The host of our project, the Research Council of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences (HEX) organised the Sixth Annual HEX Conference: Memory, Temporality and Experience at Tampere University on 11–13 March 2024. Riikka and Jenni served as members of the conference organising committee. The three-day conference was packed with papers exploring historical experiences and experiencing from the perspectives of memory and temporalities. Topics on disability and lived religion were well represented in the programme, particularly on the panel ‘Temporalities in Suffering and Disabilities’ (chaired by Daniel). This featured excellent papers by Mari Eyice, Päivi Räisänen-Schröder, Lotta Vikström, and Marie Meier that explored these themes from multiple theoretical, geographical, and chronological angles. With a packed room, the panel generated a stimulating discussion, which we found very rewarding and thoroughly enjoyed. In addition to this, Godelinde presented a paper entitled ‘Singing in Crip Time: Sanctity, Disability, and Life Expectancy in Netherlandish Sister-Books’ that drew on her research for the project. For the full programme and other disability related papers, see https://events.tuni.fi/historyofexperience/programme/
Our other recent conference papers include ‘Translating saints: Memory and the liturgies of virgin martyrs in the Diepenveen sister-book’ by Godelinde at the Workshop Religious imagination in the late medieval Low Countries (Leiden University, 16–19 January 2024) and ‘Embodied madness: Sensory and bodily experiences of ’madness’ in early modern Sweden’ by Riikka at 1500- ja 1600-lukujen tutkimuksen päivät 2024 (Biannual Conference on Early Modern Research in Finland, University of Oulu, 25–26 January 2024).
News image credits: “Encouragement” Salome Sticken encourages Liesbeth van Heenvliet (Sculpture by S. Crommelin (1984). Photo by JanB46. 25 Mar. 2014. JanB46, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.