‘Cultures, Communities and Conflicts in the Medieval Mediterranean’

– University of Southampton, 4–6 July 2011

The 2011 biannual conference of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean was held from the 4th to 6th of July 2011 at the University of Southampton. The keynote speakers were:  Prof. Graham Loud (University of Leeds) and Prof. Anna Contadini (SOAS, London).

The three-day conference brought together scholars to explore the interaction of the various peoples, societies, faiths and cultures of the medieval Mediterranean, a region which had been commonly represented as divided by significant religious and cultural differences. The objective of the conference was to highlight the extent to which the medieval Mediterranean was not just an area of conflict but also a hightly permeable frontier across which people, goods and ideas crossed and influenced niehgbouring cultures and societies.

Papers covered the fields of archaeology, art and architecture, ethnography, history (including the history of science and medicine), languages, literature, music, philosophy and religion.