The Medieval Mediterranean: Cultural, Religious and Economic Exchange, Institute for Medieval Studies Annual Postgraduate Conference 2017, University of Leeds, May 20, 2017
We are happy to announce the theme for the annual Institute for Medieval Studies (IMS) postgraduate conference, to be held at the University of Leeds on the 20th May 2017.
The theme for this conference is: The medieval Mediterranean: cultural, religious and economic exchange.
Our one-day conference will confront these divisions and encourage dialogue between scholars working on all aspects of the Mediterranean world, through the theme of ‘Exchange’. Within this topic, we include all kinds of connections between social, economic, political, military, and religious aspects of history, literature, history of art, and history of science. This diverse spread of fields combined with a large geographic and chronological span should help encourage a broader, more interdisciplinary approach to the subject. The extent to which such exchanges took place between the Muslim world, the Greek world, and the Latin world has been a contentious issue in a wide range of scholarship in different fields. Social, religious, political and geographic barriers limited the exchange of goods and information between differing cultures, and conflict was a regular feature of the Mediterranean world throughout the Medieval period and beyond to the present day.
We welcome papers from a variety of disciplines and methodological approaches (historical, literary, and linguistic) to the problem of the Mediterranean as a place of exchange at all levels. We invite a wide field of inquiry, as presented in the possible approaches below.
- Mediterranean trade routes
- The Mediterranean as a way East
- Art historical trends across the Mediterranean
- Mediterranean themes and presences in Northern European literature
- Linguistic influences across the Mediterranean
- Studies in a Mediterranean lingua franca
- Mediterranean approaches to gender studies in the Middle Ages
- The crusades: a Mediterranean phenomenon
- The Jewish diaspora across Mediterranean countries
- Muslim kingdoms and Christian dominions along the medieval Mediterranean coast
- Tolerance and intolerance in Mediterranean powers
- Piracy and shipping in the Mediterranean
The IMS postgraduate conference is an exciting opportunity to find out about the cutting-edge work being done by postgraduates across Europe, a chance to receive feedback on your current work by your peers, and a meeting and networking opportunity for the academics of tomorrow.
Postgraduate students and early career researchers are welcome to present papers.
Keynote speakers
Dr Alex Metcalfe (Lancaster University)
Dr Maroula Perisandi (University of Leeds)