We are pleased to announce that the theme for our 3rd annual online Conference is Fame and Fortune. We invite submissions to both the conference and the journal on this theme.

Fame and fortune are slippery things. They can be welcome or ironic, tangible or out of reach. Fame could be the due of the martyred saint; fortune could be a punishment, as when the hapless cleric in the Marian Theophilus legend sells his soul to the Devil. The tulip bubble of the Dutch Golden Age brought a vast amount of wealth that collapsed into an economic infamy that persists to this day. Luck charms, tokens, and other apotropaic magical artifacts are visible in the archaeological record; accusations of undue tampering with fortune by wizards and sorcerers appear in legal texts. Some historical and legendary figures exceed the boundaries of their time, while others wither into dust. The mysterious hand of fortune also shaped the fates of entire historical populations (both human and animal). Early modern financial speculation raised some to great wealthy and others to penury. The ‘discoveries’ of the New World turned societies upside-down in numerous ways. Environmental or climactic shifts could alter the courses of rivers and coastlines, bringing feast or famine, or be harbingers of catastrophe and destruction.

We celebrated our tenth anniversary as an academic journal by launching our first annual conference. The success of this inaugural conference led to the organization of a second, and we are delighted to announce that we have the good fortune to present a third. The theme of Fame and Fortune applies to the conference. which will take place on 25–26 April 2026.

As was the case for the previous conferences, the 2026 Ceræ conference will be held entirely online. Though many major conferences have returned to a hybrid or even fully in-person format, we believe that an online conference democratises access to an international body of medieval and early modern scholars by removing the implicit financial burdens of an in-person conference. As an organization dedicated to the needs of a student and early career researcher community in an era of precarious humanities funding, we are proud to announce this fully online event.

All conference submissions for a 20-minute (+10 minutes Q&A) presentation should be returned to ceraejournal@gmail.com and include:

• A 150–200 word abstract.
• Your academic affiliation and title (if any).
• A short 50–100 word biography.
• The location (or time-zone) from which you will be presenting at the time of the conference.
• If there are any particular times during the period of the conference when you would not be available to present.

Conference ABSTRACTS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 6 March 2026.