A Workshop and Conference:
Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009
10am-6pm
University of California Santa Cruz
Humanities 210
Webcasts
A volume is currently in development which will feature articles based on the papers presented here. Most of the projects presented here were developed in the course of the Residential Research Group convened at the University of California Humanities Research Institute in Fall 2007. Publication is anticipated for spring 2010.
Abstracts of the conference papers can be found here.
Note: if these audio/video streams do not launch, you may have to adjust your firewall settings. Due to technical difficulties, audio and/or video streams are not available for all of the presentations.
Overview
What was the role of the Mediterranean in the construction of the Modern world? In contemporary public discourse, the Middle Ages, if considered at all, are called on to play two contradictory roles: as the moment of origin of the “clash of civilizations” (exemplified by the Crusades); or as the age of convivencia— an idealized vision of the harmonious coexistence of the three “peoples of the Book.”
The work of our contributors reveals instead the complexity of the interactions between religious, “ethnic,” local, regional, genealogical, class, and other identities—oscillating, according to circumstances, between the poles of pragmatism and ideology, and including the deployment of what we would now call “strategic essentialisms.”
This conference brings together the participants and visiting faculty of the Residential Research Group "The Emergence of “the West”: Shifting Hegemonies in the Medieval Mediterranean," which was convened in Fall 2007 at the University of California Humanities Research Institute (Irvine).
Organized by the Mediterranean Seminar, with the support of the Center for Cultural Studies (UCSC) and the Institute for Humanities Research (UCSC). Sponsored by a UCHRI Conference Grant and the Siegfried B. and Elisabeth Mignon Puknat Endowment, and Co-Sponsored by Cowell College (UCSC) and Jewish Studies (UCSC).
Webcasts
download official program brochure
10:00 Inauguration: Karen Bassi (Chair: Literature, UC Santa Cruz)
Opening Remarks: Sharon Kinoshita (Literature, UC Santa Cruz)
10:15-11:45 Session 1: Travels, Crossings, and Encounters
Moderator: Fred Astren (Jewish Studies, SFSU)
• Brian A. Catlos, (History, UCSC), “Was there a Medieval Mediterranean?”
• Ramzi Rouighi (History, University of Southern California), “Islam, Christianity, and Encounters in the Mediterranean”
• Ray Kea (History, UC Riverside), “Material Life, Markets, and Western Africa's Urban and Rural landscapes (9th-13th centuries)”
11:45-12:00 Break
12:00-1:30 Session 2: Remodeling the Medieval Mediterranean
Moderator: Deanna Shemek (Literature, UCSC)
• Karla Mallette (French & Italian, Ohio State University of Miami), “Framed narratives and literary transmission in the medieval Mediterranean”
• Núria Silleras-Fernández (History, UCSC), “Lieutenancy, Empire and Female Agency: From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic”
• Sharon Kinoshita (Literature, UCSC), “What is Medieval Mediterranean Literature?”
1:30-2:30 Lunch
2:30-4:00 Session 3: Transitions and Conversions: from Medieval to Early Modern
Moderator: Carla Freccero (Literature & Cultural Studies, UCSC)
• Seth Kimmel (Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley), “Redefining Religion: Morisco Assimilation as Catholic Reform”
• Daniel Schroeter (History, Minnesota), “Rethinking Jewish Identity in the Western Mediterranean in the post-1492 Era”
• Marc Baer (History, UC Irvine), “Not Simply Jews, Not Merely Muslims: Following the Jewish Messiah Turned Muslim, 1666-1862”
4:00-4:15 Break
4:15-6:00 Session 4: The Mediterranean and the Modern World
Moderator: Terry Burke (History, UCSC)
• Michelle Hamilton (Spanish and Portuguese, UC Irvine), “Rodrigo, the Last Visigothic King, and the Politics of Guilt”
• Oumelbanine Zhiri (Literature, UC San Diego), “Converts and the Birth of Oriental Studies”
• Dwight Reynolds (Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara), “Musical Genealogies of Identity and Authenticity: Reading Now into Then”
6:00-6:15 Closing Remarks: Brian A. Catlos
7:00-9:00pm Dinner/Reception at Cowell Provost House (optional)