Solomon Gebreyes Beyene

Africa has a rich history of materiality. Not only are numerous African societies long renown for their material skills, particularly in metal work, African materials have continually been used in workshops further afield, notably gold and ivory. Medieval Africa offers a rich and varied collection of techniques, designs, and uses for objects across its regions for both art and ceremony.

This call for papers seeks contributions for sessions centred on the main strand of the 2019 International Medieval Congress: 'Materialities'. The aim of the sessions is to bring a diverse selection of research on medieval Africa to the Congress, with topics ranging geographically across Africa from north to south, west to east, and including the story of African objects and craftsmanship outside of Africa. Participants are invited to submit papers addressing all aspects of medieval African materiality, including but not limited to:

· The journey and circulation of objects · Object-making techniques and tools, including small-scale technologies · Object-making communities · Object-making training, apprenticeship, and education · The sourcing of materials · Object forms · Object influences · Object roles · Object messages · Object design and aesthetics · Appropriation of objects by others · Object afterlives · Contemporary understanding of object significance · Intellectual history of objects · Indigenous theorization of objects and object making.

We welcome proposals for papers of 20 minutes' length across four sessions from historical, literary, archaeological, philological, art historical and interdisciplinary angles, from scholars of all career stages and research backgrounds.

Abstracts of up to 250 words should be sent to the email account AfricanMiddleAges@gmail.com by Sunday, 23rd of September 2018. Please include your preferred paper title, A-V requirements and your contact details (full name, title, affiliation, address, email address).

The webinar will explore a remarkable dialogue between the Wittenberg Reformers, Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, and Ethiopian Orthodox monk Abba Mika’el that took place in 1534. This early intercultural encounter that has been largely neglected until now should be regarded not only as the starting point of the interaction between the Reformation and the multifaceted world of Orthodox Churches, but also the very first encounter of Protestantism with a non-European form of Christianity. Most importantly, the theological dialogue of Abba Mika’el, Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon resulted in a mutually shared conviction that despite some differences Orthodox Christians and proponents of the Wittenberg Reformation belong to the same one Church of Christ. Hence, this proto-ecumenical encounter has extraordinary significant implications for both our understanding of the Reformation’s relations with the wider world and the history of global Christianity in the Early Modern period.

David D. Daniels III, a leading scholar of the global context of the early Reformation period, will moderate a panel between Paulau and three other panelists versed in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox-Lutheran dialogue to discuss the implications of Paulau’s paper and research. The discussants are Rev. Dr. Dagmar Heller, acting director of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies and Research; Solomon Gebreyes Beyene, research fellow at the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies; and Tim Wengert, emeritus professor of church history at the United Lutheran Seminary (Philadelphia). The discussion will be framed within three ecumenical contexts: 1) the substance and significance of the 1534 event being the first documented meeting of Protestant leaders and an Orthodox monk; 2) the pre-Regensburg conversation about resolving the Catholic and Protestant conflict; and 3) the intercultural context that frames what we now understand as Global North-South exchanges between Christians and the manner in which the Southern Hemisphere first entered the European Reformation.

November 18th from 20:00–21:30 MEZ (2:00-3:30pm EST)

See more information and register here: https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/events/the-proto-ecumenical-dialogue-of-abba-mika-el-martin-luther-and-philip-melanchthon

The study of European-Asian interaction or the medieval Mediterranean has long been established within Medieval Studies; in more recent years, the Indian Ocean has also become the subject of increasing scholarly attention. The integration of the role of the extensive continent of Africa, its networks, realms, and agents, into the concept of the "Global Medieval", however, remains an ongoing challenge for the field. Seeking to utilise the special thematic strand of "Networks and Entanglements" of the 2023 International Medieval Congress in Leeds, we aim to put together a series of sessions that address the topic and question of "African Networks and Entanglements in a 'Medieval World'".

We welcome papers at the micro-, meso-, and macro levels that centre the role of African realms, political entities, or agents as well as the economic, religious, cultural, intellectual, artistic, or diplomatic networks and entanglements from Atlantic and West Africa to the Southern Mediterranean to the Western Indian Ocean region between 300 and 1600 CE, as well as papers that interrogate the role of African realms within 'medieval' world system(s), and/or those that address and challenge the boundaries created by the disciplinary and linguistic constraints of the academy.

Papers from scholars of all career stages and research backgrounds (history, art history, archaeology, philology, religious studies, etc.) are welcome. Travel bursaries to support the attendance of early career researchers, independent scholars, and those working outside of North American/European academe are available.

Abstracts of up to 250 words should be sent to the dedicated email account AfricanMiddleAges@gmail.com by Monday, 19th of September 2022. Please include your preferred paper title, A-V and bursary requirements and your contact details (full name, title, affiliation, address, email address).