Contemporary Medievalism

The Centre for Religion and Heritage of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies organizes an event on Religion and Heritage on 5 November, focusing on intangible heritage. Dr. Andrew B. R. Elliott will give a masterclass and lecture on how the Middle Ages can play a role in, for instance, identity politics.

Middel Ages, appropriation and social media

What does it mean when right whing extremists compare themselves with crusaders in describing themselves. What impact does social media have on the study of heritage, now that people have the opportunity to share their interpretation and appropriation of historical events? Elliot will handle these and other questions in a masterclass for students and a public lecture, based on his recent monography ‘Medievalism, Politics and Mass Media: Appropriating the Middle Ages in the Twenty-First Century’ (Boydell and Brewer, 2017).

What is heritage?

This is the first of an annual Religion and Heritage-event, organized by the Centre for Religion and Heritage of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, in collaboration with the Agricola Seminar and the Research School of Medieval Studies. Thinking of heritage, people commonly think of buildings, objects and other material things. However, this first event focuses on intangible heritage: on the way in which concepts from the past are appropriated in contemporary (popular) culture. More specifically, it focuses on the re-use of the medieval past. Its subject is the impact of contemporary internet culture on the ownership of the history of the Middle Ages, on contemporary medievalism.

MA Religion and Cultural Heritage

The event is closely related with the MA programme in Religion and Cultural Heritage taught at the faculty. As students will learn to broaden their horizon from tangible to intangible heritage, students of the MA programme will attend the event as part of their programme.

Andrew B.R. Elliott

Dr. Andrew B.R. Elliott is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Lincoln, where he works on the representation of history in film, television and video games. Author of Remaking the Middle Ages (on medieval film), and editor of The Return of the Epic Film and Playing with the Past (on the 21^st-century epic and historically-themed video games, respectively), he has published on a number of aspects relating to historical film, television and video games, from the classical world to the Middle Ages. His recent research focuses on medievalism in online culture, political discourse and films from Tarkovsky to Tavernier. His most recent book is Medievalism, Politics and Mass Media: Appropriating the Middle Ages in the Twenty-First Century (Boydell and Brewer, 2017).

More information

• Masterclass for students: 10:30-13:00 hrs
• Public lecture: 16:00-18:00 hrs
• Location: Cort Room, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Oude Boteringestraat 38 te Groningen.
• More information