The Constellational Novel aims to shed light on the field of contemporary literature by offering a definitive theory of the constellational novel.  A constellational novel is a novel that has an associative, essayistic, digressive, and densely patterned prose form.  Beginning with Marcel Proust, the argument focuses on novels published over roughly the last two decades […]

Anthony Bale’s book, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages, will be published in Spanish as Guía de Viajes por la Edad Media: El mundo visto por los viajeros medievales (Madrid: Ático de los Libros) on 22 September 2025.  A programme of talks and signings will also take place in that week in Barcelona and […]

The Medieval Ideas Creative Lab hosts two innovative spoken word performances using medieval sources: Debbie Cannon, ‘Green Knight’ and Lara McClure, ‘Oral Tradition: Iron Age Ulster in the 11th-Century imagination’. October 16th at Judith E Wilson Drama Studio. Places are free but very limited so booking is essential. Further details and tickets here.  

On 4 September Anthony Bale will be in conversation (online) with Larisa Grollemond at the Getty, Los Angeles, as part of their ‘Art Break’ series, talking about ‘Pilgrimage, War, Trade: Travel in the Middle Ages’. Link to further details: https://www.getty.edu/calendar/art-break-middle-ages-travel/

Professor Anthony Bale gives the keynote lecture, entitled ‘Inside the archive of medieval travel: pilgrims’ libraries, itineraries, ephemera’, at the Univerzita Karlova/Charles University of Prague Centre for Medieval Studies summer school at Sázava monastery, Czechia, on September 5th 2025. On September 4th 2025, Professor Bale is at the Božská Lahvice bookshop in central Prague to […]

The Medieval Ideas Creative Lab is offering Digital Artists’ Bursaries, a unique opportunity for playful experimentation and the space to create. The Creative Lab Digital Bursaries are conceived as transformative artistic grants, for digital artists to explore new approaches and ways of thinking through engaging with the Middle Ages and medieval collections in Cambridge. The […]

Dominic O’Key, Teaching Associate in the Faculty, has published a chapter on Jordan Peele in Animality and Horror Cinema: Creaturely Fear on Film. The essay, titled ‘Jordan Peele’s Animals: Zoological Horror, Afropessimist Allegory and the Alien Superstar’, explores the representation of deer, rabbits, horses, chimps and aliens in Peele’s cinematic works. Animality and Horror Cinema […]

The Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett Scholarship is intended to support research into Dame Ivy’s life and work and to increase awareness of the brilliance of her writing.  Dr Charman will be working on the theme of governesses in Dame Ivy’s novels and will produce both an essay and a series of podcasts. Link to further information: https://www.ivycompton-burnett.com/post/scholarship-winner-2025

Dr Rebecca Barr has published an article in The Conversation on a reimagining of William Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress by British satirist, Cold War Steve, which features Donald Trump in the starring role.  The contemporary satirist takes Hogarth as both visual and moral precedent, suggesting a bad end lies in store for the president. The article shows how […]

Timothy Glover has curated an exhibition of medieval manuscripts and early modern books at the Parker Library. This exhibition explores the practical kinds of books priests used to educate ordinary people, including manuscripts that teach through diagrams, flowcharts, unusual page layouts, and pictures. Tours take place on Tuesday afternoons in July (see here for availability), and […]