We are pleased to announce the programme for the international workshop “Reconsidering the Vocabulary of Prayer through Objects”, organised by Working Group 1: Material Realities of Prayer within COST Action CA23143 PRAYTICIPATE.
The workshop will take place in three stages: an online opening session on 29 May 2026, an in-person meeting in Hamburg from 10 to 12 June 2026, and a follow-up phase in autumn 2026. The Hamburg meeting will be hosted at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky, with visits to the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg and the Hamburger Kunsthalle.
The workshop brings together scholars and heritage professionals from different disciplines and institutions to reconsider the vocabulary of prayer through close engagement with objects, collections, materials, and spaces. Rather than presenting finished papers, participants will engage in a collaborative, object-based process of reflection, asking how established terms and categories function when applied to specific manuscripts, printed books, artworks, devotional objects, sensory practices, and vernacular traditions.
Across online discussions, thematic sessions, museum visits, and collection-based exchanges, the workshop aims to refine terminology in prayer studies, foster international and interdisciplinary collaboration, and develop new approaches to the study of devotional practices in the late medieval and early modern world.
The full programme is available here.
Organisers: Dr Sara Carreño, Dr Carolin Gluchowski, PD Dr Stefan Matter, and Dr Katrin Janz-Wenig.