7th International Symposium "DAYS OF JUSTINIAN I", Special thematic strand: Identities
Organised by Institute of National History, Skopje, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje and University of Bologna, in partnership with Faculty of Theology St. Clement of Ohrid, Skopje, with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and the City of Skopje
The International scientific symposium “Days of Justinian I” is an annual interdisciplinary scholarly forum aimed at the presentation of the latest research followed by discussions on various aspects of Byzantine and Medieval Studies before 1500; this includes the treatment and interpretation of cultural, historical and spiritual heritage in contemporary modern Europe. The Symposium is dedicated to Emperor Justinian I with the aim to bring together scholars from around the world to address a broad range of issues related to Byzantium and the European Middle Ages, comprising the exploration of the cultural and historical legacy as an integrative component of the diversities and commonalities of Unified Europe.
This year’s special thematic strand Identities aims to incite scholarly debate about the differing perceptions of identity in Byzantium and in Medieval Western Europe. Aside from the discursive evidence in the contemporary sources, modern theoretical approaches will be addressed in exploring the complex concepts and notions of identity, covering the broad range of modes of identification. Various fundamental questions will be raised in defining how identities were formed in the Middle Ages and how they were expressed, maintained, negotiated or transformed. This will encompass the ways in which Byzantium and other pre-modern states and empires have shaped and configured the composite spectrum of political, ethnic, provincial, legal, religious or cultural identities.
The symposium will embrace broader geographical areas, chronological scope, and varieties of political, ideological, cultural, social or religious contexts in exploring the multiple layers of identity in the Eastern Roman Empire and in Medieval Western Europe.
Papers are welcomed on various topics that may include, but are not limited to the following areas of discussion:
⊕ Romanness in the Middle Ages: Concepts and approaches
⊕ Being Byzantine or Roman: Interpreting the identity of Byzantium / Romania
⊕ Mapping ethic identities in Byzantium and in Medieval Western Europe
⊕ Imagining Identities in Middle Ages: Modern theoretical definitions
⊕ Strategies of identification
⊕ Concepts of the “Other” in the Middle Ages
⊕ Ethnicity, ethnogenesis and identity
⊕ Premodern ethnicity and national identity
⊕ Narrative, memory and identity
⊕ Language and linguistic identities
⊕ Art and identity
⊕ Material culture and identity
⊕ Roman law and legal identities
⊕ Gender and Identity
⊕ Heritage discourses and cultural identity
⊕ Religion, religious communities and identities
⊕ Heresy and Identity
⊕ Music and identity
⊕ Cultural heritage: Interpretation, restoration and protection