MEDIEVAL MONKS, NUNS & MONASTIC LIFE

Organizer: Professor Carolyn Muessig
Head of the University of Bristol's Department of Religion and Theology and Co-Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies

Registration is now closed 

If you have questions about the symposium, please contact us at [email protected]

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS INCLUDE CLAUDIA RAPP (AUSTRIA) AND BRIAN PATRICK McGUIRE (DENMARK)

The 2018 IMSSS symposium will explore the breadth and depth of sermon literature and preaching activity relating to monks, nuns, and monastic life, and serve as a microcosm of the religious and cultural landscape of the Middle Ages.

The symposium will be based in the beautiful grounds of the University of Bristol's Wills Hall, and will include a workshop at historic Downside Abbey, with its medieval manuscripts, incunables, and Centre for Monastic Heritage. We will also visit Wells Cathedral, as well as the medieval sites of Bristol. 

See the programme (PDF) or click on the image below

View information on rates for registration and accommodations

View information about the main site of our Symposium, the University of Bristol's beautiful Wills Hall

All details at:

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Gloria Cigman, on December 13, 2018, in Oxford. She was born in London ninety years ago.

From 1968 to 1996, she taught Medieval English Studies at the University of Warwick as Lecturer and then as Senior Lecturer.

We are in Gloria's debt for her founding of the International Medieval Sermon Studies Society. She launched the “Medieval Sermon Studies Newsletter” in 1977, and then the Symposia in 1979 at Linacre College in Oxford (UK).

As Leo Carruthers remembers in his short history, «Gloria played a unique role, since it was her dynamism and vision that brought people together and gave the necessary impetus to the group who would go on to found the Society in 1988».

Since the passing of Phyllis Barzillay Roberts in January 2018, this is the second great loss for our Society and many of us this year.

Thank you so much, dear Gloria: we’ll miss you. RIP.

This past July, Flagler College in beautiful St. Augustine, Florida, hosted the 20th biennial symposium of the International Medieval Sermon Studies Society, the first symposium to be held in North America.

St. Augustine is the site of the first North American mission, so the theme chosen for this year’s symposium was Preaching and New Worlds. Topics ranged from medieval perceptions of new worlds to images of missionaries in Italian Renaissance art and sermons to the translation of exempla into the Timucuan language, a language spoken by the Native Americans in La Florida.

IMSSS members came from all over the globe to attend the symposium, including France, Italy, Spain, England, Israel, Japan, Russia, and the United States. We all enjoyed the sunshine and Flagler College’s wonderful hospitality. Thanks to Tim Johnson for making this year’s symposium a great success!​

See full information about the IMSSS Symposium event at Flagler.edu.

We hope that many of you will be able to attend the 2016 IMSSS symposium taking place July 22-26 at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. Registration is now open at the following link:

 http://www.flagler.edu/news-events/imsss/

July 22-27, 2016

20th International Medieval Sermon Studies Society Symposium Call for Posters

The IMSSS will gather at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, from July 22-27, 2016.  The choice of St. Augustine coincides with the 450th celebration of the city’s founding in 1565. The theme of this 20th Symposium is “Preaching and New Worlds".

The IMSSS invites interested scholars to submit poster proposals on the following topics:

• Medieval Visions of New Worlds
• Missions at the Edge of the New Worlds
• The New Worlds of Old and New Spain
• Age-Old Stories for New Worlds
• Media, Message, and New Worlds (Workshop)

Proposals should be sent by February 29, 2016, to [email protected]. The acceptance of the proposals will be announced by April 31, 2016.

The IMSSS also announces the availability of a limited number of scholarships for young students and scholars who will present papers or posters at the 20th IMSSS Symposium.

New! deadline extension: Grant requests should be sent by March 15, 2016, to [email protected] and should include a proposed budget. Please, applicants should remember that priority will be given to graduate students or scholars with no affiliation, whether they are presenting posters or giving papers. The recipients of these scholarships will be announced before May 13, 2016.