Events
The Medieval Institute sponsors visiting lectures and social events throughout the year, as well as workshops on pedagogy and professional development for MA students. We work in collaboration with The Medieval Research Group and the Goliardic Society, which organize events open to all interested medievalists in a variety of venues.
We also seek to foster fellowship and intellectual exchange among students and faculty at WMU and with members of the Kalamazoo community interested in Medieval Studies. If you have questions regarding any of the events listed, please contact us.
Upcoming Events
Loew Lecture – What a Cross is Worth: Crusaders, Relics, and Status between the Middle Ages and the Modern World
Nov. 6
3 to 4 p.m.
Join us for this year's Loew Lecture! Nicholas Paul is a historian specializing in the central Middle Ages, with a focus on the crusades and political culture. His lecture will consider the role of material objects, especially relics of the cross, as containers and transmitters of social and cultural capital from the world of medieval crusaders into the realm of popular culture and museum collections. The lecture will draw from recent archival discoveries and also from a forthcoming book, How the Holy Cross came from Antioch to Brogne, ed. and trans. with Wolfgang Mueller (Boydell, 2025). Paul is a Professor of History and the former director of the Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham. This lecture will be held in Dunbar 2101 on Thursday, November 6 at 3:00pm.
Romanesque Art and Architecture at the Basilica of Vézelay, France
Nov. 10
5 to 7:15 p.m.
Join us for a lecture by visiting scholar Christopher Kelly. He will explore the philosophical and architectural sources of Vézeley's ethereal charm and grace while celebrating the seemingly impossible architectural and artistic design. This event is sponsored by the Alliance Française de Kalamazoo, the Department of World Languages and Literatures, the Medieval Institute (WMU), and the Chicago-Midwest Chapter of the French Heritage Society.
