WEDNESDAY, 27 MAY

13.30
Registration

14.00
Word of welcome:
Arthur WESTSTEIJN (KNIR)/ Hilde DE WEERDT (Leiden University)

Session 1: The Challenge of Comparative Political History (Chair/Discussant: Robert HYMES, Columbia University)

14.15
Jeroen DUINDAM (Leiden University): “Connected, Entangled, or Comparative? The Global History of Dynasty as an Example”

14.35
John WATTS (University of Oxford) and Hilde DE WEERDT: “Towards a Comparative Political History: Mediation and Communication, c. 1000-1500”

14.55
Discussion

15.40
Coffee

16.00
Keynote lecture (Chair: Hilde DE WEERDT):
Jean-Philippe GENET (University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne): “Language and
Political Communication in France and England, c. 1100-1500: A Comparison”

17.30
Welcoming reception

THURSDAY, 28 MAY

Session 2: Networks from Letters – Towards a New Historiography of Elite Communication (Chair/Discussant: Robert HYMES)

09.00
Bernard GOWERS (Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Oxford): “Masculinities and Political Communication, c. 800-1200”

09.20
CHU Mingkin (Leiden University) and Julius MORCHE (Leiden University): “Political Elites and Intellectual History: Europe and China”

09.40
Discussion

10.25
Coffee

10.40
Beverly BOSSLER (University of California, Davis): “Yao Mian’s Letters: the Epistolary Networks of a Late Song Literatus”

11.00
CHEN Song (Bucknell University): “Slanderous Reports’: Political Communication
and Political Culture in Southern Song”

11.20
Julian HASELDINE (University of Hull): “Friendship and Social Networks in the Medieval West – the Evidence of Letter Collections”

11.40-12.40
Discussion

13.00
Lunch

Session 3: Political Elites and Imperial Governance (Chair/Discussant: Wim BLOCKMANS, Leiden University)

14.00
Margaret MESERVE (University of Notre Dame): “Publicatio in valvis: The Politics of Promulgation in Papal Rome, 1420-1520”

14.20
Patricia EBREY (University of Washington): “Informing the Public by Posting Notices in Song China”

14.40
Ari Daniel LEVINE (University of Georgia): “Imaginaries of Empire:
Constituting Political Communities in Southern Song Memorabilia Literature”

15.00
Discussion

16.00
Coffee

16.15
Benoît GREVIN (CNRS Paris): “Epistolographic Communication and Political Rhetoric: The Dynamics of Ars dictaminis in Comparative Perspective, c. 1000-1500”

16.35
Christian LAMOUROUX (EHESS Paris): “Centralization or Decentralization: The Accounting Policy of Zonglingsuo (zǒng lǐng suǒ) during the Southern Song”

16.55-17.40
Discussion

19.30
Conference dinner

FRIDAY, 29 MAY

Session 4: Political Communication and Empire (Chair/Discussant: Jean-Philippe GENET)

09.00
LEE Sukhee (Rutgers University): “Getting Things Done: Fighting Famine and Political Communication within the Local Bureaucracy in Thirteenth Century China”

09.20
Mark WHITTOW (University of Oxford): “Communication and Empire: Byzantium in Perspective”

09.40
Discussion

10.25
Coffee

10.40-12.45
Final roundtable:
1. Briefing on publication
2. Panel and open floor discussion

13.00
Lunch

14.00
End of conference