The call for papers for the International Congress Women of the Cistercian Order: unveiling nunneries and expanding horizons is open until October 27th. The congress will be held via Zoom between January 29th and 31st, 2025.


With the organization of the research project Books, rituals and spaces in a Cistercian nunnery. Living, praying and reading in Lorvão 13th – 16th c., together with the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM NOVA FCSH), the primary goal of this international conference is to bring together and synthesize recent research on Cistercian scriptoria, books, and libraries, as well as to explore female agency in Cistercian convents and the connections between books and nuns. 

We invite scholars to explore the material characteristics of Cistercian liturgical books, mainly focusing on their codicological features, such as unique binding methods that often reveal insights into provenance and the analysis of pigments used in the creation and blending of coloured inks. Aspects related with the ‘biography’ of the book, evidence of the books care process, as well as its conservation methods along the centuries preserving its identity, will be also considered.

The conference also aims to explore Cistercian liturgy and its ritual enactment within monastic spaces, focusing on the order’s quest for liturgical uniformity. In addition, we will examine how this ideal interacted with local practices, including its adaptation to the specific liturgical traditions of Cistercian convents. In this context, we seek to highlight the role of female agency in cultural and artistic patronage and in liturgical practice.

We welcome proposals for sessions or individual papers from researchers across all disciplines that align with the following themes:

  • Monastic space and liturgy 
  • Cistercian books and libraries
  • Normative and Cistercian communities
  • Gender and liturgy
  • Music and liturgy
  • Medieval bookbindings and book’s architecture
  • Pigments, colours and illumination
  • Medieval book conservation
  • Cistercian Sigillography and Heraldry

Further, it is our intention to publish the papers delivered at the Conference in a peer-reviewed volume, to which end, relevant texts should be submitted about six months after the congress, that is to say, in July of 2025. We appreciate that the deadline is quite tight, however we are subject to the constraints imposed by Project funding arrangements, and we respectfully beseech your understanding.

Official languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian

Proposals:

Individual Presentation Proposals
Submissions should include the following:

  • Researcher’s name
  • Academic affiliation
  • Contact email
  • Title of the paper
  • Abstract (maximum of 500 words)

Additionally, please provide a brief CV (maximum of 350 words).

Panel Proposals (3 speakers)
Panel submissions (comprising 3 presentations of 20-minutes each) should include the following:

  • Panel organiser and moderator information
  • Panel objectives
  • Names of all presenting researchers
  • Academic affiliations
  • Contact emails
  • Titles of the individual papers and their respective abstracts (combined total not exceeding 1,700 words)

Each panelist should also submit a brief CV (maximum of 350 words).

The proposals must be sent for the email: unveilingnunneries@gmail.com 

Important dates:

Deadline for the submission of proposals: 27th October 2024.

The results of the acceptance or rejection of proposals will be announced by the end of October and the programme will be published in November.

Conference via Zoom: 29, 30 and 31 January 2025

Deadline for the texts: end of July of 2025

Book publication in Open Access: end of 2026

Organisation
Institute for Medieval Studies, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University (IEM-FCSH/NOVA).Scientific and Organizing committee:
Catarina Fernandes Barreira, Catarina Miguel, Conceição Casanova, Luís Rêpas and Zuelma Chaves.