Gwenffrewi Morgan

Furthest I've been

N: Reykjavik, Iceland or Thingvellir if day trips count
E: Bern, CH
S: Somewhere in the Picos de Europa in Spain when I was 8
W: Los Angeles in the US

Noblewomen played a central role in medieval society. They cultivated important networks both within their families and wider society, acting as rulers and politicians, as well as cultural and religious patrons and intermediaries. This is an ever-expanding field of research, with scholars exploring the plethora of roles that noblewomen could play in medieval life, and the ways in which they were viewed and represented by wider society. This strand of sessions will bring together scholars who work on medieval noblewomen – to build on and develop the discourse that has developed over the past few decades, with the continued aim of building a global network of scholars working in this vibrant area of research. We welcome papers spanning from across the medieval world, as well as across disciplines. Topics could include, but are not limited to: Noblewomen in time; Noblewomen’s involvement in education and learning; Noblewomen’s roles in politics and political life; Noblewomen and society; Noblewomen and the family; Noblewomen and the law; Noblewomen and patronage; Noblewomen and material culture; Noblewomen and literature; Ecclesiastical women and interactions with religious communities; Historiographical approaches to noblewomen. We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on all aspects of research relating to noblewomen. Expressions of interest and/or queries should be directed to NoblewomenIMC2020@gmail.com by 7pm on Friday 5 September 2025, with an abstract of no more than 250 words and a short biography.

CfP: The Noblewomen Network @imc-leeds.bsky.social 2026. If you're working on medieval noblewomen, we'd love to hear from you! Please share widely.

Deadline for abstracts: 5 September.

#IMC2026

One like, one Presses universitaires de France book cover from the 1990s

Leeds IMC 2026 Call for Papers: Things Transcending Time This session, sponsored by the Haskins Society and the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research, University of Winchester, invites papers exploring objects and their relationships to, through, or against time. Things never have one life but many, through birth, interference, additions, and even abandonment. This session seeks to understand the many ways that objects transcend time through creating it, holding or shaping it. This session also wishes to challenge the dominating hierarchy of textual studies for history (as a time and place, rather than a discipline) through objects who themselves shape or create history. ‘Object’ is broadly conceived for this session; for example, a manuscript is also an object when the research is its life as an object rather than the textual understanding of it. Topics may include, but are certainly not limited to: • Multiple or concurrent times understood or embedded in objects • Objects’ authority and agency with and against time and history • Microhistories or biographies of objects and their place(s) in time. • Theoretical or methodological considerations of object-led histories Papers are warmly invited from any academic field (art history, archaeology, history, etc.), and should be generally focussed on the Anglo-Norman worlds and their surrounds (broadly interpreted), ca 800-1300. Papers presented by ECRs in this session may be submitted for consideration to the Denis Bethell Prize from the Haskins Society. Please send a 250-word abstract (including key terms) and short CV to Katherine Weikert (Katherine.weikert@winchester.ac.uk) by 15 September. Your subject line should read ‘Things Transcending Time [your surname]’, else it is liable to be missed and unread. If you have any questions, please contact Katherine Weikert.

#cfp #imc2026 @imc-leeds.bsky.social! Please consider an abstract for 'Things Transcending Time,' sponsored by @haskinssociety.bsky.social and the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research, @uniwinchester.bsky.social, and organized by myself. Abstract below with full text in the alt.

Apparently it’s #owlawarenessday

British Library Manuscripts Metadata Since the cyberattack of October 2023, the British Library has restored only a fraction of the manuscripts it digitized over the past decade-plus. Even for those MSS now back online, we have only t…

Update on the great discovery of archived BL manuscript metadata: I started putting together a page at my website to host PDFs of the archived pages I retrieve.

ruffnotes.org/british-libr...

#medievalsky

Screenshot of the Wayback Machine capture of the old entry for BL MS Add 49598

OMG PEOPLE! I have the BL hack of all BL hacks. Why didn't this occur to me before? It turns out the Wayback Machine has snapshots of MS metadata from the old Digitised Manuscripts site. I tried it for the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, in honor of his day, and lo! web.archive.org/web/20140305...

10. attracting and retaining queer/trans researchers in non-queer fields is as much if not more important as supporting researchers of queer and trans subjects. the doll writing her thesis on safavid numastics is every bit a victory for trans historians as is the doll working on eleanor rykener

Manchester University Press - Electric wind Electric wind - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Electric wind by Marianna Dudley

I was excited to find out that my book is available for pre-order! One for anyone interested in energy, climate, and the history of Britain. Thanks to MUP for making it pretty and affordable 🫶 manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182968/

I really now need to go to York and Peterborough to complete my set of east coast mainline cathedrals

The river Wear at Durham, the towers of the cathedral peaking above the trees

The west frontof Lincoln Cathedral rising above the tangle of roofs of the town

It's been a great little week of @durhammemsa.bsky.social conference, along with manuscript work in Durham and Lincoln.

Absolutely. The fact they might be doing it via a mechanism they ruled out for defending trans peoples' rights adds insult to injury also

Rachel Reeves mulls stepping in to save car loan providers billions Exclusive: Chancellor could overrule supreme court if it upholds entirety of ruling over commission paid to brokers

Oh so the government *can* override the supreme court if it wants to

Rachel Reeves mulls stepping in to save car loan providers billions www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Exciting news! A new publication by ‪@hibbertsalex.bsky.social, @islayshelbourne.bsky.social @thenickpepper.bsky.social @alexworsfold.bsky.social @robertsuits.bsky.social @jdroberts.bsky.social (amongst others) which developed from our first workshop back in 2025. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A cat wistfully stares out of a dorma window at the pigeons in the trees

Darling I know,,,

Gwen sits on a bed with a cat lying on her lap staring up at her

The cat has now returned and has decisively decided to be a purr machine on my lap. Very glad the MS room doesn't open till 1000...

Accidently releasing the indoor cat was very much not the first impression I was hoping to make with the Airbnb host

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

Something rather lovely in speeding past Lindesfarne and Bamburgh they're clocked in haar

If you're working on female travellers or travel writers anywhere in Eurasia between the 11th and 16th centuries CE, we'll want to hear from you! #medievalsky

I should be at Cambridge, but I’m trapped in Gaza Home Office red tape strands dozens of Palestinian scholarship winners in war zone

Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

Once accidentally sat down opposite then only just no longer First Minster Carwyn Jones on a train (I'm a simple woman, I see a backwards facing table seat and I sit in it)

On the making of cheese Here’s my modern English translation of a Middle English translation of a Latin text on cheesemaking. Fascinating!

New today! My translation of Middle English verse translation of Palladius, all about making cheese. Fascinating text.

modernmedievalcuisine.com/2025/07/15/o...

Lecturer in Historic Environment:London Senate House

#Job alert! Come and join us for 12 months in our lovely @chppc.bsky.social team @ihr.bsky.social. We're seeking a fixed-term #Lecturer in Historic Environment, who'll work on @vchlondon.bsky.social projects & more. Closing date 29 August. Please share!
www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

A long and tall stylized dragon inhabiting an initial "I" in a medieval manuscript. It is tan with blue head, wings, and feet, on a gold leaf background. He looks displeased at his presence in the book.

Gorgeous opening page of a text in a thirteenth-century medieval manuscript of Isaac Israeli's Liber Urinarum, or Book of Urines. The opening initial is in gold leaf, with a dragon inside the letter, and the rest of the opening title is in large, oddly scattered letters in alternating red and blue. At the bottom of the page is a stylized comet in red and blue extending from the letter "U" at the start of the first chapter.

Little dragons love inhabiting initials of medieval manuscripts. However, this one just found his book is about pee.

Opening of Isaac Israeli, Book of Urines, translated by Constantine the African, in Erfurt/Gotha MS Amplonian Q 207: "Incipit liber urinarum Ysahac"

#medhist #histmed #manuscript

Very hand thread

Can A Rock Band Make History? A Glasgow rock band, The Tenementals, explore what it would mean to create radical history through music.

What might a work of history look like and sound like if it were shaped in music? 🗃️🎵

In our new podcast David Archibald discusses the role of music in Glasgow’s working-class past and the historical links between music and radicalism.

Looking forward to a calender of the Acta Sciurorum

Seal of a squirrel on a 14th century charter. LFC Ch XII 7. #medievalsky

I’d heard rumours that a Playmobil Cistercian monk was a thing that existed, and I can now confirm those rumours are TRUE. It’s not easy to get hold of tho - a special limited edition for Eberbach Abbey