Although scholars, particularly during the last seventy years, have investigated the medieval European perception of non-Christian groups, there has been little work on either the perception of or encounters with Muslims and Jews in Scandinavia and the Baltic Region. We still lack knowledge about the portrayal of Muslims and Jews in literature and art, the role of the Church in the propagation of these images, the extent of Jewish settlement and material culture along the Baltic Rim, the level and types of interaction with the majority Christian population, and the role of Crusade preaching in the creation of anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish stereotypes in the North.

This conference aims to address this lack of knowledge by drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines to present their research interests and findings. Once common themes and gaps in our knowledge have been uncovered, the conference will enable avenues for future work and cooperation to be identified.

We invite proposals for papers that explore any aspect of Christian encounters with and/or visualisations of Muslims and Jews in the Middle Ages. The geographic limits of enquiry are those areas where the predominant language was Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Middle Low German and the German dialects characteristic for the Teutonic Order’s lands in the Baltic Sea region. Papers may deal with the portrayal of Muslims and Jews in art and literature, particular events or phenomena, or specific countries, regions or urban areas.

Keynote Speaker
Anthony Bale, Birkbeck College, University of London. Dr Bale’s areas of research include histories and theories of ‘antisemitism’, culture and popular religion, late medieval travel literature, and the histories of blood libel and ritual murder.

The conference is a collaboration between the Centre for Medieval Studies, Stockholm University, and the Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University, and the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

Abstracts
Please send a title and a short abstract (200 words) to Cordelia Heß (cordelia.hess@historia.su.se) and Jonathan Adams (jonathan.adams@nordiska.uu.se) before 28 February 2013.