2024 Medieval Studies Graduate Student Conference

Keynote Lecture: "Ordinary Things: People and their Possessions in Conversations with the Medieval State" by Anne E. Lester, Johns Hopkins University

Our perception of the pre-modern world is often shaped by the creative expressions of its contemporaries, such as…

The Virgin Mary enjoys pride of place among the saints of Coptic (Egyptian) Christianity. Historians often explain this prominence as a reflexive absorption of goddess worship, especially of the Egyptian Isis, and as a response to Christological controversy—above all, the “heresy” of docetism. In contrast, this presentation will highlight ways…

This paper will toggle between modern and late ancient explanatory frameworks for material disasters, with the goal of gaining further insight into how late Roman authors interpreted how, why, and for what reasons ruinous events like earthquakes, plagues, and urban sieges damaged and disrupted their communities.  Among other interventions,…