The 2025 ANZAMEMS Conference, to be hosted at the University of Melbourne between the 3rd and 5th December, is now open for registration.
Registration fee covers:
Entry to all programmed talks and panels
Catered morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea on each day
Opening night wine reception
There is an early bird rate available via the above link for registrations made before the 10th October. You can also add the conference dinner, accommodation at Newman college, and various tours and events to your registration.
The full conference programme will be released in early September.
The conference committee is also pleased to announce that applications are now open to attend the ANZAMEMS Seminar – an intensive palaeography workshop – to be hosted on the 2nd December. The seminar is intended to support the academic development of currently enrolled higher degree by research students and early career academics. Please submit applications to attend via this form.
The program has been released for the upcoming workshop, Faith and the Material World: Creative productions of natural philosophy and religion in medieval and early modern Europe. Hosted by the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at ACU, the workshop will be run in hybrid format on the 2nd and 3rd October 2025. Please see the below program.
Please RSVP to susan.broomhall@acu.edu.au for further details and stating whether you would like to attend in person or online.
Contributions are being sought for a proposed thematic issue of Parergon called Living, Dreaming, and Dying in the Pre-modern Bed. Abstracts of between 250–350 words are sought for an issue that, if accepted, will be published in 2027. The deadline for submission of abstracts is the 21st of September 2025; please see the below CFP for further details.
2026 NACHE Conference, 22-23 May 2026 at Arizona State University in Tempe/Phoenix Arizona
Interested scholars are invited to submit proposals on the history of emotions, for single presentations or for panels. The conference is open to proposals on the history of emotions dealing with any region or time period; interdisciplinary approaches are welcome.
The conference is co-chaired by Bradley J. Irish, Susan Matt and Peter N. Stearns. Due date for proposals is 1 Oct. 2025. Decisions will be made by 1 Nov., and a conference program will be set by 1 Dec., at which time firm commitments will be required.
The next session of the 2025 ANZAMEMS reading group is on Tuesday 26 August at 11-12pm Melbourne time (UTC+11). This will be on the topic of ‘Materiality and Masculinity in Monastic Communities’. See schedule below.
The Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group has extended the call for papers for their 2025 conference to 24 August. For further details, see below flyer.
Prophets and Witches offers an exploration of female prophecy and witchcraft during the political and religious upheavals of the English Revolutionary period from 1640 to 1660.
The religious fervour and End of Days enthusiasm precipitated by the Civil War opened the door for unprecedented numbers of women to achieve visibility and spiritual authority as prophets. However, as self-proclaimed instruments for God’s spirit, these women were also exposed to the charge of demonic possession or witchcraft. This book explores both the gender and political elements at work in the construction of the prophet as a witch. It uncovers the role of witchcraft in the dominant political and religious debates and power conflicts of the times, which provides a crucial framework for the female prophet’s transformation from divine instrument to demonic witch. This study of the early modern prophet and witch reveals the fluidity, and at times close relationship of these assumed opposites.
This book is a valuable resource to students and scholars of early modern England, the English Civil War and all readers interested in female religiosity, prophecy, witchcraft, demonology and early Quakerism.
The next seminar in ACU’s 2025 series, ‘Premodern Beliefs and their Reception’, will take place at 1pm (AEDT) on Monday 18 August via Teams.
The speaker will be Associate Professor Jenny Spinks, speaking on the subject ‘Wonder, Mourning, and Pious Materiality – Albrecht Dürer’s 1503 Record of Blood Rain’. See below flyer for further details.
The journal Parergon, in print since 1971, regularly produces one open issue and one themed issue annually. Parergon is now calling for proposals for the themed issue for 2027 (44.2)
Parergon publishes articles on all aspects of medieval and early modern studies, from early medieval through to the eighteenth century, and including the reception and influence of medieval and early modern culture in the modern world. We are particularly interested in research which takes new approaches and crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Parergon asks its authors to achieve international standards of excellence. Essays should be substantially original, advance research in the field, and have the potential to make a significant contribution to the critical debate.
Parergon is available in electronic form as part of Project Muse (from 1983), Australian Public Affairs – Full Text (from 1994), Wilson’s Humanities Full Text (from 2008), and Gale Academic One File (from 2008); it is included in the Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List of refereed journals and in the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH), and is indexed for nine major database services, including ABELL, IMB and Scopus.
Themed issues contain up to ten essays, plus the usual reviews section. The guest editor is responsible for setting the theme and drawing up the criteria for the essays.
Timeline Proposals for the 2027 issue (44.2) should be submitted to the Editors by Monday 29 September 2025.
A statement outlining the rationale for the issue.
Titles and abstracts of all the essays.
A short biographical paragraph for the guest editor(s) and for each contributor.
Proposals will be considered by a selection panel drawn from the Parergon International Editorial Board who will be asked to assess and rank the proposals according to the following criteria:
Suitability for the journal
Originality of contribution to the chosen field
Significance/importance of the proposed theme
Potential for advancing scholarship in a new and exciting way
Range and quality of authors
Guest editors will be notified of the result of their application by the end of October 2025.
This morning, the Australian Historical Association sent to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Minister for Education Jason Clare, Minister for Business and Innovation Tim Ayres, and Minister for Youth Jess Walsh an Open Letter calling for the repeal of Job-Ready Graduates.
This letter was coordinated by the AHA and signed by more than 100 distinguished individuals who have made significant contributions to Australian cultural, social and political life. All completed a Bachelor of Arts degree.
The letter can be found online at the AHA website here.
Please feel free to circulate the letter among your networks and on your own social media profiles. Please also see this article on the call to repeal JRG in The Guardian, as well as an online petition. Should you wish to show support, you can add your name to the petition and share all three links to your own professional and personal networks.
