Monumental Medievalism: Public Monuments and the (Mis)Use of the Medieval Past

Online Workshop, 5-6 October 2022

ALL TIMES ARE IN BRITISH SUMMER TIME (UTC +1hr)

Register at our Eventbrite page

Contact: monumentalmedievalism@gmail.com

Wednesday 5 October

(Join sessions via Zoom: HERE)

12:45-13:00Welcome Euan McCartney Robson and Simon John  
13:00-14:45Session 1: Monumental Medievalism in Modern Japan Chair: Simon John (Swansea University, UK)  

Sven Saaler (Sophia University, Japan): ‘The medieval roots of imperial loyalty: the cult of Kusunoki Masashige in modern Japan’  

Judith Vitale (University of Zurich, Switzerland): ‘The “Movement for the Establishment of a Monument for the Mongol invasions”’  

Ran Zwigenberg (Pennsylvania State University, USA): ‘Date Masamune: In (and off) the Saddle of History on Japan’s Periphery’  

Oleg Benesch (University of York, UK), ‘A Japanese Monument to Global Medievalism: The Origins of the Yasukuni Shrine Yushukan Military Museum’  
14:45-15:15BREAK  
15:15-16:45Session 2: Encountering the Middle Ages through Monuments: approaches and debates Chair: Euan McCartney Robson (Paul Mellon Centre, UK)

Laura S. Harrison (Independent Scholar, UK) & Andrew B.R. Elliott (University of Lincoln, UK): ‘“Set in Stone”: The Participatory Function of Medieval Statues’  

Sarah Gordon (Utah State University, USA): ‘“Tear it Down”: Controversial Statues of Medieval Figures in the US (Joan of Arc and St. Louis)’  

Simon John (Swansea University, UK): ‘The uses of medieval traditions, invented and otherwise: Brussels’ 1848 statue of Godfrey of Bouillon and perceptions of the (mostly) medieval past’  
16:45-17:15BREAK  
17:15-18:15Session 3: Monuments and the Medieval Past in Ukraine and Russia Chair: Markian Prokopovych (Durham University, UK)  

Emma Louise Leahy (Independent Scholar, Germany): ‘The Kyivan Rus’ as Origin Story in Soviet and National Historiographies: The Changing Meanings of Medieval Images in the Monumental Mosaic Art of Ukraine (1960s to 2010s)’  

Anastasija Ropa (Latvian Academy of Sport Education, Latvia), Edgar Rops (Independent Scholar, Latvia), and Maria Inês Bolinhas (Catholic University of Portugal): ‘The Contested Statue of Knyaz Vladimir/Volodymyr’  

Thursday 6 October

(Join sessions via Zoom: HERE)

12:00-13:30Session 4: Monuments, Medieval History and Nation-Building Chair: Christoph Laucht (Conflict, Reconstruction and Memory research group, Swansea University)  

Anna Lidor-Osprian and Romedio Schmitz-Esser (both Heidelberg University, Germany): ‘Between Medievalism and Baroque Maternalism: The Multifaceted Historical Monumentalism of nineteenth-century Austria’  

Len Scales (Durham University, UK): ‘Unsettled Memories: Henry I (r. 919-936) in Quedlinburg’  

Tommaso Zerbi (Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History, Italy): ‘A Tale of Two Monuments: Making, Remaking, and Unmaking the Myth of Amadeus VI of Savoy from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century’  
13:30-14:00BREAK  
14:00-15:00Session 5: National Histories and the (ab)uses of the Middle Ages Chair: Matthew Gabriele (Virginia Tech, USA)  

Omer Merzić (Institute of Historical Research, UK): ‘The use and misuse of medieval monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina’  

Gethin Matthews (Swansea University, UK): ‘The use and abuse of the medieval past in Wales in the age of the Great War’  
15:00-15:30BREAK  
15:30-17:00Session 6: Monumental Women Chair: Euan McCartney Robson  

Julia Faiers (University of St Andrews, UK): ‘The invention and reinvention of Clémence Isaure in modern Toulouse’  

Christopher Crocker (University of Manitoba, Canada): ‘Ásmundur Sveinsson’s “The First White Mother in America”: Guðríðr Þorbjarnardóttir as a (white-) feminist icon’  

Caroline Bourne (University of Reading, UK): ‘The Gwenllian Monument at Kidwelly: Issues of Gender and a Contested Landscape in Commemorating Medieval Welsh History’  
17:00-17:30BREAK  
17:30-19:00Session 7: The Monumental Heritage of the Middle Ages Chair: Anna Lidor-Osprian  

Teresa Soley (Columbia University, USA): ‘Sculpting Portugal’s Golden Age: Tombs and the Image of the “Age of Discovery”’  

Jessica Barker (The Courtauld Institute, UK): ‘Anachronic Empire: The Afterlives of the Padrões of Diogo Cão’  

Ethel Sara Wolper (University of New Hampshire, USA): ‘Lessons from Mosul: ISIS, UNESCO, and the Spectacle of Definition’  
19:00Concluding remarks  

Eventbrite registration page:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/monumental-medievalism-public-monuments-the-misuse-of-the-medieval-past-tickets-385605214577?keep_tld=1

In case of any technical issues or problems joining the sessions, contact the organisers at monumentalmedievalism@gmail.com

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