This Spring School brings together researchers and students from Konstanz and abroad. Starting with key note lectures by distinguished experts of individual epochs (Antiquity, Middle Ages, Early Modern Period, 19th-21st century), we will analyse crucial problems of Mediterranean history on the basis of selected sources and literature: processes of imperial expansion and techniques of imperial governance, the emergence and relationship of monotheistic religions as well as the infrastructural preconditions and cultural practices of different forms of mobility (e.g. pilgrimage, tourism and migration). Therefore, our guiding questions are as follows:
1. What kinds of spatial orders did empires, religions and mobilities establish?
2. How did empires manage diversity?
3. How did religions function within imperial frameworks?
4. What kind of mobilities did empires and religions produce?

By looking at the similarities and differences, transfers and transitions between different periods, we aim to identify phenomena of long duration, reciprocal references, ruptures and turning points in order to understand what constituted and transformed the Mediterranean across the ages.

The Spring School is primarily aimed at advanced BA students from various disciplines (e.g., History, Islamic, Jewish or Ottoman studies, Arabic or Romance studies) who are interested in the new Master’s program Mediterranean History at the University of Konstanz, which is expected to start in the winter term 2024/25. The Spring School will be accompanied by an attractive cultural programme. Costs of travel and accommodation for external participants can be covered to a certain extent. For the external participants from Europe and the Mediterranean region, a subsidy will be provided (up to 50% of the costs), whereas, in case of participants, e.g., from Canada or the USA, the subsidy will vary depending on the expenditures.

Please send your application (Short CV, letter of motivation, transcript of records) to jovo-miladinovic@uni-konstanz.de by February 4, 2024