Use the following link to submit an abstract:
http://www.acla.org/submit/index.php
The dialogue between postcolonial/critical race studies and medieval/early modern studies of cross-cultural encounters has raised concerns about the (non)inclusion of the latter in larger historical narratives. For example, Lisa Lampert has questioned the tendency of critical race theorists to dismiss the relevance of medieval formulations of somatic difference to later formulations of race, even as Bruce Holsinger has challenged the post 9-11 impulse to trace current Christian-Islamic relations back to the Crusades. Cross-cultural encounters also feature more prominently in class curricula devoted to questions of identity, and of relations between different cultural, religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups. This seminar explores how recent research on and concerns about medieval and early modern cross-cultural encounters might be productively included in the undergraduate curriculum. We welcome proposals from instructors in any discipline and any period who have organized courses (in part or in whole) on medieval and/or early modern cross-cultural encounters, actual and/or imagined.
Papers might consider:
medieval and early modern views and literary/artistic productions of dominant and minority cultures
fruitful pedagogic strategies and sources; practical and conceptual difficulties
teaching cross-cultural encounters as contributions to renewal or change within university pedagogy and academic disciplines
responsibly extending courses focused on cross-cultural encounters beyond specific historical eras
designing classes on cross-cultural encounters that don’t favor the perspective of a single culture
incorporating medieval and early modern cross-cultural encounters in courses taught by non-specialists
medieval/early-modern cross-cultural encounters and current cultural crises across the globe
