On 17 March, representatives from The University of Kent and Canterbury Cathedral renewed the Memorandum of Understanding they first signed in 2014.

The signing ceremony took place in the Cathedral Archives & Library with Dr Simon Kirchin, Kent’s Dean for the Humanities, and Canon Librarian The Revd Christopher Irvine ratifying the new three-year agreement.

The signing was attended by: Dr Juliette Pattinson, Head of the University’s School of History; Cressida Williams, Head of Archives & Library, Canterbury Cathedral; Jeremy Carrette, Professor of Philosophy, Religion and Culture and Head of the School of European Culture and Languages; Catherine Richardson, Professor of Early Modern Studies in the School of English; and John Sotillo, Kent’s Director of Information Services, among others.

The first MOU resulted in a number of very successful projects. These included:

• a Festival of Ideas (‘Questions of Space’) which presented a series of public interactive talks, walks, sights and sounds created by Humanities staff at Kent and hosted by the Cathedral;
  work opportunities and placements at the Cathedral for students;
  a number of research and public events around the Gateways to the First World War project;
  Shakespeare 400, with the University and the Cathedral, alongside other partners, offering a local view of the Bard’s work.

The MOU also resulted in a strong and evolving relationship between the Cathedral and Kent’s Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, as well as a close partnership between the Cathedral Archives & Library and the University’s Special Collections & Archives.

Anticipated notable events and projects for the next three years include a second Festival of Ideas and the delivery of the Heritage Lottery-funded project ‘The Canterbury Journey’.

Now in its third year, we’re delighted to announce that the MEMS Festival will once again be taking place in mid-June (dates to be confirmed very soon). We would like as many students and staff as possible to come and speak about their work – please see the call for papers, below, which invites submissions by the 28th April.

MEMS Festival is a two-day celebration of all research in the medieval and early modern periods, including the study of literature, history, drama, art, politics, religion, and everyday culture of different nations from c.400-1800. The festival, hosted at the University of Kent, is designed to bring together and create networks between scholars from a range of disciplines, academic schools, and institutions. MEMS Festival aims to be an informal space in which postgraduate students, early career researchers and academics can share ideas and foster conversations, and build a greater sense of community – we therefore invite the following:

• Abstracts of c. 250 words for individual research papers of 20 minutes in length on any subject contained within the Medieval and Early Modern periods. Work in its early stages is as welcome as more advanced projects, as are less traditional paper formats.
•  Abstracts of c. 700 words for a three-person panel to present on a particular subject or theme relevant to the Medieval and Early Modern periods.

If you have an idea but no fellow panelists we are happy to publicise it for you through our channels and under our Festival banner, but with your own contact details. Please contact us at the email below.

This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase some of your own research, share ways of working, benefit from the ideas of others, and develop networks for future collaboration.

Please submit all paper and panel applications to:

mailto:memsfestival@gmail.com by 28th April 2017