conference 2026

Reenvisioning the Medieval World(s) in the 21st Century

Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
10–11 April 2026

Friday 10 April

5:30–7:00pm: Keynote lecture: Lloyd de Beer (The British Museum), “The Many Lives of the Asante Ewer”

Saturday 11 April

9:00–10:00am: 1. Rethinking the Past in the Wake of the Postcolonial Turn

  • Maggie Crosland (Birmingham Museum of Art), “Curating a Global Medieval World: An Argument for Permanent Collection Spaces”
  • Seher Agarwala (Columbia University), “The Past Is Not Past: Qur’anic Time and the Life of Pre-Islamic Ruins

10:30am–12:00pm: 2. Elusive Geographies

  • Brooke Wrubel (Columbia University), “The San Sebastiano Processional Cross: A Case for the Methodological Embrace of Multiplicity”
  • Alicia Walker (Bryn Mawr College), “‘Byzantine’ Art without Borders?”
  • Joseph Salvatore Ackley (Wesleyan University), “India, Arabia, Paradise: The Slipperiness of Gold within the Global Medieval Turn”

1:30–3:00pm: 3. Coming to Terms with our Terminology: “Agency,” “Periodization,” and “Style”

  • Megan Boomer (Bates College), “Reinscribing Presence: Multilingual Makers in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean
  • Ann Shafer (Rhode Island School of Design), “The Shoe Doesn’t Quite Fit: Alternatives to Formal Analysis in the Realm of Islamic Art”
  • Mark Lewis Tizzoni (Bates College), “Pedagogy of the ‘Global Turn’: Approaching Premodern Africa in the Classroom”

3:30–4:30pm: 4. Material Mobilities

  • Amanda Luyster (College of the Holy Cross), “Global Networks, Imported Silks, and the ‘Middle Ages'”
  • Elizabeth Rice Mattison (The Hood Museum), “A Tale of Three Pitchers: Mobile Metalwork between the Low Countries and the Mamluk Sultanate”

Reception at Bowdoin College Museum of Art, with chance to view Medieval Art from the Wyvern Collection: Global Networks and Creative Connections

Transportation: Bowdoin College is located in Brunswick, Maine, approximately a 2.5 hour drive north of Boston. Brunswick is also served by train and bus service. The train (Amtrak’s Downeaster) operates five daily roundtrips between Boston’s North Station and Brunswick. The bus (Concord Coach Lines) travels once daily between Brunswick and both Logan Airport and South Station in Boston. Both the train and the bus arrive at Brunswick Station (16 Station Ave.), quite close to Bowdoin’s campus and some lodging options. The nearest airport is the Portland Jetport (PWM), about a 30-minute drive to our south; there are car rental agencies at the airport as well.

Lodging: There are several hotels near the conference location. Closest is the Brunswick Hotel, conveniently located right across from Bowdoin’s campus. Also within easy walking distance is an inn: OneSixtyFive. Another option in Brunswick is The Federal; it’s still walkable to campus, but the walk takes about 20 minutes. There are additional hotels within driving distance in Freeport (just to the south, and home to LL Bean) and Bath (an attractive small town just to the east of Brunswick). Portland is a bit more of a commute to Bowdoin’s campus, but it has a number of lodging options, as well as an exceptional restaurant scene and a lively downtown.

Sponsored by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, with additional support from the departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Art History, Classics, English, History, and Religion, and by the college’s Blythe Bickel Edwards Fund. Reception sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art.

Organizer: Steve Perkinson (Professor of Art History, Bowdoin College): sperkins@bowdoin.edu.

All events free and open to the public.