2026 Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference in Review
- Emma Cameron and Kate McKee
- Apr 27
- 5 min read
DAY ONE
The Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2026 was held at the Maison Française d’Oxford on 23 and 24 April 2026. The conference convened thirteen speakers and two keynote presenters from disciplines including archaeology, musicology, theology, and literary studies to discuss the theme of ‘Sounds and Silence’.
Following brief opening remarks, the first day of the conference began with a panel on ‘Polyphony and Cacophony’. Miriam Waters opened the panel with an exploration of the onomatopoeic animal sounds presented in two texts: the polyphonic song Sumer is icumen in (c. 1250) and Nicholas Munshulle’s fifteenth-century Nominale. Situating these texts in a longstanding tradition of voces animantium catalogues, she suggested that these works display both a pedagogic function, and a ‘vernacular creativity’ that blurs the boundaries between human and animal vocal production.
Continuing in a cacophonic vein, Georgina (George) Fowles analyzed the connections between noise and disruption in three case studies from the Íslendingasögur (written between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries). Her paper concluded that only cacophonic, unwanted, or incongruous sounds are mentioned in the sagas, and that these noises trigger, react to, or participate in violent actions such as battle. Such sounds and their consequences result in the negative, antagonistic characterization of the individuals with whom they are associated.
Moving from cacophony to polyphony, Caitriona Dowden remarked that heavenly choirs are a common motif in medieval visions of the afterlife. Although many depictions of these singers may appear formulaic, she argued that medieval authors varied their representations of such choirs to suit changing social, political, and theological agendas. To illustrate this argument, her paper analysed the composition of the heavenly choir portrayed in the Visio Tnugdali (c. 1149) by the Irish monk Marcus, and the expansion of this choir to include lay brothers and canons in its recension by Helinand de Froidmont (c. 1211–1223).
Following a refreshment break, the second panel of the conference addressed the theme of sounds and silence through a discussion of soundscapes, engaging perspectives from art history, archaeology, and literary studies. Nicola Chemello considered the sound imagined in a mosaic of the apocalypse preserved in a sixth-century church on the island of Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The trumpets and horns of the apocalypse invoke a chaotic dissonance that paradoxically––as a painted artwork––remains silent, fashioning a powerful ‘acoustic imaginary’.
Charlie Mason explored the soundscape of Alakent Church in the present-day city of Demre, Turkey. Although no medieval textual record of this church survives, her paper harnessed digital software to suggest how sound might have been experienced in this space. Mason’s discussion also engaged social and cultural dimensions by considering how the movement of spoken sound in the structure of the church might have reinforced contemporary community hierarchies.
Rebekah Martindale’s paper, titled ‘Beyond Speech: The Natural World as Communicative Agent in the Lais of Marie de France’, questioned how the sonic productions of animals and landscapes bear communicative function in Marie’s works. Her paper considered a corpus of six lais: in the first three texts discussed (Milun, Eliduc, and Yonec), animals create and sustain bonds between lovers; while in the final three works (Laüstic, Les Deux Amants, and Chevrefoil), the sounds of the natural world mediate between separated lovers to maintain their affective bonds. Martindale concluded that the soundscape of the natural world serves as a ‘vital’ system of signification in Marie’s works.
Following lunch in the sun-drenched gardens of the MFO, the third panel of the day considered the theme of ‘Music and Miracles’. Kieran Foss focussed his discussion on the thirteenth-century Roman de Silence attributed to Heldris de Cornuälle, suggesting that this text presents a productive arena in which to explore gendered conceptions of silence in the medieval period. The roman’s narrative centres on the character Silence, who is born female, but raised as a male, inviting questions about vocal production, timbre, and the aural imagination of the work’s medieval readers. Drawing from contemporary philosophical works, as well as from present-day lived experience of vocal performance, Foss argued that Silence’s voice inhabits a ‘liminal space’ in conceptions of gender.
Jiaxin Li explored harp miracles in early medieval Insular literary works, questioning how harp music evolved from bearing secular associations to divine connotations. Her paper analysed a range of early Insular sources including the riddles of the Exeter Book, Beowulf, and the Venerable Bede’s story of Caedmon’s hymn, arguing that the sound of the harp was harnessed by medieval writers as a tool to ‘reshape’ space and social hierarchy.
The first keynote address of the conference was delivered by Dr. Eleanor Standley. Her discussion examined the material culture related to sound across the medieval period, in both Insular and continental settings, questioning what sounds were produced by blown, struck, and plucked instruments; in what environments such sounds were produced; and how medieval villages and natural landscapes might have sounded. This discussion referenced a rich web of examples, spanning from organs, bells, pipes, and drums, to rattles and whistles. Standley urged the audience to consider music as one subset in a wider environment of sounds, and to listen to the sonic productions of the natural landscape as a form of music.
DAY TWO
The second day of the conference featured two panels and our second keynote speaker. The first panel, ‘Marginal Voices’, featured three presentations on marginalized voices in Old Norse, Icelandic, and French literature. Ed McCarthy considered how letters, and their rhetorical structures, act as direct speech to the ‘silenced heroines’ – Medea, Helen, and Dido, for instance – in Old Norse saga literature. Thorlak Thorhallsson, patron saint of Iceland, was the protagonist of Dawid Ansgar Walorski’s presentation, which looked at the Saint’s lifelong speech difficulties through the lens of critical disability studies. Cris Arama investigated Christine de Pizan’s telling of St. Christine’s life in Le livre de la cité des dames and the gendered implications of ‘tongue-less speech’.
After a short refreshment break, we reconvened for the second panel of the day (and final panel of the conference!), ‘Sounds of Silence’. Hassan Baig and Hafsa Maqsood reflected on ‘purposeful silences’ in medieval Islam mysticism, focusing on silence-focused passages in the works of Al-Qushayri, Al-Ghaziali, and Al-Hujwiri. For the final panel presentation of the conference, Emilia Osztafi traced the presence of speech-bearing (and empty) banderoles in early printed English books.
Joseph Mason, our second keynote speaker, rounded out the day after a sun-soaked lunch in the Maison Française d’Oxford’s garden. Thinking through the relationship between sound and the body, Dr Mason pulled together a wide range of texts – physiological, musical, poetic, and combinations of the three – to explore violence and musical embodiment in Old French love lyrics.
As per tradition, at the end of the second day, we voted on next year’s theme: Craft and Creativity!
A big thank you is due to our supporters: the Maison Française d’Oxford, the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, the Oxford Faculty of Music, the Oxford Faculty of English Language and Literature, the Oxford Faculty of Theology and Religion, the Oxford Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, and Oxford Medieval Studies (through The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities).
We look forward to welcoming you all to the conference again next year.
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