Harless
2018 – 2019
29 May 2019
Creating a Holy City in Bologna – Tom Quigley
25 April 2019
The Paris Apocalypse and Apocalypse Manuscripts – Emerson Storm Richardson
28 February 2019
Rereading Anglo-Saxon Wills: New Approaches to Old Documents – Ryan T. Goodman and Stuart D. P. Pracy
31 January 2019
Reorienting the Study of the Crusades – Adam Simmons
27 November 2018
Ghost Stories from the Byland Collection – Polina Ignatova
25 October 2018
‘Cultural Crosspollinations in Medieval Southern Italy: The Bari Throne’ – Clare Vernon
27 September 2018
‘Comedy and Laughter on the Medieval Stage’ – Alex Claridge
2017 – 2018
30 May 2018
‘Telling It Slant: Some Environmental Readings of Old English Charter Bounds’ – Abi Bleach
25 April 2018
‘Revival of the Twelfth-Century English Nation? Or Nations?: The Case for Multiple Conceptions “Englishness”‘ – Isaac Boothroyd
28 March 2018
‘Weaponed Women in Medieval Northern European “Prehistory”‘ – Katherine Fliegel
13 December 2017
‘The Decline and Rise of the “Dark Ages”: The World of Late Antiquity in Popular History’ – Sihong Lin
29 November 2017
‘Chaucer and Money’ – Dr. Natalie Hanna
25 October 2017
‘The Chronique de Normandie and Audiences of Historical Narratives’ – Alex Hurlow
27 September 2017
‘History, Ethnicity, and Masculinity: Models of Authority in “Anglo-Norman” Scotland’ – Dr Jonathan Gledhill
2016 – 2017
Wednesday 31 May 2017
The End of National History? Constructing a Global Middle Ages
Wednesday 26 April 2017
Contextualizing a Viking burial in the Irish Sea
Wednesday 29 March 2017
Giraldus Cambrensis, Bishops, Archbishops and Wales of the Princes at the end of the Twelfth Century
Wednesday 22 February 2017
From text to tech
Wednesday 25 January 2017
Benjamin of Tudela, His Book of Travels and the case of Jewish History/Historiography
Wednesday 14 December 2016
Shape, form and the value of books
Wednesday 30 November 2016
Matthew Paris and presenting history in English chronicles
Wednesday 26 October 2016
Orderic Vitalis, looking for personality in the narrative