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Humanities

California Medieval Seminar (Winter 2025)

Participation in the Seminar consists of group discussion of pre-circulated papers, typically drafts of articles, book chapters, or dissertation chapters (with complete apparatus). Two of the papers are ordinarily by emerging scholars (including PhD students) and the other two are by established scholars. We allocate one hour per paper and presenters should anticipate substantial, and substantive, feedback. Calls for presenters are circulated via e-mail from the Center approximately two months prior to each meeting and papers are accepted on a first-come basis. More information can be found here. Register to attend in Royce 306 Register to attend via Zoom

“Lost in Transfer? Misunderstanding, Miscommunication, and the Production of Knowledge in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean”

Organizers: Stefania Tutino (UCLA), Andrea Aldo Robiglio (KU Leuven), and Eva Del Soldato (UPenn) The question of how knowledge transfers has become central for understanding the culture of the premodern world in a global perspective. This workshop is interested in exploring the question of what happens when transfer fails: what happens when knowledge is not “translated” properly? What kind of knowledge is produced when the chain of transmission breaks down or malfunctions? We think that miscommunication is as important as communication, and we propose to explore this theme both by examining specific case studies of miscommunication and by investigating what…