Southern Italy as Contact Area and Border Region during the Early Middle Ages

Southern Italy as Contact Area and Border Region during the Early Middle Ages lead image

Southern Italy as Contact Area and Border Region during the Early Middle Ages, German Historical Institute / Istituto Storico Germanico, April 4–6, 2016

This international conference, organised by the German Historical Institute in Rome and the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany), brings together experts from Medieval Studies, Islamic Studies, Byzantine Studies, Jewish Studies and Archaeology. It focuses on early medieval Southern Italy (including Sicily) as a multiple, constantly changing contact area and border region characterised by religious-cultural heterogeneity and shaped by various competing powers, traditions, ideas and perceptions. The chosen pluri-perspective approach allows presenting and discussing new insights in various fields and disciplines. The following questions form the common thread:

  • Taking into account actual theoretical debates and the current state of research in the specific fields, which analytical challenges arise when examining Southern Italy as a (Mediterranean) contact and border region and when considering groups of different religious and cultural background acting there?
  • How are – in this context – physical and non-physical spaces socially constituted, controlled, imagined and lived in everyday practice? Or: How can we describe the tension between the space/area of action and the actions within that space/area?

By including local and transregional dimensions, at that time partly connected with claims to "universality", both detailed studies and comprehensive overviews are presented. Beyond their specific research topics, all participants are also invited to reflect on predispositions and master narratives which might have influenced past and current analyses.

The conference will be held in cooperation with the Regesta Imperii (Mainz) and the Regesta Pontificum Romanorum (Göttingen) and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

PROGRAM