The deadline for abstract submissions is May 1, 2010.

Anne McGinness
Ph.D. Student, History (Latin America, early modern Portugal)
University of Notre Dame
Email: annemcginness@hotmail.com

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Nanovic Institute for European Studies announces an interdisciplinary,
international conference on the history and literature of the Iberian
empires from the High Middle Ages through the conquest of the New World.
Although many scholars have acknowledged similarities between late-medieval
Iberia and its colonies in the New World, few have offered precise answers
to the questions that arise from these similarities. What is the
relationship, for example, between “inquisition” in a medieval context and
in the New World?  Is it meaningful to compare minority Muslim communities
in fifteenth-century Spain to indigenous peoples in the New World?  How were
the legal and political instruments of late medieval kings foundational for
early modern Europe and Latin America? This conference encourages new ways
of approaching the topic, based on the conviction that medievalists, early
modernists, and Latin Americanists can make meaningful contributions to each
other’s fields.

Panels will likely include the following topics:

– Medieval and early modern Inquisition

– Global exploration and conquest
– Law, politics, and administration
– Language, literature, and translation
– Race, minority populations, and identity
– Evangelization, “Christianization,” and conversion

The conference will take place at McKenna Hall at the University of Notre
Dame on Friday, September 17 and Saturday, September 18, 2010.  Papers from
history and literature departments are welcome; they are not required to be
comparative in nature. Contributions from graduate students are also
welcomed and a prize of $200 will be awarded to the best graduate student
paper as determined by a faculty panel. The authors of all accepted papers
will be fully compensated for one night’s lodging and will be provided with
a travel subvention of up to $100.  There are also two travel subventions of
up to $500 for accepted international presenters.  All contributions should
be sent to John Moscatiello, Chair of the Conference Committee, at
Iberia.conference@gmail.com by May 1, 2010 and include an abstract of 250
words (for a twenty-minute presentation), a cover letter, and a curriculum
vitae.

Authors of selected papers from the conference will be invited to submit an
adapted version of their paper to a special issue of the peer-reviewed
Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies. The editors of JMIS welcome the
submission, at any stage, of high-quality scholarship in all fields of
medieval Iberian studies, including work that addresses Iberia in a
transatlantic or Latin American frame. For details, please see
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ribs, or contact
simon.r.doubleday@hofstra.edu.

Featured presenters:

– Felipe Fernández-Armesto, University of Notre Dame
– Paul Freedman, Yale University
– Michael Gerli, University of Virginia
– Sabine MacCormack, University of Notre Dame
– Kenneth Mills, University of Toronto
– João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, New University of Lisbon
– Pablo Pastrana-Pérez, Western Michigan University

On Friday, September 17, the Medieval Institute will host a dinner and
reception in honor of Jocelyn Hillgarth, Professor Emeritus of History,
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto in
celebration of the acquisition of his personal collection by the Hesburgh
Libraries of Notre Dame.

For online registration and more information, please visit
http://iberiaconference.eventbrite.com.