Maria Vargha

Maria Vargha is Assistant Professor for Spatial Approaches to Medieval Studies at the University of Vienna, Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, Department of History. She leads the ERC Starting Grant project ‘RELIC’ and coordinates the WEAVE ‘REPLICO’ collaboration, specialising in medieval archaeology, Christianisation, and digital-spatial analyses.

Education:

• PhD in Medieval Studies, Central European University Budapest (2013-2019)
• MA in Medieval Studies, Central European University (2013)
• MA in Archaeology, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest (2012)

Research Interests:
Vargha’s work integrates archaeological, historical and digital-humans approaches to explore social and religious transformation in medieval East-Central Europe, focusing on everyday material culture, burial customs, landscape change, and the use of GIS & network methods to visualise and interpret large datasets.

Her 2024 publications reveal a coherent agenda: examining portable material culture across Europe, foregrounding rural populations in state-building narratives, and fostering community infrastructure among early-career medieval archaeologists.

Awards & Funding:

• András Kubinyi Foundation Certificate of Merit for doctoral dissertation (2020)
• ERC Starting Grant ‘RELIC’ (€1.5 M, 2024-2028)
• Lead Agency WEAVE Grant ‘REPLICO’ (2023)

Projects & Grants:
Vargha currently directs the 5-year ERC project ‘Modelling Religiopolitics. The Imperium Christianum via its Commoners’, which combines fine-grated GIS mapping of finds, graves and cult sites with network modelling to reassess how Christianity permeated rural society.

Academic Service:
She is committee member of the Medieval Europe Research Community (MERC) and founding member of the European Medieval Finds Network, organising sessions and conferences that knit together interdisciplinary researchers across the continent.