CALL FOR PAPERS: TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION: DISSENT AND CONSENT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Third CEMS International Graduate Conference

Budapest, May 31–June 1, 2013

(please visit http://cems.ceu.hu/cemsconference2013)

The Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies (CEMS) at Central European University, and its junior members are proud to announce the forthcoming third International Graduate Conference on “Tradition and Transformation: Dissent and Consent in the Mediterranean,” Budapest, May 31–June 1, 2013. This two–day conference intends to explore a broad spectrum of aspects regarding the appropriation and transformation of cultural and religious traditions that informed the spiritual and intellectual struggles and changes in the Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period. Taking into account the dynamic sociohistorical setting of religious and cultural processes, it seeks to approach the manner in which the permanently competing communities questioned, structured and performed their own beliefs and religious practices by disclosing heresies and shaping their orthodoxies.

The vast dimensions of the intellectual and religious concord and strife between, but also within, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which shaped their traditions and unveiled their dissenting interpretations, commend a persistent and multifaceted interdisciplinary research. Graduate students of Late Antique, Islamic, Jewish, Byzantine, Western Medieval, Ottoman studies as well as students in the field of philosophy, theology, history of religion, sociology of religion, anthropology, etc., are invited to present their research on particular themes that reflect and address the complex formation and development of cultural, intellectual and religious identities in the Mediterranean.

Please submit by March 25, 2013 a short abstract (300 words or less) together with a paragraph about your affiliation and academic/research interests, using the abstract submission form. For further information please contact the organizers at cemsconference@ceu.hu.

Possible topics for papers might include, but are not limited to:

• Hellenic paideia and philosophy

• Late Antique monotheisms

• ‘Pagan,’ Christian, Jewish, Muslim controversies and polemics

• “authoritative” authors/texts, exegesis and the (re)writing of the past

• tensions between Word and Image and transformations of religious identity

• oral traditions as agents of dissent/consent

• religious persecution and martyrdom, strategies of resistance and dissent

• political power and religious debates

• witchcraft and magic

• networks and the diffusion of orthodoxies/heresies

• religious dissent and gender

• warfare and religion: bellum iustum and bellum sacrum

• the making and unmaking of elites in the changing religious landscape

• comparative and theoretical approaches to concepts of ‘heresy,’ ‘heterodoxy’ and ‘orthodoxy’

The conference committee aims at publishing a selection of interrelated papers, chosen both by quality and relevance to the theme of the conference, in one of the forthcoming issues of CEU Late Antique, Byzantine and Ottoman Studies series published by CEU Press.

Plenary speakers

• Albrecht Berger (Ludwig Maximilians University)

• Philip Wood (Aga Khan University, London)

Accommodation and Travel Grants

Accommodation for the participants will be provided at the CEU Residence Center. To encourage participation from a wide range of individuals and institutions, a small number of travel grants will be available to assist in partially covering travel expenses for participants with limited institutional support. Those who wish to be considered should include an additional justification in the relevant section of the abstract submission form.