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
• AlbrechtBerger (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 submissionform.
Sponsors: