28 – 30 May 2009 Madrid, Spain

Organized by

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften e.V. (MPG)

Convivencia is traditionally the term for designing the cooperative and conflictual coexistence of Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities in the medieval Iberian Peninsula. The conference will study this phenomenon with regard to the interacting dimensions of representations, knowledge and identities. Representation stands for all forms of cultural production in art, religion, literature, science and law. Knowledge includes not only science but also forms of practical, social as well as other forms of knowledge. The concept of identity refers to the individual and collective imaging of the self and the other.

The aim of the conference is to address a formative period of Europe with its cultural and religious heterogeneity from a multidisciplinary perspective. The encounters and exchanges between Jewish, Christian and Islamic communities and elites constitute a historical laboratory of great significance for understanding interaction and transformation processes of cultures in the millennium between the decline of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the early modern period. Aspects of these processes have been studied by single disciplines in an isolated manner. The challenge of the conference is to overcome such division and focus instead on overarching questions which create an intense dialogue and collaboration between the disciplines themselves.

Themes

Principal questions of the conference includes:
• The appropriation of past forms of art and science in new contexts.
• Representation of contact and conflict in texts and images.
• Transmission and transformation of institutional and legal models.
• Spaces of Convivencia (learnig places, sacred and profane spaces, etc.)

Scientific Committee of the Conference

Prof. Felipe Criado-Boado, CSIC
Prof. Gerhard Wolf, MP Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florenz
Prof. Rivka Feldhay, Tel-Aviv University
Prof. Maribel Fierro, CSIC
Prof. Mercedes García-Arenal, CSIC
Prof. Eduardo Manzano, CSIC
Prof. Maria Rosa Menocal, Yale University
Prof. Jürgen Renn, MPIWG, Berlin

Conference Structure and Deadlines

Call for papers

Abstracts, not exceeding 400 words, should be submitted to the conference organizers before 10 September 2008. These abstracts will be reviewed by the scientific committee and authors will be notified whether or not their abstracts have been accepted before 1 December 2008. Authors of accepted abstracts will be asked to submit extended abstracts for inclusion in the Book of Abstracts before 1 March 2009.

Please send your abstract before 10 September 2008 to Albert Presas i Puig, by e-mail to: convivencia2009@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Conference Language

The conference will be held in English. All presentations should therefore be prepared in English.

Time and Venue

The Conference will take place in Madrid, Spain
28 – 30 May 2009
at the Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CCHS), CSIC Albasanz, 26-28
28037 - Madrid

Organisation

For further details, please contact the Conference Secretary: convivencia2009@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de