The FIRB research project “Beyond the Holy War” is inviting scholars to submit papers for a three-session international workshop titled “Christian-Islamic Interactions: Mobility, Connection, Transformation (1450-1800)”, which will take place at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy), on 10-11 February 2014.
The workshop is devoted to the topic of interactions. In particular, the aim is to shed further light on Christian-Islamic relationship in the early modern world, in order to better understand how, in a situation of contained conflict, Christians and Muslims crossed political and religious borders, experiencing social contacts, cultural exchanges, and transformations. We are also concerned with the role of other religious groups (Jews, Hindus, Eastern Christians) as brokers and go-betweens.
The workshop encourages a global comparative approach, linking the Mediterranean area, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Proposals from Ph.D. and post-doc students are particularly welcome. The language of the workshop is English.
The organizers are interested in the following key questions:
1. To what extent did individual experience of interaction affect the group (or community) of belonging?
2. Are there specific social conditions of historical agents, which help scholars to better focus on communication between Christians and Muslims?
3. How can we explore the reciprocal awareness of the meaning of relations across Christian and Islamic worlds?
Beside classical topics such as corsair war and redemption, conversion and mission, cultural dialogue and disputation, the organizers particularly invite contributions related to one or more of the following areas:
a) Mobility: circulation of people (in particular, travellers, diplomats, merchants, slaves), objects and goods whose use was reconfigured (including art objects, books, sacred objects, relics), and ideas (techniques, scientific knowledge, religious beliefs, prophecies, political views); their cultural, religious, economic motivations; their different geographical directions and typologies.
b) Connection: interactions among entangled and simultaneous phenomena across Christian and Islamic worlds, both in cultural sphere (representation, iconography, ideology, travel description, sexuality) and in the legal-institutional one (commercial structures, policies of reception of strangers, fraternities).
c) Transformation: change of social status and inner attitude related to border-crossing (with special attention to chronology); modification of physical and urban environment involved in the process of interaction; manipulation of texts and translation.
Please send your proposals, 500 words maximum, and a brief CV with your contact information to Giuseppe Marcocci (g.marcocci@unitus.it), Felicita Tramontana (felicita.tramontanaATunipa.it) and Serena Di Nepi (serena.dinepiATuniroma1.it)
The deadline for proposals is 30 October 2013. Responses will be sent by e-mail during the first week of November 2013.
The Scuola Normale Superiore will provide two nights’ accommodation for the workshop and will cover all meals.