Cistercian Worlds

Scholars have explained the success of the Cistercians materially through the perspectives of archaeology, architecture and art, and historians, theologians and literary scholars have analysed the achievements of Cistercian thought and spiritual practices. More recently, investigations have broadened the range of sources used (e.g. works of medicine and natural science, exempla collections), in addition to analysing this evidence using novel, paradigm-shifting approaches (history of emotions, neuroscience, queer theory).

CISTERCIAN WORLDS, a two-day online conference sponsored by the York Centre for Medieval Studies and funded by the Wolfson Foundation, aims to offer a forum for researchers to build upon existing modes of scholarship and bring together discussions currently occurring across disciplines. How did an initial shared world-view create many different Cistercian ‘worlds’? What were the boundaries – real or imagined – of these spheres? Who composed them? In which ways did they extend, shrink, overlap, and evolve? What approaches can be used to study them?

As such, the conference will feature papers that distil the latest interdisciplinary research on the medieval Cistercians (writ large) and place the study of the Order into conversation with currents and themes outside the cloister walls. CISTERCIAN WORLDS, therefore, aims to showcase the evolving nature of Cistercian scholarship and the new directions that are currently being taken.

A full programme can be found here: https://www.cistercianworlds.com/programme--speakers.html

To register, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cistercian-worlds-tickets-147675398091?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch