Date: June 22, 2017
Central and Eastern Europe in the Global Middle Ages
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
June 22, 2017
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
June 22, 2017
This conference will contribute to an ongoing discussion at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, inspired by the journal The Medieval Globe, which promotes a global understanding of medieval civilization and challenges anachronistic boundaries, categories, and expectations. Specifically, in this forum we hope to demonstrate that the lingering anachronistic division of Medieval Europe into “Eastern” and “Western,” imposed by the contemporary notions of geopolitics and inherited from Cold War scholarship, obscures the study of pre-modern topics and even misconstrues the realities of Central and Eastern European culture, life and politics. Instead, we propose to explore divisions and affinities in Medieval Europe in the framework of networks, communities, and other forms of association. Focusing on the central, eastern, and southern European lands, speakers will examine how their research projects contribute to a holistic understanding of the Global Middle Ages, demonstrating cross-regional interconnectivity, illustrating the deeper roots of global processes, or offering new perspectives on the pre-modern and its importance for our understanding of the present global situation. Integrating the study of history, literature, religion, fine-arts, and many others, the interdisciplinary and trans-national nature of medieval studies is especially relevant today, when nineteenth-century Romantic visions and twenty-first century short-sighted nationalisms encourage a pigeonholing projection of the past, while an understanding of the deep roots of our global interconnectivity can offer new perspectives on and approaches to the problems of globalization.
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