Brief Description 

The Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop on Boundary Crossing and Cultural Exchange in Medieval and Early Modern Societies has succeeded to bring together scholars at various stages of their academic career for the exploration of a wide spectrum of scholarly material. In 2003-2004 the focus was on the interaction between Early Modern Christian West and Ottoman Islamic East, while in 2004-2005 the workshop revolved around the eastern Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages. In 2005-2006, the workshop built on the two preceding counterparts. The workshop expanded the geographical boundaries in order to comprise all of Europe and the Near East from the Early Middle Ages to Early Modern Europe.  This year Boundary Crossing intends to include more explicit theoretical approaches to the study of history.

Boundary crossing is defined here very broadly to include a wide variety of historical problems (i.e., social, economic, political, religious, gender etc.). The workshop would also accommodate papers that might not directly deal with boundary crossing in the past, but that will apply boundary-crossing methodology.

Since one of the fundamental aims is interdisciplinary, the presenters would be able to test the ideas underpinning their current research against different interpretational schemes. Regular attendance of the workshop would provide any participant with first-hand knowledge of how colleagues from different disciplines approach the same issues.

Format

The workshop will consist of bi-weekly luncheons over the Fall 2006 and the Winter 2007 semesters centered on a reading that satisfies the above specified requirements. The workshop will not be a reading group; each meeting is intended to consist of a twenty to thirty minute-long presentation and one to one and half-hour-long discussion on it. Yet, the interdisciplinary character of the workshop will probably make necessary the pre-circulation of relatively short readings (such as review articles) introducing even a non-specialist to the particular problem under discussion. The workshop will meet every other week and usually on a Wednesday. The meeting room might vary but will be announced no less than a week in advance.