IDEOLOGY, KNOWLEDGE, AND SOCIETY IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN
Fourth CEMS International Graduate Conference
Budapest, 4–6 June, 2015
The Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies (CEMS) at Central European University and its junior members are proud to announce the forthcoming fourth International Graduate Conference on Ideology, Knowledge, and Society in the Eastern Mediterranean.The conference will run from June 4 to June 6, 2015. The conference intends to provide a forum for graduate students specializing in any discipline related to the study of the eastern Mediterranean from antiquity to early modernity to present their current research, exchange ideas, and develop scholarly networks (see “Conference Description” below).
The organizing committee intends to publish a selection of interrelated papers, based on their quality and pertinence to the topic, in an edited volume.
Conference Description
One of the key objectives of the conference is to work against the grain of long-established disciplinary boundaries by discussing the ways in which ideology and knowledge were inherited, transmitted, and exchanged in all areas of society in diachronic and synchronic terms:
• How was ideology or knowledge – referring to theory of knowledge (from philosophy to political thought) as well as its practical applications (technology, warfare etc.) – particularized through accommodation, modification, and departure once it was inherited?
• Under what circumstances and frameworks can one see genuine curiosity, selective accommodation, and outright rejection of cultural interaction within and/or across polity/polities?
Papers will be invited to present case studies and reflect upon the question of how, in an increasingly diversified and specialized academic environment, meaningful comparative and/or longue-durée studies across disciplines and source languages (inter alia, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Syriac, Coptic, Hebrew), can be accomplished.
Possible themes include, but are not limited to:
• Philosophy and Science in the Late Antique, Byzantine, and Ottoman Worlds
• History of Learning and Culture
• Religious Debate and Philosophical Dialogue
• Byzantine Literature
• Legal Thought and Practice
• Political Thought and the Art of Rulership
• Intellectual History and History of Reading
• History Writing, Memory, and Identity
• Knowledge and Authority
• Cultural Translation and Knowledge Production
• Artistic Interaction and Exchange in the Mediterranean
• Ideology and Legitimation of Power
• Performance in Byzantium
• Cultural History of Warfare and Transfer of Military Technology
Keynote Speakers
Judith Herrin (King's College London)
George Karamanolis (University of Vienna)
Helen Pfeifer (University of Cambridge)
Accommodation and Travel Grants
All participants will be offered accommodation for the full duration of the conference at CEU Residence Center. A limited amount of travel grants are available to encourage participation from a wide range of individuals and institutions. Those who wish to be considered for the grant should include an additional justification in their paper proposals.
Sponsors
Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies
ACRO, Academic Cooperation and Research Support Office
Organizing Committee
Ivan Marić (PhD Student, Department of Medieval Studies)
Nirvana Silnović (PhD Student, Department of Medieval Studies, CEMS Junior Member Representative)
H. Evren Sünnetçioğlu (PhD Student, Department of Medieval Studies)
Máté Veres (PhD Student, Department of Philosophy)
A video of the conference is now available here.
For further information, do not hesitate to contact the organizers at cemsconference@ceu.hu or at our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/cemsgrad2015).
