Mediterranean Horizons I

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Medieval Academy of America

Organizer Name

Diane J. Reilly

Organizer Affiliation

Indiana Univ.-Bloomington

Presider Name

Peregrine Horden

Presider Affiliation

All Souls College, Univ. of Oxford

Paper Title 1

The Other Invaders: Medieval Plants in the Mediterranean

Presenter 1 Name

Paolo Squatriti

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Paper Title 2

Sick and Far from Home: Healing, Health, and Travel in the Later Medieval Mediterranean

Presenter 2 Name

Nicole Archambeau

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of California-Santa Barbara

Paper Title 3

Forming Judaism: Rabbis and the Medieval Mediterranean

Presenter 3 Name

Fred Astren

Presenter 3 Affiliation

San Francisco State Univ.

Start Date

10-5-2013 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1340

Description

In book and journal titles, conference proceedings, and academic job descriptions, ‘the Mediterranean’ is ubiquitous. Medievalists, whether historians, art historians, or literary scholars, have been leading promoters of this geographical expression. But what does ‘the Mediterranean’ mean to them, and what should it mean? The papers grouped under the two panels entitled ‘Mediterranean horizons’ explore this particular aspect of the spatial turn in medieval studies. They interpret horizons in terms of the connections between the Mediterranean and other regions, and of mapping the external frontiers of the region and its internal geographical divisions as these change across the medieval period; they also see horizons in metaphorical terms: of intellectual horizons, which the Mediterranean as an analytical category may expand – or equally may diminish. Throughout, speakers have been encouraged to explore the limitations as well as the value of Mediterranean studies.

Diane J. Reilly