Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals

📢 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥: “𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝: 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲, 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞”

𝟐𝟎–𝟐𝟒 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 | 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐆𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐠 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐳

The Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals (CeMAR), University of Cyprus, is pleased to co-organise the International Summer School "Beyond the Battlefield: Consequences of Premodern Warfare for Society, Culture and Landscape", taking place at Universitätsmedizin der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz from 20–24 July 2026.

Bringing together leading scholars and advanced MA and PhD students, the Summer School explores the immediate, medium- and long-term consequences of warfare in the premodern world through lectures, thematic workshops, discussions and field excursions.

Among the contributors is Prof. Stavroula Constantinou (University of Cyprus / CeMAR), who will deliver sessions on Mothers and Other Women in Postwar Literary Worlds and Writing Research Proposals. She joins an international team of scholars from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and LEIZA Mainz (Leibniz Centre for Archaeology), bringing together expertise in Byzantine studies, medieval history, archaeology, musicology, and related disciplines.

📄 Read more:
https://www.ucy.ac.cy/cemar/international-summer-school-2026/?lang=en

📘 Full programme:https://www.ucy.ac.cy/cemar/wp-content/uploads/sites/171/2026/07/GRK-2304_2026_Mainz_Summer-school_programme.pdf

📌 Poster:https://www.ucy.ac.cy/cemar/wp-content/uploads/sites/171/2026/04/GRK-2304_Summer-School-Mainz-2026.pdf

We look forward to welcoming participants to Mainz for an engaging week of interdisciplinary discussions on the human, environmental and cultural consequences of premodern warfare.

www.ucy.ac.cy

StoryPharm at IMC Leeds 2026 | Session IV

StoryPharm concluded its series of sponsored sessions at the International Medieval Congress 2026 with “Time as a Factor in Medieval Storytelling on and as Pharmaka,” bringing together innovative perspectives on the relationship between time, healing, and storytelling in the medieval world.

The session explored how medieval societies understood healing not simply through remedies themselves, but through the timing, duration, and sequencing of therapeutic practices. From medical treatises and visual narratives to architecture and miracle stories, the papers demonstrated how temporality shaped both the experience of healing and the stories told about it.

The session featured four inspiring presentations:
🔹 Sofia Bazzoni (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg) – Iconic Pharmakon: The Temporality of the Botanical Subject
🔹 Vasiliki Bougatsou (Lund University) – When Time Springs from Images: Clothing as a Sign of Temporality in Medieval Medical Manuscripts
🔹 Lola Lees-Cantel (Università degli Studi di Salerno) – Miraculous Healing: The Temporalities of Visual Narratives
🔹 Marius Massucco (Università degli Studi di Salerno) – Times and Places for Healing Miracles in Norman Italy

Organised by Katharina Christa Schüppel (ZeMas, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg) and Maddalena Vaccaro (Università degli Studi di Salerno), and chaired by Katharina Christa Schüppel, the session highlighted how concepts of time permeated medieval approaches to health, healing, and storytelling, revealing the dynamic interplay between text, image, ritual, and space.

With this fourth and final session, StoryPharm successfully concluded an outstanding programme at IMC Leeds 2026, featuring four sponsored sessions that brought together scholars from across Europe to explore storytelling as pharmakon through the lenses of health humanities, medieval studies, medicine, and cultural history.

StoryPharm at IMC Leeds 2026 | Session II

StoryPharm’s second sponsored session at the International Medieval Congress 2026 continued to explore the many ways in which medicine, memory, and storytelling intersect across medieval cultures.

Entitled “Memory, Melancholy, and Healing across Traditions,” the session brought together research spanning the Byzantine, Islamic, and medieval Latin worlds, highlighting how experiences of suffering, care, and healing were shaped by narrative, ritual, theology, and visual culture.

The session featured thought-provoking presentations by:
🔹 Robert Gard (Lund University) – Between Prose and Plague: An Account of Epidemic in Mamluk Egypt
🔹 Sharareh Ashouri (Cardiff University) – Remembering through Wounds: Time and Trauma in The Shahnameh
🔹 Kaja Rosko (Università degli Studi di Salerno) – From Authority to Care: Women and Healing in Medieval Visual Culture between the 12th and 14th Centuries
🔹 Sofia Chrysochoou (University of Cyprus) – Maternal Care as Ritual Practice in Byzantine Iatrosophia

Organised by Ingrid Bennewitz (ZeMas, University of Bamberg) and chaired by Eve MacDonald (Cardiff University), the session fostered interdisciplinary dialogue on the cultural dimensions of healing, demonstrating how medieval communities understood trauma, memory, care, and identity across different geographical and religious traditions.

With two successful sessions completed, StoryPharm continues to showcase innovative research at the intersection of the health humanities, medieval studies, and the history of medicine at IMC Leeds 2026.