[Antiquitas] CFP: Travels and Pilgrimages in Ancient and Medieval worlds

[Ville Vuolanto]

Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages VI
Tampere, Finland, 6.–8. August, 2015

ON THE ROAD. TRAVELS, PILGRIMAGES AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

Second call for papers; deadline for abstracts September 15th 2014.

The sixth international Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
conference will focus on social approaches to travelling, mobility,
pilgrimages, and cultural exchange. Interaction between society and space
has been a key interest of scholars after the ‘Spatial Turn’.
Nevertheless, larger comparisons between eras and cultures are mainly
missing.

The archetypal journey of Odysseys served as a metaphor and model for later
narrations of travelling. In both Ancient and medieval worlds, religious
reasons were significant motivations for travelling; these travels confront
the traditional idea of these periods as eras of immobility. However, the
challenges of setting out for a journey, as well as the dangers of the
road, were not dependent on the incentive but rather on distance and other
geographical settings, social status of the traveller, and political
climate. 

The conference aims at concentrating on social and cultural interaction
before, during and after travelling. What kinds of motivations were there
for ancient and medieval people to get on the road and what kind of
negotiations and networks were inherent in travelling? We welcome papers,
which have a sensitive approach to social differences: gender, age, health,
and status. Actors, experiences and various levels of negotiations are of
main interest, and our focus lies on society and the history of everyday
life, on the differences and similarities between elite and popular
culture, and on the expectations linked to gender and life cycle stage,
visible in the practices and policies of travelling. We encourage proposals
that integrate the theme of travelling into wider larger social and
cultural contexts.

We aim at a broad coverage not only chronologically but also geographically
and disciplinarily (all branches of Classical, Byzantine and Medieval
Studies). Most preferable are contributions that have  themselves a
comparative and/or interdisciplinary viewpoint or focusing on a longue
durée perspective. Keynote speakers are Ray Laurence (University of Kent)
and Cecilia Caposchkin (Dartmouth College).

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If interested, please submit an abstract of 300 words (setting out thesis
and conclusions) for a twenty-minute paper together with your contact
details (with academic affiliation, address and e-mail) by e-mail
attachment to the conference secretary, passages at uta.fi. The deadline for
abstracts is September 15th 2014, and the notification of paper acceptance
will be made in November 2014.

Conference papers may also be presented in French, German or Italian,
however, supplied with an English summary (as a hand-out) or translation if
the language of presentation is not English. The sessions are formed on the
basis of thematic coherence of the papers and comparisons between Antiquity
and the Middle Ages, thus session proposals focusing on one period only
will not be accepted.

The registration fee is 100 e (doctoral  students: 50 e). For further
information, please visit http://www.uta.fi/trivium/passages/or contact the
organizers by sending an e-mail to passages at uta.fi. The registration opens
in November 2014 at http://www.uta.fi/trivium/passages/.

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On behalf of the organizing committee,

Ville Vuolanto

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Ville Vuolanto
Postdoctor / Research Fellow
IFIKK, UiO / University of Oslo

http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/people/aca/villevv/index.html
v.v.vuolanto at ifikk.uio.no
+47 228 41 057 / +47 982 34 694

Postadresse / Post address: Postboks 1020 Blindern, 0315 OSLO
Besøksadresse / Visiting address: Georg Morgenstiernes hus 435,  
Blindernveien 31

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