If you browse the shelves of your local bookstore, it may seem like Eastern Europe basically didn’t exist until the Soviet Union. Fortunately, Medieval Studies is slowly widening the lens to give us a bigger and better picture of what went on beyond the invisible borders of west versus east. This week, Danièle speaks with Florin Curta about why it’s taken the field so long to address Eastern Europe, why we need to look at enslavement as part of our understanding of the European Middle Ages broadly, and how we can all get started including Eastern Europe in our scholarship, is coming up right after this.

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Most of us could probably come up with a few names of the kings who ruled in England in the centuries before the Norman Conquest, but the queens? Maybe not. We know they existed, but it can be hard to figure out much else about them – or whether later medieval notions of what queenship actually is even fit. This week, Danièle speaks with Matthew Firth about what early queenship looked like, the role queens played in legitimizing a king’s right to rule, and how three incredible women shaped English royal history.

You can support this podcast on Patreon - go to https://www.patreon.com/medievalists

There’s a pretty common myth that medieval women had no agency in their lives; that they were quiet and subservient, and accepted the status quo without thinking too hard about it. The reality, of course, was much different - even for those with the strictest rules: nuns. This week, Danièle speaks with CJ Jones about Dominican nuns, their theological sophistication, and how they left their own unique mark on the Middle Ages.  

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2024 has been another wild ride in politics and medieval studies. This week, continuing tradition, Danièle speaks with Peter Konieczny from Medievalists.net about what’s been happening in the world and in the field this year.

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One of the favourite pastimes of certain thinkers throughout history has been to demonstrate the supposed inferiority of women, something both modern people and people of the past have resisted with spicy arguments of their own. These days, we tend to use science and statistics to help us lend weight to our positions. But what did people lean on in the past? This week, Danièle speaks with Margaret L. King about Renaissance man Pompeo Colonna, why he’s writing in defense of women, and how he crafts his argument.

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Medieval Studies has no shortage of amazing books coming out each year, but which ones are the best of the best? This week, Danièle continues the annual tradition of listing her top five book recommendations of 2024 alongside those of Peter Konieczny, editor of Medievalists.net.

This year's list is:

Beards and Baldness in the Middle Ages, translated by Joseph McAlhany 
Bad Chaucer, by Tison Pugh
Crusader Criminals, by Steve Tibble
The Broadview Anthology of Medieval Arthurian Literature, by Kathy Cawsey and Elizabeth Edwards
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, by Helen Castor
Rewriting the First Crusade, by Thomas W. Smith
A Shattered Realm: Wars and Lives in Fourteenth-Century Japan, translated by Royall Tyler 
House of Lilies: The Dynasty that Made Medieval France, by Justine Firnhaber-Baker
God’s Own Language: Architectural Drawing in the Twelfth Century, by Karl Kinsella
The Illustrated Cairo Genizah, by Nick Posegay and Melonie Schmierer-Lee

There’s a general impression of the Middle Ages that wherever you started out in life is where you ended up. But with a few business smarts, the right connections, and a willingness to play fast and loose with ethics, sometimes a person could rise to the very gates of heaven. This week, Danièle speaks with Alan Stahl about life in one of the richest cities in the medieval world, and the fate and fortunes a family who climbed the social ladder to the very top.

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One of the clearest and most enduring legacies of the Middle Ages is the beautiful buildings left behind. Many of these buildings were devoted to God, using blueprints that no longer exist. But one of the most famous – and famously confusing – sets of architectural instructions was set out in the Bible, itself. This week, Danièle speaks with Karl Kinsella about the great twelfth-century scholar Richard of St. Victor, his efforts to make the vision of Ezekiel clear, and why this set of biblical blueprints is such an important contribution to the history of architecture.

Enrol in one of Medievalists.net's online courses at https://medievalstudies.thinkific.com/ - use the coupon code 'BlackFriday' to save 25%

Experimenting, translating, and philosophizing about physics and metaphysics, biology and geology, two great thinkers from Central Asia stand out both for their achievements, and their completely opposite points of view. This week, Danièle speaks with S. Frederick Starr about the work and the lives of Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna) and Biruni, their contributions to science and culture, and the reason they outright despised each other.

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A place of supernatural encounters both incredibly good and spectacularly bad, the Otherworld featured in stories and songs throughout the Middle Ages, especially on the storied isle of Ireland.   This week, Danièle speaks with Lisa Bitel about what the Otherworld was like, why Otherworldly beings were interested in humankind, and where we find these enchanting stories.

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