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<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Call for Papers: Language and Cultural Mediation
in the Mediterranean, 1200-1800</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Mediterranean Programme<BR>10th Mediterranean
Research Meeting<BR>25-28 March 2009, Florence & Montecatini Terme
(Italy)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Workshop 3<BR>Directed by Eric Dursteler
(Brigham Young University) / Natalie Rothman (University of
Toronto)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Abstract:<BR>In recent years, the role of
language in cultural mediation and boundary-making in medieval and early modern
societies has attracted significant scholarly attention. Recent volumes have
centered on "cultural translation" and "translation and travel" to point to the
close relationship between practices of translation and emerging consciousness
of sociocultural and political boundaries. A growing literature now exists on
the role of language ideologies, institutions, and experts in colonial expansion
in Northern Europe, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. In studies of the
Mediterranean, however, the role of language in defining regions and people as
well as their inter-relations (like the concept of Lingua Franca), while often
acknowledged as essential to the constitution of sociocultural boundaries, has
not yet come into focus. This workshop thus aims to address processes of
cultural mediation in the Mediterranean by attending to the ways in which
language served as a central site for the elaboration and contestation of
sociocultural boundaries in the period from roughly 1200 to 1800.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Description:<BR>The organizers seek
empirically-grounded papers from scholars in all pertinent disciplines (history,
literature, linguistics, performance studies, historical anthropology, etc.)
whose focus falls within the medieval and early modern Mediterranean (Iberia,
North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, Italy and France). Papers may
address any aspect of the following four clusters of questions:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>1. What role did institutions such as
chancelleries, academies, universities, and schools, play in developing,
defining, and standardizing "official" vernacular languages and in
distinguishing them from other language varieties? What role did such
institutions play in processes of language instruction and socialization across
metropolitan and peripheral settings? How were these institutions themselves
shaped by the range of (often multilingual) milieus in which they operated? 2.
To what extent, in the contexts of colonial expansion, imperial consolidation
and inter-imperial rivalry, did specialized cadres-including diplomatic
interpreters, commercial brokers, missionaries, court scribes, notaries,
lexicographers, and philologists-develop to regulate linguistic and cultural
difference? 3. What language ideologies and practices emerged in the inherently
bilingual contexts of imperial frontier regions, such as Venetian Dalmatia and
the Eastern Mediterranean, Ottoman Bosnia, North Africa, and Syria? 4. How were
linguistic and cultural differences objectified and mapped onto one another
through a range of genres, from court records and commercial manuals to
geographies and polyglot comedies?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Format:<BR>The purpose of this workshop is not
only to facilitate the sharing of expertise and empirical materials, but also to
develop a more coherent, methodologically complex, and explicitly
transdisciplinary analytical framework for future work. Papers may range in
format and genre from empirical case studies to methodological and conceptual
reflections. Participants are also encouraged, when appropriate, to provide
transcripts and translations of primary texts for further discussion at the
workshop. All papers will be pre-circulated, and rather than the oral delivery
of papers, workshop sessions will include:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>1) Brief introductions by paper authors to
recapitulate their main arguments and to situate their pieces in a broader
historiographical context<BR>2) Comments on papers by designated
commentator(s)<BR>3) Ample time for group discussion of papers by all workshop
participants</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>This format aims to foster an open dialogue
about the intersections between the different papers, and to ensure conceptual
continuity between the different sessions. Participants will be able to
engage each other's materials, bring insights from their own field of expertise
to a broader methodological and conceptual discussion, and begin to draw out
connections between what are often seen as disparate fields of
knowledge.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Please submit a proposal (up to 500 words) by 1
September 2008. Completed papers of 15 to 30 pages will be due no later than 15
January 2009. Please contact the workshop organizers by email (<A
href="mailto:eric_dursteler@byu.edu">eric_dursteler@byu.edu</A>,<BR><A
href="mailto:rothman@utsc.utoronto.ca">rothman@utsc.utoronto.ca</A>) for further
information.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Workshop Description: <A
href="http://www.iue.it/RSCAS/Research/Mediterranean/mrm2009/desc_pdf/MRM2009_Ds03.pdf">http://www.iue.it/RSCAS/Research/Mediterranean/mrm2009/desc_pdf/MRM2009_Ds03.pdf</A><BR>Call
for Papers: <A
href="http://www.iue.it/RSCAS/Research/Mediterranean/mrm2009/pdf/MRM2009-Paperscall.pdf">http://www.iue.it/RSCAS/Research/Mediterranean/mrm2009/pdf/MRM2009-Paperscall.pdf</A><BR>Application
Deadline: 1 September 2008<BR>Application Form: <A
href="http://www.rscas.org/medform.asp">http://www.rscas.org/medform.asp</A>
<BR>Paper Delivery Deadline: 15 January 2009</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>_______<BR>E. Natalie Rothman<BR>Assistant
Professor of History<BR>Department of Humanities<BR>University of Toronto
Scarborough<BR>1265 Military Trail<BR>Toronto, ON M1C 1A4<BR>Canada<BR><A
href="mailto:rothman@utsc.utoronto.ca">rothman@utsc.utoronto.ca</A>
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