Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals

21/08/2026

CeMAR will have a strong scholarly presence at the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies (ICBS 2026) in Vienna, 24–29 August 2026.

Across three days of the Congress, Prof. Stavroula Constantinou, Andria Andreou and Eirini Panou will contribute to discussions on women and imperial power, death, emotions, solitude, performance and the modern reception of Byzantium.

📌 Tuesday, 25 August
Stavroula Constantinou chairs the session “Women and Power”, bringing together papers on female authority, political agency and representation across Byzantine and neighbouring medieval contexts.

📌 Thursday, 27 August
Eirini Panou presents “The Death of Byzantine Emperors: An Overview”, examining the final actions, gestures and words of Byzantine emperors and what these reveal about imperial authority, succession, religion and attitudes towards death.

📌 Friday, 28 August
Stavroula Constantinou presents “Performing Gratitude in Miracle Stories” in the thematic session “Performing Emotions and Emotions in Performance”, exploring gratitude in Byzantine miracle narratives as both an emotional experience and a ritual, ethical and material practice.

Later that morning, Constantinou co-convenes with Mati Meyer the Round Table “Solitude and Aloneness in Byzantium”.

Within the Round Table, Andria Andreou presents “Crowded Solitudes: The Dramaturgy of Aloneness in Byzantine-Inspired Greek Plays”. Her paper examines Byzantine-themed Greek plays of the 19th and 20th centuries and explores how powerful protagonists can be surrounded by courts, councils, lovers and friends while remaining profoundly isolated — “alone in the crowd”. The study considers solitude as a dramaturgical mechanism shaping identity, emotion, power and selfhood in modern theatrical reimaginings of Byzantium.

Together, these contributions highlight CeMAR’s interdisciplinary research across Byzantine literature and historiography, hagiography, gender and power, emotion and performance studies, death studies, and the reception of Byzantium.

🔗 Read the full story:
https://www.ucy.ac.cy/cemar/cemar-at-the-25th-icbs-vienna/

Professor Stavroula Constantinou represents CeMAR at the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies in Vienna (24–29 August 2026), chairing the session “Women and Power” and presenting her paper “Performing Gratitude in Miracle Stories” within the thematic session “Performing Emoti...

19/08/2026

📢 Call for Papers | International Medieval Congress 2027

New Approaches to Medieval Collectivity

📍 University of Leeds | 5–8 July 2027
📅 Deadline: 10 September 2026

The CoByNS – Collectives in Late Byzantine Narratives and Society project, hosted at CeMAR, University of Cyprus, invites paper proposals exploring medieval collectives as narrative characters and historical actors.

We welcome interdisciplinary contributions addressing collective agency, action, speech, affect, social interaction, memory and heritage across medieval traditions.

📩 Abstract: up to 200 words + short CV
🔗 Full Call for Papers: https://www.ucy.ac.cy/cemar/call-for-papers-imc-2027/?lang=en

Vukašinović

28/07/2026

A major new European funding success for the Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals (CeMAR) at the Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου | University Of Cyprus.

CeMAR has secured almost €𝟏.𝟓 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 under the 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞 for the new project:

𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙈𝙤𝙈𝘼 – 𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒍𝒆 𝑨𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑩𝒆𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒅

The three-year project will be coordinated by CeMAR under the scientific leadership of Professor Stavroula Constantinou, in partnership with Uppsala University and Freie Universität Berlin.

𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙈𝙤𝙈𝘼 brings together Medieval Studies and Gender Studies, developing intersectional mothering as a new framework for examining mothering experiences, practices and representations in the Middle Ages and beyond.

Through researcher exchanges, specialised training, workshops, webinars, a summer school and collaborative research activities, the project will strengthen CeMAR’s research excellence, international networks and institutional capacities, while creating new opportunities for early-career researchers.

This achievement marks another important milestone for CeMAR and the University of Cyprus within the European Research Area.

16/07/2026

📢 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.

12/07/2026

📢 One week remaining to apply!

There is just one week left to submit your application. We encourage all interested candidates to apply before the deadline.

Application deadline: 20 July

We look forward to receiving your application.

Are you getting or have already received an MA in Ancient or Medieval History, Art History, Byzantine Studies, Classics, Cultural Heritage Studies, Medieval Studies, Philology (Arabic, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, or Latin), Religious Studies, or Studies in Medievalism? Are you intereste...

09/07/2026

CeMAR at IMC Leeds 2026 | Rituals of Mothering III: Late Middle Ages and Beyond

The Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals (CeMAR), University of Cyprus, concluded its Rituals of Mothering series at the International Medieval Congress 2026 with a thought-provoking final session, “Rituals of Mothering III: Late Middle Ages and Beyond.”

Organised by Stavroula Constantinou and Eirini Panou, and moderated by Stavroula Constantinou (Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals, University of Cyprus), the session explored how motherhood, maternal imagery, and female agency were reimagined in the later Middle Ages, revealing the enduring significance of maternal figures across cultures and historical contexts.

The programme featured three engaging presentations:

🔹 Eirini Panou (University of Cyprus) – Responding to Infant Mortality: The Role of Nursing Saints in Crete and Cyprus

🔹 Laura Robbins (Rutgers University, New Jersey) – Operative Images: The Cross-Cultural Iconography of Saint Margaret and Childbirth Protection

🔹 Savvas Mavromatidis (University of Cyprus) – From Womb to World: Maternal Experiences and the Female Body in the Funerary Sculpture of Lusignan Cyprus

From the protective role of nursing saints and the visual culture surrounding Saint Margaret to representations of motherhood in Lusignan funerary sculpture, the papers demonstrated how maternal figures functioned as powerful symbols of protection, devotion, resilience, and identity. Together, they illustrated how rituals of mothering evolved across changing religious, social, and cultural landscapes while remaining central to medieval understandings of life, death, and community.

As the final session in CeMAR’s Rituals of Mothering series, it provided a fitting conclusion to a rich programme of interdisciplinary scholarship, reaffirming CeMAR’s commitment to advancing innovative research and fostering international collaboration in medieval studies.

09/07/2026

CeMAR at IMC Leeds 2026 | Rituals of Mothering II: Middle Byzantine Period

The Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals (CeMAR), University of Cyprus, continued its successful programme at the International Medieval Congress 2026 with its second sponsored session, “Rituals of Mothering II: Middle Byzantine Period.”

Organised by Stavroula Constantinou and Savvas Mavromatidis, and moderated by Savvas Mavromatidis (Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals, University of Cyprus), the session explored the many ways maternal roles were enacted, negotiated, and reimagined in the Middle Byzantine world.

The programme featured three thought-provoking presentations:

🔹 Stavroula Constantinou (University of Cyprus) – Mothers and Wet Nurses in Byzantine Healing Shrines

🔹 Nathan Leidholm (Bilkent Üniversitesi, Ankara) – Enslaved Women as Mother Figures in Byzantium

🔹 Mati Meyer (Open University of Israel) – Reassigning Lactation: From the Galaktotrophousa to the Midwife in Nativity Scenes

Together, the papers examined motherhood from complementary perspectives, highlighting the roles of mothers and wet nurses in healing shrines, the maternal functions of enslaved women within Byzantine households, and the evolving visual representations of motherhood in Byzantine art. The session demonstrated how motherhood was not a fixed biological category but a dynamic social, religious, and cultural construct that shaped everyday life, devotion, and gender relations in Byzantium.

The lively discussion that followed once again highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in advancing our understanding of the medieval world and reaffirmed CeMAR’s commitment to fostering innovative international research collaborations.

09/07/2026

CeMAR at IMC Leeds 2026 | Closing an Inspiring Week

Today, the Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals (CeMAR), University of Cyprus brings its highly successful presence at the International Medieval Congress 2026 to a close.

Following an outstanding week that included StoryPharm’s four sponsored sessions, a round table, a networking reception, and CeMAR’s research presentations, today’s programme concludes with the first of CeMAR’s three sponsored sessions, “Rituals of Mothering I: Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.”

Organised by Stavroula Constantinou and moderated by Eirini Panou (Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals, University of Cyprus), the session explores motherhood as a cultural, medical, and theological practice through three fascinating papers:

🔹 Amélie Belleli (INRAP, Paris) – Ritualising the Womb: Female Bodies, Dynastic Transmission, and Ascetic Resistance in Late Antiquity

🔹 Giulia Freni (Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici, Naples) – Another Regimen for the Nurse: A Fragment by Antyllos Quoted by Oribasios

🔹 Piruza Hayrapetyan (Central European University, Budapest/Vienna) – “Let Me Also Be Punished with Sinners, for They Too Are Brothers of My Son and Sons of God”: Marian Advocacy in the Apocalypse of the Theotokos

The session highlights the richness and diversity of current scholarship on motherhood, embodiment, medicine, and devotion in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, providing a fitting conclusion to an inspiring week of international collaboration and scholarly exchange at IMC Leeds 2026.

07/07/2026

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.

07/07/2026

StoryPharm at IMC Leeds 2026 | Session III

The third StoryPharm-sponsored session at the International Medieval Congress 2026 continued the project’s exploration of the many ways narratives shape experiences of health, suffering, and healing across time.

Entitled “Pain, Time, and Meaning: Narratives of Suffering and Healing in Medieval and Post-Medieval Contexts,” the session examined how medieval and post-medieval cultures understood physical, spiritual, and moral suffering, revealing how storytelling transformed pain into a source of memory, identity, and meaning.

The session featured four engaging presentations:
🔹 Lisa Scilipoti (Cardiff University) – Cosmic Redemption through Daily Actions: How Manichaeans Timed Their Path to Salvation
🔹 Francesca Rutigliano (University of Cyprus) – Narrating Pain through Time: Storytelling, Suffering, and Sanctity in Byzantine Hagiography
🔹 Pablo Crovetto (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg) – The Weight of Words: Formulating Moral Language in Medieval Texts
🔹 Katarzyna Ksepka (University of Cyprus) – Murder, Medievalism, and the Medic Detective of the Mistress of the Art of Death

Organised and moderated by Stavroula Constantinou (Centre for Medieval Arts & Rituals, University of Cyprus), the session fostered stimulating interdisciplinary discussion on the ways pain and healing have been narrated across religious traditions, literary genres, and historical periods. From Byzantine hagiography and medieval moral discourse to Manichaean cosmology and contemporary medievalist fiction, the papers demonstrated how narratives of suffering continue to shape cultural memory and human experience.

With three successful sessions completed, StoryPharm continues to highlight innovative research at the intersection of the health humanities, medieval studies, and narrative medicine, bringing together scholars from across Europe at IMC Leeds 2026.