Programme 2026

All of the session times have been provided below in UTC time. Please consult the pdf version of the programme for a detailed breakdown of each paper presentation time according to the timezones of the conference presenters. The programme will be provided to all registered presenters and attendees.

For your convenience, during the period of the conference, the following map will provide a handy reference for the time difference between your local timezone and UTC.

KEYNOTE 1 + Conference Open
Chair: Ela Sefcikova – Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany)
The Fama and Fortuna of Balthild, Slave-Queen
Associate Professor Lisa Kaaren Bailey – University of Auckland (New Zealand)
Keynote 1 + Open: UTC 0630 – 0800 Saturday 25 April 2026
SESSION 1: The Language of Fame and Fortune I
Chair: Dr Denis Sukhino-Khomenko – University of Gothenburg (Sweden)
Ritual and Poetry: Fortune and Fate in Early Latin and Old Norse
Sam Lewis – University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
Speaking Fortune: Magical Language and the Power of Words in the Medieval North
Vilde Fagermoen – University of Oslo (Norway)
Session 1: UTC 0830 – 0930 Saturday 25 April 2026
SESSION 2: The Language of Fame and Fortune II
Chair: Dr Michele Seah – University of Newcastle (Australia)
Destiny in a Language: How the Fortuna of Female Pilgrims Became Literary Fama
Alessandra Adornato – University of Barcelona (Portugal)
Monetary terminology in Nicole Oresme’s De moneta
Dr Julián Giglio – University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Session 2: UTC 1000 – 1100 Saturday 25 April 2026
SESSION 3: Famous People and Places in Historical and Performative Texts
Chair: Dr Julián Giglio – Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
The Fatherless Child: The scandalous early medieval origins of the infamous Merlin Ambrosius
Erica Steiner – University of Sydney (Australia)
Fame in Public, Fortune in Kin: Gender and Value in Laxdæla saga
Mervi Salo – University of Saskatchewan / UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Canada)
From Bohemia to Byzantium: Winter’s Tales of Fortune and the Syrian Gaze
Z I Mahmud – University of Delhi (Bangladesh)
Session 3: UTC 1500 – 1630 Saturday 25 April 2026
KEYNOTE 2
Chair: Dr Maria Gloria Tumminelli – Cambridge University, (United Kingdom)
Fortune’s Empire: The Global Rise of Fortune on the Early Modern English Stage
Prof Jane Hwang Degenhardt – University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA)
Keynote 2: UTC 1430 – 1530 Saturday 25 April 2026
SESSION 4: Classical Literary Echoes – Fortune across the Centuries
Chair: Lynn Riehl – Purdue University, Indiana (USA)
Chance and necessity: Thomas Aquinas between Boethius and Joachim
Assoc. Prof Tamas Nyirkos – Ludovika University of Public Service, Budapest (Hungary)
Boethius is Everywhere. The Discussion of Fortune in Fifteenth-Century Literature: Johannes von Tepl, Christine de Pizan, and the anonymous Fortunatus
Dist. Prof Albrecht Classen – University of Arizona (USA)
Fortunate Returns: Astraea and the Reception of a Classical Myth in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
Christie Hilton – University of Iceland and University of Oslo (Norway)
Session 4: UTC 1730 – 1900 Saturday 25 April 2026
SESSION 5: Divine Fortune and Destiny in Literary Sources
Chair: Ali Mirzabayati – Independent Scholar (Canada)
Fortune and Narrative in The Tale of Hervör and Heiðrek
Milica Čukalović – University of Iceland (Iceland)
Dreaming of Fame: The Instability of Allegorical Divinity in The House of Fame
Colleen Connery – Florida Atlantic University (USA)
Session 5: UTC 1930 – 2030 Saturday 25 April 2026
SESSION 6: Intellectualising Fame and Fortune
Chair: Dr Ashley Castelino – University of Notre Dame, Indiana (USA)
When Fortunes Changed: Providence and the Rise of Anxiety
Assoc Prof Robert Nelson – University of Melbourne (Australia)
Peter Ramus And The Legend Of Cicero: Fame And Infamy In Early Modern Educational Reform
Dr Emma Annette Wilson Southern Methodist University
The Role of Gifts in Infamy: The Case of Queen Katherine Howard
Dr Michele Seah – University of Newcastle (Australia)
Session 6: UTC 0030 – 0200 Sunday 26 April 2026
SESSION 7: Fortune within the Realm of Law
Chair: Andrea Wait – University of Melbourne (Australia)
Fame and Infamy: The Role of Community Reputation in English Church Court Proceedings on Sexual Misconduct
Nicholas Ringwood – The University of Auckland (New Zealand)
Wheel or Law? Re-reading Fortune and Karma as Competing Cosmologies of Destiny
Suchismita Ghoshal – Independent Scholar (India)
Fortunes of the Foreigner: Limitations to Compensation in Early Welsh and Icelandic Law
Tobin Miles – Independent Scholar (Australia)
Session 7: UTC 0000 – 0130 Sunday 26 April 2026
SESSION 8: Famous – and not so Famous – Holy Figures
Chair: Abbie Fray – University of Bern (Switzerland)
Making Fame: St Barbara in Manuscript Transmission and Use
Constanze Albers – University of Freiburg (Germany)
Good fame, limited fortune: beyond the Commedia: The selective reception of Peter Damian before and after Dante
Gerardo Auria – University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy)
“Gwenfrewi deg un fryd oedd”: tracing the afterlives of Saint Winefride of Holywell
Rachael Robertson – Australian Catholic University (Australia)
Session 8: UTC 1000 – 1130 Sunday 26 April 2026
SESSION 9: The Individual within Society and the Search for Personal Fame
Chair: Essi Nuutinen – University of Iceland & University of Oslo (Norway)
The Riches of Midnight: the Novgorod Yugra Campaigns
Benjamin Gray – King’s College, London (United Kingdom)
Individual Vices as Ground for Leprosy: a Medieval approach
Lidia Dovnarovich – Jagiellonian University (Poland)
The Unfortunate Architect: Fame and Hierarchies of Merit in Eighteenth-Century France
Dr Demetra Vogiatzaki – Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zürich (Switzerland)
Session 9: UTC 1200 – 1330 Sunday 26 April 2026
KEYNOTE 3 + Conference Close
Chair: Erica Steiner – University of Sydney (Australia)
Bees, Yahoos, and Houyhnhnms: Mandeville and Swift on the Morality of Capitalism
Prof Carl Wennerlind – Barnard College, Columbia University (USA)
Keynote 3 + Close: UTC 1400 – 1530 Sunday 26 April 2026