Our fourth talk of Michaelmas term will be on Monday 24 November, featuring a presentation by Alastair Forbes, Durham alumni+independent scholar! He will be discussing "The Vision of Boso and Moral Soundscapes in Simeon of Durham's Libellus de exordio." Come to 7 Owengate at 6pm to hear his paper! ✨

Our next talk of term will be on Monday 10 November, featuring a presentation by Ido Kons from the University of Cambridge! He will be discussing "Manuscript Transmission and the Spread of Learning in Late Anglo-Saxon England, c. 950-1066." Come along to 7 Owengate at 6pm to hear his paper! ✨

🎺 HEAR YE, HEAR YE! 🎺 We are proud to announce the official MEMSA seminar series term card for this autumn! Make sure to put the dates in your calendar so you don't miss our amazing speakers! We can't wait to see you there!

Our next talk of term will be from our other co-chair from last year, the amazing Lottie Thompson! She will be presenting on "Medieval Durham and the Ancient World: Lawrence of Durham’s Dialogi and Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics." See her talk on Monday, 27 October at 6p, 7 Owengate! See you there!

Do you want to stay up to date on all things medieval and early modern at Durham? Join the weekly MEMSA email list! ✨ The manual URL is forms.office.com/e/KPARhd0Cmf (Also I'm an AI anti but the ✨ emoji was mine first, sue me—)

Do YOU want to be on the MEMSA exec? ✨ We're looking for two community course convenors this year! If you're interested in getting involved, send an email to [email protected] by Friday, 24th October! We look forward to having you join us! 💕

Our first talk of this year's Michaelmas term will be delivered by one of the MEMSA chairs from last year, Isaiah Silvers! He will be discussing 'Auxilios: "Reform" and "Aid" in the Hospital Institutions of New Spain, c. 1730-1770'. Hope to see you all on Monday 13th October at 6pm!

We will be holding our first social of the year at the oldest pub in Durham on Tuesday 7th October at 7pm. Everyone is welcome, whether you are studying the medieval or early modern period or just interested in it! Come along to meet some fellow postgrads and celebrate the new academic year!

We are pleased to announce submissions are OPEN for this year's MEMSA seminar series! Submit your abstract of <250 words to our email by Sunday 5th October. Please check the post for further details. We look forward to reading all applications, and we can't wait to see you there!

At the beginning of this week we hosted the 19th Annual MEMSA Conference. We would like to thank our supporters: @sshmedicine.bsky.social, Durham's Faculty of Arts and Humanities, @durhamhistory.bsky.social, Durham Castle and of course @imems.bsky.social

MEMSA Conference 2025 Final photo of the conference, thank you to everyone who came over the two days - whether for the whole conference or popped in for part of it. Safe journey home

‘Creatures of Power: Animals, Ecology and Humanity in the Medieval World’

‘The Green Arcana: Herbs as Tools of Transformation in Magic and Ritual’

MEMSA Conference ‘Poetry as Natural Philosophy: Reimagining Life and Death in Verse’

Alongside hosting the conference in Durham Castle, our other panel is held in 7 Owengate, the home for the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. Here are some of our talks taking place there yesterday

Kicking off proceedings bright and early on day 2 of our conference we have the first panel on: ‘Myths and Legends: Exploring the Boundaries of Folklore and Science’ with papers from Valentina Majolo, Thomas Banbury and Charles Marshall.

We are rounding up our panels for the day. Here are some more pictures from our speakers from sessions held in the Bishop's Dining Room in Durham Castle

Some highlights from our panel this morning on 'Listening to the land'

It’s the first day of the MEMSA conference. We have two days of exciting panels on this year's theme: Illuminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic. Delegates are currently at registration before things kick off at 10.15!

Some highlights from a brilliant access-all-areas tour of Durham Castle, courtesy of @durhammemsa.bsky.social Chair @charrathompson.bsky.social. Wish me luck with my keynote this morning!

Reminder we have our last seminar of the term this evening with Nicola McNeil - you can read our interview with Nicola on the website here: durhammemsa.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/i...

Somehow it's the time already for our final talk of this academic year. Join us on Monday to hear from Nicola McNeil who will be discussing 'This Old Thing: Traces of the Past, Late Anglo-Saxon Queenship and Legitimacy in the Landscape'

Could you be part of the next team to run MEMSA? We will be holding our AGM next week, see the poster below for details!

For our next MEMSA talk we will be hearing from Maddy with her talk on 'Early Modern English Catholic Women and the Illicit Transnational Distribution of Catholic Books' You can read our interview with her ahead of her talk: durhammemsa.wordpress.com/2025/05/15/i...

As term approaches, we are excited to announce that our first talk will be taking place on the 5th May at the usual time where we will hear from Dana Weaver. You can read Dana's interview with us ahead of their talk: durhammemsa.wordpress.com/2025/04/25/i...

MEMSA is thrilled to announce that the CfP for our 19th Annual Conference is now open! The theme is 'Illuminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic' Please see below for the full CfP The deadline is the 30th April!

As term approaches, we are excited to announce that our first talk will be taking place on the 5th May at the usual time where we will hear from Dana Weaver. You can read Dana's interview with us ahead of their talk: durhammemsa.wordpress.com/2025/04/25/i...

You can now book on to this year's MEMSA course on Memory in the Medieval and Early Modern World! Check out the poster below and the booking link for more information pay.durham.ac.uk/event-durham... #medieval #durham #earlymodern

Reminder that it is two weeks for the deadline to send in your abstracts for this year's MEMSA Conference! We would also like to thank @sshmedicine.bsky.social for supporting the conference this year Please circulate widely #medievaltwitter #earlymodern

It's 4 weeks to go to the deadline, have you thought about what you are going submit yet?

Call for Papers! Online conference on ‘Magic in the Pre-modern North’ co-organised by one of our fantastic Liverpool PhD researchers in Irish Studies #medievalsky

You have 6 weeks until the deadline for our conference call for papers! Have you thought about what you're going to submit yet?

For the last MEMSA seminar this term, we will be hearing from our own, Anthony Zhang who will discussing 'Staging Marriage as a Socio-Political Agenda' See you on Monday!

MEMSA is thrilled to announce our Call for Tutors for this year's Community Course! The MEMSA Community Course involves eight evening sessions and brings together researchers and the local community. If you are interested in becoming one of tutors this year, check out the following CfP

See you tonight for the next talk in our Seminar Series! You can read our interview with Mary ahead of her talk tonight here: durhammemsa.wordpress.com/2025/02/26/i...

Next week we will be welcoming Mary Catherine O'Connor to talk about Garden Battles and Romance!

MEMSA is thrilled to announce that the CfP for our 19th Annual Conference is now open! The theme is 'Illuminating Nature: Explorations of Science, Religion, and Magic' Please see below for the full CfP The deadline is the 30th April!

Ahead of tonight's talk you can now read our interview with Pamela to find out more about their research. durhammemsa.wordpress.com/2025/02/17/i...

Join us this coming Monday to hear from Pamela Kask, in their talk about 'Traumatic Dreams in Middle English Literature'

Applications are now open for our Palaeography courses @imems.bsky.social! Visit www.imemsdurhamlearn.com & apply now! Courses will run from March 31st to April 11th.

MEMSA is thrilled to announce our Call for Tutors for this year's Community Course! The MEMSA Community Course involves eight evening sessions and brings together researchers and the local community. If you are interested in becoming one of tutors this year, check out the following CfP

Our second talk of the year will be taking place on Monday 3rd February where we will hear from Ana Aldazabal discussing 'Witches in the French Medieval Literary Imagination' Hope to see you there!

Check out our most recent blog post about the First Folio at Durham durhammemsa.wordpress.com/2025/01/20/d...

Last week, members of MEMSA were taken on a tour of the hidden histories of the Castle. Thank you to Eric Cambridge and Lottie Thompson for the thrilling exploration. Thank you also for University College for allowing us to delve into Castle's history and to IMEMS for providing the funding.

Our second talk of the year will be taking place on Monday 3rd February where we will hear from Ana Aldazabal discussing 'Witches in the French Medieval Literary Imagination' Hope to see you there!

Reminder our first seminar of the year is happening this evening! You can read our interview with Alonzo on our website here: durhammemsa.wordpress.com/2025/01/15/i...

For the first talk of the year, we will be welcoming Alonzo Loza Baltazar on Monday 20th January! There will be refreshments from 6pm with the talk starting at the usual time of 6.10-6.15pm

Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen clash, we have had to cancel this event on Monday, however we are looking to rearrange the event later in term

Happy New Year from MEMSA! We are excited to announce our term card for this upcoming term