Past Events

Past Events

Catch up with HMML's past events.

March 25, 2026

Event
Winter Lecture Series – Celebrating HMML’s 60 Years
Topic
From its very beginning, HMML’s mission has been about more than manuscripts—it’s about people and partnerships. This lecture explores HMML’s early work in Austria (1965–1973) and the innovative approach to collaboration that set the standard for building trust and lasting relationships with libraries and communities.
Presenter
Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman, HMML Director of European Manuscript Projects: Oversees HMML’s European manuscript initiatives, coordinating preservation, cataloging, and partnerships with historic libraries and monastic collections. His expertise in manuscript preservation and collaborative projects offers insight into HMML’s unique model and its lasting impact on cultural heritage.
Video

February 25, 2026

Event
Winter Lecture Series – Celebrating HMML’s 60 Years – Manuscripts in Partition
Topic
HMML’s manuscripts tell stories of borders, upheaval, and resilience. Across the 20th century, the creation of new nation-states often disrupted libraries and displaced cultural treasures, leaving minority communities and their manuscripts fragmented and at risk. This lecture uncovers how these manuscripts bear witness to the human consequences of partition and reveals the remarkable work HMML does to reconnect, preserve, and share what was thought to be lost.
Presenter
Dr. Josh Mugler, Curator of Eastern Christian & Islamic Manuscripts: Oversees HMML’s Eastern Christian and Islamic manuscript collections, directing cataloging and preservation that reconnect dispersed cultural heritage and make it accessible to scholars worldwide.
Video

January 28, 2026

Event
Winter Lecture Series – Celebrating HMML’s 60 Years — The Extraordinary, Ordinary Work of Building a Digital Library
Topic
How do you preserve and share manuscripts? How do you start with a fragile physical book, transform it into carefully maintained digital images, and then provide free, round-the-clock access to it for anyone, anywhere in the world? How do you make sure people can find one text among hundreds of thousands? What are the challenges—and how do you overcome them? The HMML team will consider these questions and more, offering a rare glimpse of their work—and why it matters.
Presenter
John Meyerhofer, Director of Information Systems; Wayne Torborg, Director of Digital Collections & Imaging; Dr. Catherine Walsh, Director of Cataloging & Library Services
Video

April 23, 2025

Event
Winter Lecture Series
Topic

“Shakespeare and His World: A Celebration of HMML’s Second Folio” is a conversation with Dr. Matthew Harkins and Dr. Audrey Thorstad, where they journey back to England in the 16th and 17th centuries to learn more about the authors who shaped theater and English literature as we know it, as well as the kings and queens who implemented royal censorship and banned books.

Presenter
Dr. Matthew Harkins
Video

March 26, 2025

Event
Winter Lecture Series
Topic

Dr. Ani Shahinian presents “Armenian Christian Martyrs in Text and Image: A Brief Study of the Armenian Illuminated Menologium”

Presenter
Dr. Ani Shahinian
Video

February 26, 2025

Event
Winter Lecture Series
Topic

Dr. Jeremy R. Brown presents “Inspired Grace: The Ethiopic Miracles of Mary” - stories about the life and miracles of the Virgin Mary

Presenter
Dr. Jeremy R. Brown
Video

January 22, 2025

Event
Winter Lecture Series
Topic

Dr. Vandeburie explores the career and work of Jacques de Vitry, a famed 13th-century preacher who was appointed as Bishop of St. Jean d'Acre in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Presenter
Dr. Jan Vandeburie
Video

March 23, 2023

Event
To Listen: A Global Journey
Topic
The season finale of To Listen: A Global Journey will explore Malta's maritime and culinary history through the island's rich art and archival collections, featuring Liam Gauci, senior curator of the Malta Maritime Museum and founder of Taste History. Dr. Daniel K. Gullo, director of HMML's Malta Study Center, will join as a special guest.
More Info.
Learn more about the partners and manuscripts that HMML has worked with in Malta.
Presenter
Dr. Columba Stewart, host; Liam Gauci, guest; Dr. Daniel K. Gullo, guest
Video

February 16, 2023

Event
To Listen: A Global Journey
Topic
The season premiere of To Listen: A Global Journey features Dr. Ali Diakite and Dr. Paul Naylor, catalogers of West African manuscripts for HMML and part of an international community of scholars who are shaping the field of manuscript studies. In their work cataloging West African manuscripts for HMML, Dr. Diakite and Dr. Naylor produce and disseminate knowledge about West Africa garnered through identifying the hundreds of thousands of manuscripts digitized by HMML in Mali for free online access.
More Info.
Learn more about related West African manuscripts.
Presenter
Dr. Columba Stewart, host; Dr. Ali Diakite, guest; Dr. Paul Naylor, guest
Video

May 26, 2022

Event
To Listen: A Global Journey
Topic
This program features Corine Wegener, the director of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI), an outreach program dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage in crisis situations in the U.S. and abroad. With graduate degrees in political science and art history, Wegener was both a curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and a US Army Reserve officer. She served on several military deployments, including as an Arts, Monuments, and Archives Officer assigned to assist after the 2003 looting of the Iraq National Museum.
More Info.
Learn more about related manuscripts.
Presenter
Dr. Columba Stewart, host; Corine Wegener, guest
Video

March 31, 2022

Event
To Listen: A Global Journey
Topic
This program features Dr. Jack Tannous, Associate Professor of History and Hellenic Studies and Chair of the Center for the Study of Late Antiquity at Princeton University. Dr. Tannous' work focuses on Syriac-speaking Christian communities in the Late Antique and early medieval period. He has a particular interest in manuscripts and the editing of Syriac and Arabic (especially Christian Arabic) texts.
More Info.
Learn more about related manuscripts.
Presenter
Dr. Columba Stewart, host; Dr. Jack Tannous, guest
Video

January 20, 2022

Event
To Listen: A Global Journey
Topic
This program features Dr. Robin Darling Young, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Spirituality at The Catholic University of America. She has published and lectured widely on topics in the history of early Christianity and its thought, including the areas of scriptural interpretation, the history of asceticism and monastic thought, and the Christian cultures of ancient Syria and Armenia. She is also the leader of an oral history project devoted to Iraqi Chaldean Catholic immigrants to Detroit both before and after the Iraq war and their effort to preserve their culture.
More Info.
Learn more about related manuscripts.
Presenter
Dr. Columba Stewart, host; Dr. Robin Darling Young, guest
Video

November 4, 2021

Event
To Listen: A Global Journey
Topic
The final program in the inaugural season of To Listen: A Global Journey , HMML’s series featuring cultural preservation leaders around the world. These intimate conversations help us better understand a region, a history, a culture, and the things that tie us together—all shared through the professional and personal experience of our guests.

This program features Raja Khalidi from the Khalidi Library in Jerusalem, a HMML preservation partner since 2014. He is joined by Dr. Khader Salameh, the librarian of the Khalidi Library.
More Info.
Learn more about related manuscripts.
Presenter
Dr. Columba Stewart, host; Raja Khalidi and Khader Salameh, guests.
Video

March 18, 2021

Event
To Listen: A Global Journey
Topic
HMML's series To Listen: A Global Journey featuring intimate, one-on-one conversations to better understand a region, a history, a culture, and the things that tie us together—all shared through the professional and personal experience of the featured guest. Dr. Columba Stewart interviews Archbishop Borys Gudziak, president of Ukrainian Catholic University and Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.
More Info.
Learn more about related manuscripts.
Presenter
Dr. Columba Stewart, host; Archbishop Borys Gudziak, guest
Video

January 21, 2021

Event
To Listen: A Global Journey
Topic
Premiere of HMML's series To Listen: A Global Journey featuring intimate, one-on-one conversations to better understand a region, a history, a culture, and the things that tie us together—all shared through the professional and personal experience of the featured guest.

The focus of the first conversation is India and series host and HMML Executive Director Dr. Columba Stewart welcomes Dr. Ali Khan Mahmudabad, noted Indian historian, poet, and professor of both history and political science at Ashoka University, India.
Presenter
Dr. Columba Stewart, host; Dr. Ali Khan Mahmudabad, guest
Video

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