Trade, Travel and Transmission in the Medieval Mediterranean
Third Biennial Conference of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean
Churchill College, University of Cambridge (UK), 8-10 July 2013
Confirmed keynote speakers: Prof. David Abulafia (University of Cambridge) and Prof. Carole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh)
Abstract deadline: 1st December 2012
The Society for the Medieval Mediterranean is proud to announce our forthcoming third biennial conference, with the theme of ‘Trade, Travel and Transmission’. This three-day inter-disciplinary conference will bring scholars together to explore the interaction of the various peoples, societies, faiths and cultures of the medieval Mediterranean, a region which had been commonly represented as divided by significant religious and cultural differences. The objective of the conference is to highlight the extent to which the medieval Mediterranean was not just an area of conflict but also a highly permeable frontier across which people, goods and ideas crossed and influenced neighbouring cultures and societies. We invite proposals for 20-minute papers in the fields of archaeology, art and architecture, codicology, ethnography, history (including the histories of science, medicine and cartography), languages, literature, music, philosophy and religion. Submission on the following topics would be particularly welcome:
Activities of missionary orders
Artistic contacts and exchanges
Byzantine and Muslim navies
Captives and slaves
Cargoes, galleys and warships
Costume and vestments
Diplomacy
Judaism and Jewish Mediterranean History
Literary contacts and exchanges
Material Culture
Minority Populations in the Christian and Islamic Worlds.
Mirrors for Princes
Music, sacred and secular
Port towns/city states
Relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Religious practices: saints, cults and heretics
Scientific exchange, including astronomy, medicine and mathematics
Seafaring, seamanship and shipbuilding
Sufis & Sufi Orders in North Africa and the Levant
Sultans, kings and other rulers
Trade and Pilgrimage
Travel writing
Warfare: mercenaries and crusaders
Please send abstracts of no longer than 250 words, together with a short CV (max. 2 sides of A4) to Dr Rebecca Bridgman (University of Cambridge, Vice-President of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean) at the following e-mail: smmconference2013@gmail.com
Submission must be received by 1st December.
