Online workshop
April/May 2026
organiser: dr Lieke Smits (Leiden University)

Immersive prayer practices of the past can be studied through the texts, images, and objects that have survived throughout the centuries. But these do not tell the entire story of how prayer was practiced. The performance of prayer involved bodily performances such as postures, gestures, and speech; the sensory experience of handling objects or leaving through books; and spatial settings that allowed for certain movements, acoustics, and other sensory impressions.

Aims and format of the workshop

In order to understand the role of gesture and performativity in premodern immersive prayer practices, this workshop invites participants to experiment with the performance of their sources. Handling objects, reading or singing texts out loud, or moving through a historical space can lead to new insight into the actions and experiences that these sources afford. The aim is not to reconstruct the historical prayer experience, but to experimentally enrich our perspective and to think about different ways of generating knowledge.

More info here.

Tips for creating a video here.