2023 Featured Speaker

Our 2023 Featured Speaker was Jill Kimberly Hartywell Geoffrion
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Seeing Our Past and Seeking Our Future While Meandering on the Pathways of Medieval Manuscript Labyrinths

What is the oldest labyrinth that was placed on an animal skin? Why is it significant that monks in the Middle Ages experimented with a wide variety of labyrinth patterns and symbology? What were medieval Arabic historians using labyrinths to illustrate? What do contemporary scholars have to say about ancient Jericho labyrinths?

How can gazing at, understanding the historical uses, and finger-walking or eye-walking manuscript labyrinths enhance our own labyrinth practice and programming? Come find out more as Jill presents a global and visual understanding of the labyrinths found in medieval manuscripts. Many newly “rediscovered” manuscript labyrinths, not included in Kern’s seminal work, Through the Labyrinth, will be shown and considered. Jill’s presentation style is engaging, visual, and always geared towards opening future horizons of personal, creative, and academic exploration.

Jill Kimberly Hartwell Geoffrion, Ph.D. is a lifetime member of the Labyrinth Society and has served this beloved labyrinth community in various capacities since shortly after its birth. You can find out more about her books on the labyrinth and work with labyrinths around the globe at jillgeoffrion.com and 
throughjillseyes.wordpress.com

Jill has been studying manuscript labyrinths for the past two decades, visiting libraries abroad and at home. She and her French colleague, Alain Pierre Louët, have identified many manuscript labyrinths previously unknown to the modern labyrinth community. Articles co-published on these labyrinths in Caerdroia include: