The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast

The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast

by Will Beattie, Jonathan Correa Reyes, Loren Cantrell, Reed O'Mara, & Logan Quigley
HistorySociety & Culture
Season 5

Feminine Micro-History: Dante’s Depiction of Female Characters in the Divine Comedy

In this episode, Dr. Paola Rodriguez takes us into Dante’s Divine Comedy, exploring four characters within their historical context. She examines them as micro-historical episodes used by Dante to criticize and denounce certain societal mores of his time. The theory of micro-history itself functions as a central device in Dante’s narratorial structuring, lending itself to the process of historical redressing of injustices. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E16
Oct 7, 2026
34:54

Speculum Spotlight | Snakes and Ecology in Byzantine Aesthetics

In this episode, we chat with Dr. John Kee about his contribution to Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, in which Kee explores the intersections of ecology, aesthetics, and human relationships to the natural world in the context of Byzantine representations of snakes in text and imagery. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E15
Oct 2, 2026
42:13

A Multiplicity of Voices: Music and Identity in the Middle Ages

What did it mean to have a voice in the Middle Ages? And why is music essential for understanding the medieval voice? Join musicologists Saagar Asnani and Flannery McIntyre as they discuss how the voice can reveal the relationship between music and identity. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E14
Sep 20, 2026
54:31

Unknown Hands: Women Copying the Medieval Book

In 2019, the discovery of ultramarine pigment in the dental calculus of a medieval woman provided the first physical evidence of female scribes, challenging the widespread assumption that manuscript copying was an exclusively male activity. In this episode, scholar Estelle Guéville draws on her doctoral research to explore the overlooked history of medieval women scribes and show how they played a far more significant role in literacy and book production than traditionally believed. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E13
Aug 28, 2026
33:51

A Saint Between Worlds: A Global History of the Relics of Saint Louis of Toulouse

As a saint caught between the Italian and Iberian worlds, Saint Louis of Toulouse (d. 1297) is an important yet often forgotten piece of the religious and political history of Iberian expansion. In this episode, PhD candidate Jessica Minieri and MMA Pod producer Loren Cantrell trace the long history of the theft, movement, and translation of the relics of Louis of Toulouse—a saint associated with the House of Anjou in the Kingdom of Naples. Between his death and 1800, Louis’s relics were split between cities in Iberia, southern France, the Philippines, and California all in connection with Spanish conquest worldwide. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E12
Aug 3, 2026
50:24

Charlemagne and the Jewish Communities of the Latin West

In this episode, Loraine Enlow chats with Pilar Rivett about Rivett’s research on ninth-century baptismal and exorcistic rites and Jewish–Christian relations under Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. Their conversation challenges scholarly assumptions about a decline in the culture of diasporic Judaism in the Latin West in pre-Rabbinic times (4th–9th centuries). Instead, they argue in favor of a Latin Jewish textual tradition. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E11
Jul 25, 2026
24:11

Books Without Borders: Arabic Manuscripts and the Making of the Global Middle Ages

In this episode, Mourad Tadghout explores how manuscript cultures shaped intellectual exchange across medieval Eurasia and the Mediterranean. Focusing on the transmission of texts such as Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine, Tadghout traces the movement of knowledge from Baghdad to Toledo and beyond. The episode highlights the collaborative nature of translation, commentary, and scholarly exchange, challenging narratives of isolation and rethinking the medieval world as deeply interconnected across cultures and languages. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E10
Jul 15, 2026
21:19

Speculum Spotlight | Child’s Play and the Provenance of the Bodley Alexander

In this episode, producer Reed O’Mara sit down with Georgetown professor Sarah McNamer about her contribution to Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, in which McNamer explores the provenance and purpose of the Bodley Alexander manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264 [Part A, fols. 3–208]). McNamer’s article suggests that the manuscript can be read as a medieval version of a children’s search-and-find activity book and that it was made for a young prince. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E9
Jul 1, 2026
50:11

The Global Gyrfalcon

This episode takes a bird’s eye view of the global medieval world, following the trade and giving of arctic gyrfalcons across vast distances. Caitlin, Sam, Bjørn, and Ragnar discuss the capture and keeping of these rare birds in Scandinavia and their cultural significance in Europe, China and the Islamic world. For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E8
Jun 25, 2026
55:49

Disability and Medieval Studies: Then and Now

In this episode of The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast, the editors of the recent volume Towards an Accessible Academy discuss disability, academia, and medieval studies with several of the authors. Combining interviews with chapter readings, Dr. Alex R. A. Lee and Dr. Hope Doherty-Harrison break down key concepts and consider how they as disabled medievalists do their work, and how we can make the academy better for everyone. Content notes: This episode contains mentions of suicide (22:50–22:55, 23:33–22:50, 24:03–25:28) and of surgery/surgical wounds (28:34–28:36, 30:40–32:00, 36:42–36:54). For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.
S5 · E7
Jun 15, 2026
48:40
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