The Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IHB) (www.oeaw.ac.at/ihb) has set the goal of conducting historically oriented research on the Habsburg Monarchy and the Balkan region. With the theme of “Spaces and Rule,” (Räume und Herrschaft) the IHB currently owns and operates a forum that is used for the collection of research questions on spaces of rule, borders (border spaces), and their various textual and pictorial medializations, especially in the early modern period. These objectives take place against the background of the now almost innumerable publications on questions about the entanglement of space and rule.
In order to better reflect on the recent diverse theoretical approaches to the spatial turn, the workshop will focus on the relationship between the genesis and constitution of political-administrative spaces on the one hand and their different textual and visual medializations on the other, with a focus on the territories of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Balkan region, which were long dominated by the Ottomans.
Transcultural comparison will play a key role as it will be used to create an overarching and guiding question on space in the early modern period, which should be beneficial to different disciplines.
The following six topics are the focus of the workshop:
1. In which respects were EARLY MODERN SPACES OF RULE CONSTITUTED AS ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS, and how were they mediated in texts and images? What are the points of contact and interrelations between these spaces and their medializations? What is the relationship between the small-scale and firmly delimited urban spaces and the territorially organized princely states? How do new political and military borders relate to the existing social and economic structures?
2. BORDERS or BORDER SPACES have become a leading theme in the analysis of spaces, especially in recent research. How is the visibility and latent invisibility as well as the visualization of borders expressed in political and media practice? In what way did diplomacy, wars, and cultural and knowledge transfers make borders or borderlines (from military borders up to geographical borders) visible but, at the same time, permeable? In what ways do these processes turn borders into transcultural contact and conflict zones?
3. In the early modern period, RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS —comprising bishoprics, religious orders, and socio-religious building complexes (e.g., Imaret, Külliye)—also formed spaces of rule. In what way did the sacred (landscape) spaces of the early modern period, predominantly created through the construction of churches, mosques, and monuments, interact with these religious spaces of rule? Were saints, in their function as patrons of the state and country, able to create imaginary spaces sui generis?
4. Spaces of power were communicated to a generally large public in the early modern period by means of a VARIETY OF SOURCE GENRES. These included newspapers, diaries, travel reports, journalistic sources, maps, and the like, in the Ottoman Empire e.g., seyahatnâme and sefâretnâme. The spaces of political rule were, at the same time, represented in spaces of communication, which leads to the following question: Which actors created such spaces and which groups participated in them, and with which interests and (the possible combinations of text and image) testimonies?
5. “REAL” CULTURAL SPACES (e.g., courtly representation spaces, residences and parks, squares, country houses, town halls, barracks, etc.) occupied by elites (e.g., nobility, wealthy bourgeoisie, ayan, military elites) have considerable symbolic dimensions beyond their factual existence. In what ways did visual medialization in the most diverse genres contribute to a multiplication of image cultivation, and how did it credibly assert claims to power?
6. Of fundamental importance for the concrete implementation of the described questions is their integration within the framework of the DIGITAL HUMANITIES. Therefore, in what way can the study of early modern spaces deliver added value to the methodologies used in such projects? Theoretical approaches should be combined with application-oriented case studies and discussions on specific digital implementations. This is particularly relevant to the leading researchers of research projects that have just been completed or are currently underway.
Proposals for talks and posters in German and English can be submitted as an ABSTRACT (of a maximum of 2,000 characters) and a short CURRICULUM VITAE to ihb@oeaw.ac.at by 30 April 2022. The talks will have a maximum duration of 30 minutes, and the presentations will have a maximum duration of 15 minutes.
In accordance with the interdisciplinary character of the conference, historians, Ottomanists, and art historians are included as speakers.
The conference will take place on site. Travel and accommodation expenses are covered by the organizer.