The Medieval Dress and Textile Society is currently accepting proposals for online presentations, to be held in 2027, that would be of interest to our members. If you would like to speak to our group, or have a speaker to recommend, please email events@medats.org.uk. Speakers will be offered an honorarium of £50 for their time.
Topics
The society is for anyone interested in European clothing, armour and textiles from the end of the Roman Empire in western Europe until the early modern period, or approximately 400 to 1600. Presentations might cover materials, techniques, fashions, accessories, makers, wearers, the symbolic interpretation of clothing and many other topics. Research might take inspiration from a wide range of arts, texts, extant textiles, archaeological finds, and recreated textiles or items of dress. We strive to include a diverse range of presentations addressing a variety of time periods in the programme each year.
The audience, which is usually restricted to current MEDATS members, will likely include both professionals and amateurs including scholars, archaeologists, curators, craftspeople, theatrical designers, and reenactors. Given the diversity of backgrounds, you should not assume that your audience will be familiar with your field. Although the presentation should cover your own work, it need not introduce completely novel research. Presentations that summarise your publications, expand on papers given at conferences, cover unfinished and ongoing research projects, or present an overview of your research are welcome.
Descriptions of past presentations, grouped by year, available here.
When and Where
Most presentations take place online via Zoom on Sundays between 16:00 and 17:30 UK time (11:00 to 12:30 NYC time). After a brief set of announcements and an introduction, speakers are encouraged to speak for about 45 minutes, and not more than 60 minutes. This leaves about 30 minutes for questions. If the usual Sunday time slot does not work for you, please reach out to us with a suggestion for a time that does.
We hold approximately one presentation a month from January to June and from September to November. We attempt to avoid major UK and US holidays.
Most presentations are recorded, uploaded to YouTube, and shared privately with members who request access, which allows those in disparate time zones and with external commitments to catch up later. You may request that your presentation not be recorded, or that it be made available for a limited time (usually three months). You may also request that the question and answer part of your presentation be trimmed from the uploaded video.
Requirements
Before your presentation can be listed on our website and advertised on our mailing list, we will need:
- An agreed date and time
- to enquire about available dates, please contact events@medats.org.uk with a brief description of your proposal
- Presentation title
- Your name
- as you would like it listed, including titles (such as Dr) if relevant
- Any affiliations you would like listed
- if none, put Independent Scholar
- Presentation description
- approximately 200 words
- written in the third person
- Brief biography
- approximately 100-200 words
- list any relevant degrees, publications, personal websites or employment history
- An image or images relevant to the material you will cover in your presentation
- see below for details
- additional images, or the full image of something that we crop and use as a thumbnail, can go on the website and in the email announcement
- having multiple images to use in different social media posts can be helpful for generating interest
- Permission to record the presentation, if granted, and any limitations you need to impose the recording
Images
Images help us to promote your presentation, and will be used on our website, the ticketing page, and social media pages. You do not have to submit photos ready to go, and you do not have to supply an image if you have none; our webmaster has not only the ability to edit your images, but also an extensive personal library of photographs that might be used for your presentation.
- Please be sure that you have permission to use any images that you send us
- Please send a caption describing the image
- Please send the copyright information for the image including the name of the photographer, if known
Two or three different shapes of images are needed: something roughly square for the website that can also work as a wide rectangle, a long banner image for the ticketing page, and either a square or vertically oriented portrait image for social media. This can be the same image cropped different ways, or multiple images. If you are comfortable editing your own photos, the following information may help you to choose the best possible images.
- Images must be at least 72 dpi and 414 pixels wide.
- Detail shots and bright, contrasting colours are ideal.
- Depending on the platform, the image used on the website will dynamically resize between an image 414 wide by 246 high and a 246 pixel square, with the focus centred on the image.
- On mobile devices, the image will appear quite small, like a thumbnail, which is why close detail shots work best.
- The ticketing platform (Ticket Tailor) uses a banner across the top of the page that is 1200 pixels wide by 420 pixels high, like this one:
Illustration of the tale of faithful Griselda from The Decameron, written by Boccaccio, illuminated in the fifteenth century.
- Please do not put any text over the images you submit, even if they will be used as banners.
- If you do not have an image that works well as a long banner, we might stitch together multiple images, like this:
- It is also possible to edit an image to make it into a banner. For example, this fairly square image:
- Was cropped, rotated, and spliced back together to create this banner:
If you have any further questions, please get in touch with Challe Hudson, our Events Secretary, at events@medats.org.uk.