Programme
Please note that the programme was updated on 23 March 2026.
14:00 – 16:00 Registration (Garden Room); Tea/Coffee/Biscuits available
16:10 – 16:15 Welcome (Lawson Room) Valerie Gruenzel and Sophie Lemburg
16:15 – 17:30 Keynote: ‘Who Counts, and Why? Approaching Character Groupings in Medieval Literature’, Professor Eva von Contzen, University of Freiburg (Lawson Room) Chair: Sophie Lemburg
17:30 – 18:30 Lightning Talks (Lawson Room) Chair: Valerie Gruenzel
- Christina Hadjafxenti: ‘Weaving Destiny: The Three Fates from Antiquity to Byzantium’
- Lauren Beck: ‘Allegorical Women and Contemporary Counterparts’
- Xiaoqi Yang: ‘Suffered and Sanctified: Reading St Margaret and St Katherine Together in Late Medieval English Narrative’
- Marcin Dalibor: ‘“And then there were seven” – shaping the electoral college of the Holy Roman empire’
- Hope Doherty-Harrison: ‘Oedipal Myths of Judas & the Illustrations of Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek MS Gen. 8 (14th century)’
18:30 – 19:30 Wine Reception (Lawson Room)
19:45 Conference Dinner at Zizzi
9:30 – 11:00 Panel 1: ‘Groups of Seven’ (Lawson Room) Chair: Bettina Bildhauer
- Jane Bonsall: ‘The Seven Sages of Rome Database’
- Alessandra Adornato ‘Medieval Groupings and Classical Influences: Continuity, Transformation, and Identity in the Latin West’
- Arnold Bärtschi: ‘Seven at One Blow: Individuality and Group Dynamics in the Myth of the Seven Against Thebes’
11:00 – 11:30 Tea and Coffee Break (Garden Room)
11:30 – 12:30 Panel 2: ‘Groups of Nine’ (Lawson Room) Chair: Rhiannon Purdie
- Valerie Gruenzel: ‘The Nine Worthies Tradition in Scotland, c.1380-1671’
- Flora Sophie Lemburg: ‘The Nine Worthy Women in Medieval England’
12:30 – 12:45 Break
12:45 – 13:45 Panel 3: ‘Development and Variability’ (Lawson Room) Chair: Martha Baldon
- Katherine Orr: ‘From Saints to Superfluous Men: Early Russian Character Groupings and the Prehistory of the Nineteenth-Century Archetype’
- Zhu Yanchang: ‘From Nine to Three: Avalon’s Sisters and the Politics of Presence in Kings Arthur’s Waterborne Passage’ (online)
13:45 – 14:30 Lunch (Garden Room and, if weather permits, outside)
14:30 – 16:00 Panel 4: ‘Biblical Approaches’ (Lawson Room) Chair: Margaret Connolly
- James H. Morey: ‘Magi and Shepherds: Reflexes of a Reflex’
- Jacob A. Lollar: ‘We Twelve Kings: The Apocryphal Story of the Magi and Influence on Syriac Medieval Gospels Lectionaries’
- Andrea di Lenardo: ‘The Question of the Twelve’
16:00 – 16:30 Tea and Coffee Break (Garden Room)
16:30 – 18:00 Panel 5: ‘Questions of Life and Death: Deciding Fate’ (Lawson Room) Chair: Sophie Schoess
- Christina Hadjafxenti: ‘Weaving Destiny: The Three Fates from Antiquity to Byzantium’
- Bradley French: ‘Death Comes in Threes: Trios Associated with Death and the Underworld in Greek Myth’
- Sif Brookes: ‘Vígmóðar Asynjur Eggmóts: Valkyrjur as Women of Fate and Slaughter’
19:00 Conference Dinner at The Saint
9:30 – 11:00 Panel 6: ‘Aural and Visual Approaches’ (Lawson Room) Chair: Brigid Ehrmantraut
- Lauren Beck: ‘Allegorical Women and Contemporary Counterparts: The Case Study of the Wise and Foolish Virgins at Strasbourg Cathedral’
- Jodie Merritt: ‘Sacred Company: Kingship and Character Groupings on Irish High Crosses’
- Samuel Ramapuran: ‘Election Harmonies: Sounding the ‘Chosen’ in Medieval Music and Art’ (online)
11:00 – 11:45 Tea and Coffee Break (Garden Room)
11:45 – 13:00 Round Table Discussion (Lawson Room) Chair: Valerie Gruenzel and Sophie Lemburg
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch (Garden Room and, if weather permits, outside)