Harlaxton Medieval Symposium 2024

Illustration from De Mulierbus Claris by Boccaccio (Wikimedia Commons).

Women in Late Medieval Britain: Makers, Patrons, and Readers

The 2024 Harlaxton Medieval Symposium will take place between Monday 12th and Thursday 15th August and the theme will be Women in Late Medieval Britain: Makers, Patrons, and Readers. It will be convened by Marlene Hennessy and Martha Driver.

Please see the provisional programme here.

Full details, including pricing and how to book, will be available shortly, and booking will open in the Spring.

One important change is that the Symposium will not be hosted at Harlaxton Manor, but instead at Madingley Hall, Cambridge. Please see the statement below for further information:

In a decision that has not been taken lightly, the Symposium will this year be hosted at Madingley Hall, just outside Cambridge. For a variety of reasons, Harlaxton College and the University of Evansville have resolved that they can no longer accommodate the needs of the Symposium. We are naturally deeply saddened that the 40-year long association between the Symposium and the manor has come to an end and appreciate that many attendees have fond memories of the building as much as the Symposium itself. We will retain the name ‘Harlaxton Medieval Symposium’ in recognition of the Symposium’s history and achievements; not least our long-standing series of proceedings, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, now in its thirty-second volume with Medieval Travel which was published last year.

We are thrilled to move the Symposium to Madingley Hall, which will be an excellent venue as the Symposium enters this new phase. It is a charming and historic building with extensive grounds and state of the art conference facilities. We are sure that many of you will be relieved to hear that all bedrooms are en suite! It is situated just 4 miles from central Cambridge and the surrounding area offers plenty of historic locations for the Symposium’s trips. We are sure that the move to Madingley will retain the wonderful social – as well as academic – aspects of Harlaxton that make this such a special event for so many people.

Dr Richard Asquith and Dr Rachael Harkes

Honorary Secretaries, Harlaxton Medieval Symposium