Community & Identity, Unity & Diversity in Medieval Europe (c.700-1300)
29 June-1 July 2022
Registration for this event is now open. Anyone is welcome to attend. Please see the Registration Page for more information.
Students of medieval identity have long been preoccupied with questions about how communities were brought together. The strategies deployed by medieval writers when devising a history for their communities, or when distinguishing them from others, can reveal much about their visions of identity.
The fifth Aberystwyth Medieval Conference will explore strategies for uniting and dividing medieval communities, how those writing about the past helped to construct – or to overcome – borders between communities, and how their visions of communal identities may have shaped, and may in turn have been shaped by, the construction of medieval polities.
The workshop will take place from 29th June to 1st July 2022. We anticipate that it will take place in-person. We warmly welcome proposals for 20-minute papers from postgraduates, early career & established scholars working on any aspect of the high medieval past (c.700-1300). Perspectives from any discipline are welcome, including but not limited to history, literary studies, art history, philosophy, archaeology, and palaeography.
Keynote speakers:
Hugh M. Thomas (Miami)
Alex Woolf (St Andrews)
Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Borders and identity
- The construction of networks
- Relations between the “centre” and “periphery”
- Disputing/dispute settlement
- Belonging and exclusion.
- Divisions between lay and spiritual
- Ideas of “the other”
The workshop takes place under the auspices of the Centre for the Study of Historiography and Historical Culture (Aberystwyth) and the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Aberystwyth & Bangor).
2022 Conference main organisers: David Lees and Beth Summerfield