Call for papers for a panel sponsored by the Society for Medieval Feminist Studies at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in San Diego, CA, January 7-10, 2010

Gendering the "New Thalassology" -- Men, Women, and the Medieval Mediterranean

This panel embraces the idea that history in and of the Mediterranean is worth doing, following on the recent work of Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell, among others, who of course continue the project begun by Fernand Braudel earlier in the twentieth century. Studies of the Mediterranean, however, have not (for reasons which potential panelists may wish to explore) engaged the question of gender. Is it possible that the study of gender does not have a place in the historical examination of the human connections (exploration, colonization, trade, pilgrimage, crusade, exile, et cetera) or environmental interaction of the medieval Mediterranean region? Proposed papers may focus on gender and the medieval Mediterranean as broadly construed as possible: to include late antiquity to the Ottoman empire; northern Africa and Egypt, Iberia, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria and Palestine.

Interested participants should submit a proposal with their contact information, a paper title, and a brief description of their proposed paper by May 5, 2009.