Call for applications: Simon Barton PG & ECR conference prize

The SMM has launched the call for applications to the 2025 round of the Simon Barton Postgraduate & ECR conference prize. Multiple prizes of up to £1,000 to be awarded to PGs and ECRs organising conferences, workshops and other eligible events which are scheduled to occur before April 2026. Deadline 31 January 2025. Info, eligibility criteria, and application form on the prizes page: https://www.societymedievalmediterranean.com/simon-barton-postgraduate-conference-prize

Webinar series programme, January–June 2022

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The Medieval Mediterranean: Local and Global Perspectives

Webinar series calendar January – June 2022

Registration in advance, links to follow respectively.

Tuesday 18 January | 17.00–18.00 (UTC)

The two sides of war economy. Mobilization and allocation of resources in the Medieval Mediterranean (1100–1500)

Speakers: Dr Jenny Benham (Cardiff University), Dr Alessandro Silvestri (IMF-CSIC, Barcelona), Dr Fabrizio Ansani (Università degli Studi di Padova)

Tuesday 1 February | 17.00–18.00 (UTC)

The Mediterranean Diet: New Perspectives on the Foodways of the Medieval Mediterranean

Speakers: Dr Michelle Alexander (University of York), Dr Tarek Oueslati (Université de Lille), Dr Daniel Fuks(University of Cambridge)

Chair: Dr Caroline Goodson (University of Cambridge)

Tuesday 15 March | 17.30–18.30 (UTC)

Slavery and Invisibility in the Medieval Mediterranean

Speakers: Dr Hannah Barker (Arizona State University), Dr Cristina de la Puente (CSIC), Dr Craig Perry (Emory University)

Tuesday 26 April | 17.00–18.00 (UTC)

Mobility, Belonging and Community in the Mediterranean City (Barcelona, Venice and Constantinople, 1400-1550)

Speakers: Dr Lisa Dallavalle (Independent Scholar), Dr Özden Mercan (The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies), Dr Carolina Obradors-Suazo (Independent Scholar)

Tuesday 17 May | 17.00–18.00 (UTC)

Bees in the medieval Mediterranean: Economic, environmental and cultural perspectives

Speakers: Dr Alexandra Sapoznik (King's College London), Dr Lluis Sales Fava (IEM-Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

Tuesday 7 June | 17.00–18.00 (UTC)

Archives and record-keeping in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean

Speakers: Prof. Marina Rustow (Princeton University), Dr Benedikt Reier (University of Hamburg), Dr Daisy Livingston (University of Hamburg)

Chair: Dr Alessandro Silvestri (IMF-CSIC, Barcelona)]

SMM webinar: Dr Cailah Jackson, Islamic Manuscripts of Late Medieval Rum

Join us for the first webinar in our second series of The Medieval Mediterranean: Local & Global Perspectives.

Dr Cailah Jackson (Oxford, Centre for Islamic Studies) – winner of the SMM Dionisius A. Agius Prize 2021 with her book Islamic Manuscripts of Late Medieval Rūm, 1270s–1370s: Production, Patronage and the Arts of the Book – will present her research in conversation with Dr Patricia Blessing (Princeton University) and Dr Alison Ohta (Royal Asiatic Society)

Monday 11th October 2021 | 17.00–18.00 (UTC+1)

Register here to receive the zoom link:

https://theofed-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u97QU6ndQnu6dG4inXoYvA

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SMM webinar – Out of Sight: Artefacts and Assemblages in the Medieval Mediterranean

The next webinar in the webinar series ‘The Medieval Mediterranean: Local & Global perspectives’ will take place on Tuesday 23 February 2021 at 6pm GMT/7pm CET.

In this webinar, Out of Sight: Artefacts and Assemblages in the Medieval Mediterranean, chaired by Dr Jitske Jasperse (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Anne E. Lester (Johns Hopkins University) will discuss her concept of the "material field" in relation to objects in the Mediterranean and Dr Verónica Carla Abenza Soria (CSIC Madrid) will shed new light on the magnificent 1054 foundation charter of Santa María la Real de Nájera.

Register here: https://theofed-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6-wJIylqRf62PxVEbbCbUQ

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SMM webinar – 'Il Mare Salato/The Salty Sea: The Mediterranean as a Literary Space', in conversation with Dr Roberta Morosini

Join us at 6pm GMT on Tuesday 26 January 2021 for the second seminar:

Il Mare Salato/The Salty Sea: The Mediterranean as a Literary Space

in conversation with Dr Roberta Morosini

in our new virtual series: The Medieval Mediterranean: Local & Global Perspectives.

Places are limited so please register here:

https://theofed-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BmrHQx2ySNm3wF3RzNL6rg
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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SMM Webinar – Queenship studies across the Medieval Mediterranean and Western Europe

Join us for the first seminar in our new virtual series,

The Medieval Mediterranean: Local & Global Perspectives.

Places are limited so please register here:

https://theofed-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Dg29SweGSB2rLAIKndUWGA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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SMM DAA Book Prize 2021

The Society is accepting applications for the Dionisius A. Agius Prize 2021 for a distinguished first book in the field of Medieval Mediterranean Studies published in 2019 or 2020.

Books to be submitted by January 31 2021.

Details and the application form can be found in the Prizes section of our website here:

https://www.societymedievalmediterranean.com/dionysius-a-agius-prize

Simon Barton Postgraduate & ECR Conference Prize

We've opened applications for the 2021 'Simon Barton Postgraduate & ECR Conference Prize', grants to assist postgraduate students and early career researchers with the financing of small conferences, symposia and workshops.
Deadline: 31 January 2021 for events to be held before 30 April 2022.
Details and the application form can be found in the Prizes section of our website here:

https://www.societymedievalmediterranean.com/simon-barton-postgraduate-conference-prize

Book reviews investigation

Updated 9 September: The editors regret to report that the following book reviews submitted to al-Masāq by Spyridon Panagopoulos were plagiarised without citation or other acknowledgement. The retracted book reviews will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.

We sincerely apologise to the authors of the original reviews.

The editors continue to investigate other book reviews published by this author in al-Masāq.


Review of Alex Mallett, Popular Muslim Reactions to the Franks in the Levant, 1097-1291, 32.i (2020)

Review of Samuel Noble and Alexander Treiger, The Orthodox Church in the Arab World (700-1700), 31.iii (2019) 

Review of Alexander D. Beihammer, Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia, ca. 1040-1130, 31.ii (2019)

Review of Jace Stuckey (ed.), The Eastern Mediterranean frontier of Latin Christendom, 31.i (2019)

Review of Nickiphoros I. Tsougarakis, and Peter Lock (eds), A Companion to Latin Greece, 30.i (2018)

Review of Stefan Burkhardt, Mediterranes Kaisertum und imperiale Ordnung. Das lateinische Kaiserreich von Konstantinopel, (Europa im Mittelalter. Abhandlungen und Beiträge zur historischen Komparatistik, 25), 29.iii (2017)

Review of Leslie Brubaker & Shaun Tougher (eds), Approaches to the Byzantine Family, 29.ii (2016) 

SMM Webinar – Transfer, translation, and re-use between faiths: a view from Medieval Iberia

Update: The recording of this webinar is now available to view @  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA8E0fWXY6M

Join us for the second webinar in the series organised by the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean in collaboration with the Woolf Institute, and will focus on the transfer, re-use and reception of ideas, objects, texts and people across religious boundaries in medieval Iberia.

16 July @ 6pm BST

Places are limited so please register here: https://theofed-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SC19tSVGSlClUrKB8N9uQg

SMM Webinar – Contact, Communication, Collaboration

Update: The recording of this webinar is now available to view here:

https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/videos/contact-communication-collaboration

The SMM is delighted to announce its inaugural webinar, to be held via Zoom on Thursday 18 June 2020 at 6pm BST (GMT +1).

Please join us for a panel discussion with some members of our Executive Board speaking to the theme:

"Contact, Communication, Collaboration"

The panel will discuss how medieval people around the Mediterranean communicated across religious and cultural boundaries. Some of the themes we will explore include: How did people negotiate different languages and alphabets? How was knowledge disseminated between communities? What can we learn from multilingual correspondence?

2020 Simon Barton Conference Prize

We've opened applications for the 2020 'Simon Barton Postgraduate & ECR Conference Prize', grants to assist postgraduate students and early career researchers with the financing of small conferences, symposia and workshops.
Deadline: 13 January 2020 for events to be held before 30 January 2021.
Details and the application form can be found in the Prizes section of our website here:
https://www.societymedievalmediterranean.com/simon-barton-postgraduate-conference-prize

SMM2019 Barcelona - Plenary sessions

The videos of the plenary sessions from our conference in Barcelona in July are now online. You can view them here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr3hR5aFr-U&list=PLJPVNzVlFt_ACf1gogqYfLF2u1paDBy7Z&index=1

Global Networks: Mobility and Exchange in the Mediterranean (600-1000), keynote of Petra M. Sijpesteijn (University of Leiden)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr3hR5aFr-U&list=PLJPVNzVlFt_ACf1gogqYfLF2u1paDBy7Z&index=1

The Restless Mediterranean, a Sea in Motion, keynote of Amy Remensnyder (Brown University)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nReBiSJgdqI&list=PLJPVNzVlFt_ACf1gogqYfLF2u1paDBy7Z&index=2

Special Session in Honour of Simon Barton (New Directions in Medieval Iberian Studies: Simon Barton’s Scholarly Legacy),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8q3Ya5GaG4&list=PLJPVNzVlFt_ACf1gogqYfLF2u1paDBy7Z&index=3

CFP, SMM2019 – Barcelona

CALL FOR PAPERS
“MOVEMENT AND MOBILITY IN THE MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN (6TH – 15TH CENTURIES)”

SOCIETY FOR THE MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN (SMM) 6th BIENNIAL CONFERENCE BARCELONA, INSTITUT D’ESTUDIS CATALANS (IEC), 8 ‐ 11 JULY 2019

The sixth biennial conference of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean (SMM) will take place in Barcelona, at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC), from Monday 8th July (afternoon) to Thursday 11th July 2019 (lunch time). An optional excursion for attendees will be available onFriday 12th July.

The conference will be dedicated to the memory of the former president of the Society, Professor Simon Barton.

The theme of the conference is “Movement and Mobility in the Medieval Mediterranean (6th – 15th centuries)”.

The keynote lectures will be delivered by Professor Petra Sijpesteijn (University of Leiden), 8th July 2019, and Professor Amy Remensnyder (Brown University), 10th July 2019.

The medieval Mediterranean was not a static maritime space. In recent years, studies have focused on Mediterranean dynamics, connections, encounters and entanglements. What approaches do researches from History, Literature, Archaeology, Philology and other disciplines adopt to better understand the complexity of the medieval Mediterranean? How and to what extent did multiple agents, phenomena and factors interact to shape and intertwine the multidimensional spheres of the Mediterranean? We welcome papers from all disciplines that study movement and mobility from different perspectives in and across the medieval Mediterranean and its extensions, both physical and imagined. This theme invites a variety of lines of inquiry, a number of which are suggested below.

Topics of the conference could include, but are by no means limited to:

  • Multicultural contacts, transculturation and assimilation in the medieval

  • Mediterranean Medieval Mediterranean crossings

  • Circulation of political, religious and cultural ideas

  • Circulation of people and commodities

  • Major and minor, forced and voluntary migrations Pilgrimage and religious mobility

  • Diplomacy and its agents

  • Commerce and its agents

  • Military expeditions and coastal defence Naval technology and navigation Medieval

  • Mediterranean geostrategy Geographical explorations

  • Links between the Mediterranean and connected seas (Atlantic, Black Sea, Red Sea)

Call for panels, papers and posters

Participants are encouraged to submit proposals for panels of 3 papers. The panel proposer should collate the three abstracts (including titles, presenters’ names, affiliations, short CVs or most important publications and keywords) and submit them together, indicating clearly the rationale behind the planned panel. We also invite 300‐400 word abstracts for 20‐minute individual papersrelating to the conference theme. Nevertheless, panel proposals will be given priority over individual papers. Poster proposals (title and short description up to 200 words, including name, affiliation, short CV or most important publications and keywords as well) are also welcome.

Submission deadline

Abstracts for panels, individual papers and posters should be emailed to the conference email address (smm.bcn.2019@imf.csic.es) by 31th December 2018. Applicants will be notified regarding the acceptance of their panel, paper or poster by February 2019.

Postgraduate student bursaries:

  • The SMM will offer up to 15 bursaries (10 for papers and 5 for posters) for PhD students who wish to present their research at the conference. The bursaries will cover the costs of both registration fees and the conference dinner.

  • The Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales (SEEM) offers two bursaries of 150 € to help cover registration fees to their associates who are under the age of 30 (for more information, please contact secretaria@medievalistas.es).

    Organizing committee: Dr. Roser Salicrú i Lluch (IMF‐CSIC & IEC), Dr. Ivan Armenteros Martínez (IMF‐CSIC), Victòria A. Burguera Puigserver (IMF‐CSIC & UIB), Pol Junyent Molins (IMF‐CSIC), Marta Manso Rubio (IMF‐CSIC & UB), Dr. Alessandro Rizzo (IMF‐CSIC & ULiege).

    Queries: Specific questions can be directed to the conference email address (smm.bcn.2019@imf.csic.es).

    Conference webpage and further information: Soon to be find in the SMM website (http://www.societymedievalmediterranean.com/).

    Registration will open in February 2019, after the issue of the first draft of the conference programme, through the SMM website (http://www.societymedievalmediterranean.com/).

Announcements

Obituary: A touching obituary and tribute for Simon Barton from the SMM committee in the latest edition of Al-Masāq

CFP: Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean invites individual paper submissions. Al-Masāq is an international peer-reviewed journal covering all aspects of Mediterranean societies and cultures from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries CE. It's concerned with fostering innovative (trans-)cultural and interdisciplinary research of Mediterranean spaces and with encouraging debate on local, translocal and intercommunal connectivity within the Medieval Mediterranean.

2017 Al-Masāq Prize: Many congratulations to Dr Jonathan P. Conant, Associate Professor of History, Brown University, winner of The The Al-Masāq Prize for 2017 for his article: 'Anxieties of Violence: Christians and Muslims in Conflict in Aghlabid North-Africa and the Central Mediteranean' (vol. 27/1, April 2015)

2017 Dionisius A. Agius Prize: Many congratulations to Dr Nükhet Varlık, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University–Newark, winner of The Society for the Medieval Mediterranean’s Dionisius A. Agius Prize for 2017 for her book : ‘Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World. The Ottoman Experience, 1347-1600’, Cambridge University Press, 2015

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