Crossing the Divide? Experiences of Conversion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era

The international workshop "Crossing the Divide? Experiences of Conversion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era" will take place on November 6 and 7, at the University of Évora.

The goal of this workshop is invite specialists on the topic to explore and debate the changes, continuities and perceptions thereof related to processes of conversion that present different profiles (individual/group based, forced/voluntary/incentivized/discouraged...), leaded by individuals of diverse profiles (based on religion, wealth, family relations, social status, occupation...), with differentiated motivations and consequences, and in dissimilar geographical, chronological, religious, and social contexts. Through the reflection and debate of individual case studies, we will attempt to untangle how that wide casuistry are to be interpreted, and how both individual cases and general approaches can help each other to achieve a better understanding of such complex experiences, the internal and external forces that guided them and, through them, the societies in which they took place.     Organization:

Maria Filomena Lopes de Barros (Universidade de Évora-CIDEHUS)

Francisco Díaz Marcilla (IEM-Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

Clara Almagro Vidal (Goethe Universität Frankfurt-am-Main)

 

PROGRAMME

DAY 01 | 6 NOVEMBER 2019 | ROOM 242 |

9:30AM - 10AM | WELCOME AND DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIALS

10:00AM – 11:00AM | OFFICIAL INAUGURATION AND AND SESSION 1

Conversion as Political Tool in the Late Middle Ages: Models and Comparison | Francisco Díaz Marcilla (IEM-Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

11:00AM - 11:30AM | COFFEE BREAK

The Meaning of Conversion in Eleventh-Century Hungary | Nora Berend (University of Cambridge)

Between Conviction and Life Improvement: Muslim and Christian Captive Conversions in the Western Medieval Mediterranean | Roser Salicrú (IMF CSIC)

11:30AM – 1:00PM | SESSION 2

1:00PM – 3PM | LUNCH

3PM – 4:30PM | SESSION 3

A Mindful Conversion. The Relevance of Books in Hernando de Talavera’s Strategies for Evangelization | Davide Scotto (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)

Converted, Convicted, Convincing. Converted Jews in the Iberian Peninsula and the Cristãos-Novos “Mirror” during the Early Modern Age | José Alberto Tavim (Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa)

4:30PM – 5PM | COFFEE BREAK

5PM – 6:30PM | SESSION 4

From the Aljama to the Convent: the Family of Doña Fatima in Medieval Toledo | Ana Echevarria Arsuaga (UNED)

“Dogs, renegades and tornadiços”: Jews and Muslim Converts in Medieval Portugal | Filomena Barros (Universidade de Évora/CIDEHUS)

 

DAY 02 | 7 NOVEMBER 2019 | SALA DOS DOCENTES 

9:30AM – 11AM | SESSION 5

Al-Andalus: Islamic conquest and conversion to Islam (8th – 11th centuries) | Jesús Lorenzo (Universidad del País Vasco/Gerda Henkel Project)

For the Expansion of Christianity? Military Orders and the Conversion of Muslims in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula | Clara Almagro Vidal (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)

11AM – 11:30AM | COFFEE BREAK

11:30AM – 1:00PM | SESSION 6

Early Islamic Perceptions of Maternal Agency in Moments of Conflicting Religious Sentiment | Uriel Simonsohn (University of Haifa)

“Settling Accounts with the Family in the Aftermath of Conversion (Jews of Rome, early 17th Century)” | Isabelle Poutrin (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne)

1:00PM | CONCLUSION OF THE WORKSHOP

 

Organization: CIDEHUS - UÉvora | IEM-Universidade Nova de Lisboa | Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
From 06.11.2019 to 07.11.2019
09:00 | Sala 242 e Sala dos Docentes | Colégio do Espírito Santo - Universidade de Évora