Calls & News

RESEARCH NETWORK DEDICATED TO THE HISTORY OF THE MONASTIC ECONOMY

DOES MONASTIC ECONOMY MATTER?

RELIGIOUS PATTERNS OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR  

The Center for Governance and Culture in Europe (GCE) at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in the University of St. Gallen (www.gce.unisg.ch) and the Center for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS) (www.cas.bg) have established a NETWORK of scholars from South-Eastern and Western Europe devoted to the study of the history of the monastic economy in a comparative perspective. The site of the project is accessible HERE.

The NETWORK aims at nurturing the debate in the field, namely by bringing together researchers from different thematic and institutional backgrounds. A series of three Workshops is scheduled in 2017-2019. The First one took place on 11-12 November 2017.

We have the pleasure to announce the

Call for Presentations for the

Second Workshop of the NETWORK

Centre for Advanced Study Sofia

10-11 November 2018

 The event intends to provide a forum for the discussion of completed or ongoing studies covering a wide range of topics related to the monastic economy.

A non-exhaustive list of eligible areas includes the following:

• Economic activities of the monasteries
• Monastic economy and market/capitalist rationality
• The state nexus
• Flow of Funds
• Assets management
• Governance

The time frame covers:

• Medieval, Pre-Modern and Modern history
• For South-Eastern Europe: Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern (comprising the communist) periods
• Glimpses on current trends in a longue durée historical view 

The geographical coverage includes:

• The Orthodox realm in South-Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Serbia, the institution of the Constantinople Patriarchate
• The Catholic/Protestant domain in Western Europe (with a particular focus on the Benedictine abbeys)  

The comparative outlook is embedded either in presentations dealing explicitly with both regions or in the discussion in comparative perspective of case studies and general trends related to South-Eastern or Western Europe.

*

Abstracts. Please, send to Mr. Dimiter Dimov ([email protected]) a short abstract of the proposed presentation (up to 250 words), a CV and a concise note (areas of interest, major publications – up to 200 words) by June, 30, 2018.

Selection. The number of foreign participants is limited to around 15 scholars. They will be selected by the organizers of the Workshop on the basis of the relevance of the proposal for the NETWORK’s agenda and of the research track-record of the applicant. The candidates will be notified by 15 July, 2018.       

Presentations. The participants will have 20 minutes to present their paper with a general discussion at the end of each session. A written text or a detailed handout for dissemination before/during the event is welcome. The conference hall is equipped for Power point presentations.

The proceedings will not be published. Please take into consideration, however, that by the end of the project’s three-year period (November 2019) the NETWORK will pack its research output as a scholarly journal’s guest edited issue or a volume with a collection of selected texts. The papers presented at the three workshops will be eligible for this publication.

Languages. The working languages of the workshop are English and French without translation from one into the other.

Travel and accommodation. The travel costs of the non-Bulgarian participants between their city of residence and Sofia, as well as their accommodation for two nights in Sofia (9 and 10 November 2018) will be covered by CAS.