Statement of Aims
Contributors are sought for an edited collection, under contract with publishers Taylor and Francis, that illuminates the many worlds of the Medieval Mediterranean, from 470 to 1350. In addition to narrative essays contributors will provide primary source materials, written and/or visual, illustrative of their argument and meant to engage students more deeply into the topic. In total, the editor seeks three contributors for each of eleven chapters. Final essays will vary between 2000 and 3000 words, depending on the type of primary source. In making the final selection, the editor seeks to balance primary texts (or selections of texts) and images. Chapters with general (yet flexible) essay themes are as follows:
The Mediterranean and its Environmental History: natural history, geography, geology, plants and animals, biodiversity
The Mediterranean of Antiquity: first inhabitants, Phoenicians and their contemporaries, the Roman Mediterranean
Daily Life in the Medieval Mediterranean: Women, men, marriage, and families, sexuality and gender, the culinary world
A Space of Conflict: warfare (religious and secular), slavery, imperialism, race, and identity
Corsairs and Pirates: this chapter is wide open
A Space of Convergence and Cooperation: the importance of hospitality, narratives of travel – religious, secular, mercantile, etc., emerging ideas of the “Other”
A Profitable Mediterranean: commerce and trade, the world of the merchant, the demand and proliferation of goods
Religion in the Medieval Mediterranean: faith before the emergence of monotheism, the religious descendants of Abraham, religious influences from the Silk Road, faith at the intersections of discord and concord
Cultural and Cultural Exchanges in the Medieval Mediterranean: poetry and stories, art, architecture, and music, technology, the lessons of archaeology
Meeting in the Middle: the meeting of East and West in the emporiums of Arabia, the spread of language and communication, Silk Road/Mediterranean connections
Toward a Renaissance Mediterranean: plague, illness, and death, a changing Mediterranean world, legacies of the Medieval Mediterranean
Please send 300 to 500-word abstracts that address a specific chapter, along with initial thoughts on appropriate primary sources to Jeanette M. Fregulia at jfregulia@carroll.edu by September 7, 2018. Authors will be notified of a decision by September 17, 2018, and final essays are due by December 31, 2018. Must be previously unpublished material.
