Call for Papers (Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy – May 25-26, 2016) The main aim of this workshop lies in the analysis of the cultural strategies adopted to construct religious alterity in the Late Antique Mediterranean World (IV-IX C.E.). This age was full of inter-religious encounters, contaminations and struggles; Christianity and Islam interacted with all the previous monotheistic and polytheistic beliefs; This continuous process was not exclusively directed to the outside (i.e. the other religious faiths), but also towards the inside, against dissident groups, with sectarian conflicts intensifying during periods of major strife.
The continuous defining process of alterity found expression in a wide variety of literary genres, such as theological treatises, heresiological catalogues, chronicles, homilies, professions of faith, conciliar documents, historiographical narrations, apocalypses and visions. This multiplicity of literary genres was expressed in many of the different idioms, which constituted the linguistic spectrum of Late Antique Mediterranean (Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Middle Persian, Coptic, Georgian, Armenian, Ethiopic).The evaluation of this complex cultural framework is of crucial importance for the understanding of the strategies at work in the construction of religious alterity. The Call for Papers is open to paper proposals in Italian, English and French, coming from Ph.D. Students, Researchers and Professors. We invite abstracts up to 350 words; the presentations will last for 20 minutes, and will be followed by 10 minutes of debate. Please send the abstract to the following e-mail address: culturalconstruction2016@gmail.com Deadline: January 10th, 2016 For a more comprehensive presentation of the workshop, please refer to the Position Paper.
