The Material Culture Research Group was set up in Winter Term 2024 as a space where students, faculty and staff interested in the historicity of material culture could come together and discuss their interests. Our research interests are focused in the late antique, medieval and early modern periods, but such a study must necessarily include the modern afterlives of objects. Previous sessions have discussed spolia, stained glass, and archaeological surveys.
Recent discoveries during fieldwork include a twelfth-century earring and a fifteenth-century gold coin weight.
Fall 2025
October 22: Reading Group "Water"
Winter 2025
January 28: Bela Zsolt Szakacs: Architecture around 1500 in Hungary: problems of methodology
March 18: Grace Stafford, University of Vienna: Elite Life and the Material Culture of Slavery in Late Antiquity
Fall 2024
September 18: Jessica Knowles: Divine Song in Apocalyptic Stained-Glass Narratives
October 24: Jack Wilson: Robes of Silk and Gold: Use of Silk in the Mongol Empire, 1200-1300
November 21: Cristian Gaşpar: Beyond Words on a Page: A Philologist’s Thoughts on the Materiality of Early Modern Manuscripts
Organizers:
Members: