Using the Past for the Present : Medieval Narratives in Modern Political and Religious Discourse (Rome)
The conference aims to discuss the use of history for political and religious purposes, more specifically, the use of medieval narratives and traditions in the construction of political and religious visions in the modern era. Given the centrality of the Middle Ages in the development and dissemination of narratives aimed at the creation–or denial–of national and religious identities, the effects of which are long-lasting and touch the contemporary world as well, the conference aspires to re-discuss the importance of analyzing and understanding the past, especially the “medieval” past, in constructing the present.
The event is sponsored by John Cabot University’s Office of the President, Department of History and Humanities and the Guarini Institute, and co-sponsored by the Democracy Institute of the Central European University, Budapest/Vienna.
Programme
Friday, March 28, 9:30-10:00. Aula Magna
Welcome Remarks
Fabrizio Conti, John Cabot University
Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri, University of Urbino Carlo Bo
Serena Di Nepi, Sapienza University of Rome
Umberto Longo, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo and Sapienza University of Rome
10:00-11:00. Aula Magna
Opening Keynote Lecture
“False Memories, Invented Histories, and the Historian’s Obligation to the Past and Present”
Patrick Geary, Institute for Advanced Study – Princeton
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
Friday, March 28, 11:30-13:30. Aula Magna
Medievalism and Nation Building between Western and Eastern Europe
Chair: Tommaso Zerbi, Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom – Max Weber Stiftung
Salvatore Liccardo, ERC Synergy Grant HistoGenes – University of Vienna, “Myth and History of the Antes: An Origin Story between Imperial Rhetoric, Marxism, Nation Building, and Eurasianism”
Donato Sitaro, University of Naples “Federico II”, “Teutonic Brothers and Aggressive Aborigines: Nineteenth-century Attitudes Towards the End of Roman Britain”
Huub Kurstjens, Dutch Institute for Educational Measurement, “Frederick II: From Mythomoteur to Mythophantom: Identity, Mythologization, Nationalism and Regionalism”
Friday, March 28, 11:30-13:30. GK11
State Formation and Nationalism between Western Europe and Russia
Chair: Vincenzo Tedesco, University of Messina / Central European University – Budapest/Vienna
Olga Kalashnikova, CEU Democracy Institute / University of Turin, “Eternal History of Rus(sia): Rurik and the Myth of State Formation in Russian Political Discourse (2011-2024)”
Carlos Llamedo Gutiérrez, Sorbonne Université, “Russia, France and Spain. A Proposal for a Comparative Study in the Medieval Turn of Modern-Day Nationalism”
Olga Kozubska, Central European University – Budapest/Vienna / Institute of Comparative Urban History (IStG) Münster, “Magdeburg Law: Medieval Phenomenon in the Public Memory and Political Discourse of modern Ukraine”
Friday, March 28, 11:30-13:30. GK12
The Iberian Peninsula
Chair: Eszter Salgó, John Cabot University
Ayse Naz Bulamur, Boğaziçi University, “Rendering the Spanish Civil War as Medieval”
Pedro Martins, NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities – Lisbon, “The uses of the Middle Ages in Contemporary Portuguese Right-Wing Nationalist and Far-Right Movements: The Cases of Chega and Reconquista”
Paula Almeida Mendes, University of Porto, “Political Uses of the Medieval Past in Portugal: Espelho de Lusitanos (1643) by António Veloso de Lira and the Legitimation of Power”
Alessandro Micocci, University of Genoa, “The Myth of the “Good” Colonial Portuguese from the Reconquista to Tourism Rebranding. The Monuments in Lisbon and the Defense of the Medieval Stereotypes in Contemporary Portugal”
Friday, March 28, 15:00-16:30. GK11
Architecture and Building
Chair: Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri, University of Urbino Carlo Bo
Guido Zucconi, IUAV – Venice, “Shaping a New National Style for Unified Italy: the Middle Ages as a Main Source and the Building of the New City Halls”
Irene Giustina, University of Brescia, “Between Civic Memory and Progress. Neo-medieval Public Architectural Culture in Brescia through Some Exemplary Works of Antonio and Giovanni Tagliaferri”
Naomi Ruth Pitamber, Clark University, “Culturally Definitive, Yet Divisive: The Architectural and Religious Heritage of al-Haram al-Sharif / Temple Mount in Jerusalem”
Cosmin Minea, Masaryk University, “Old Buildings for Modern Times: The Revival of the Past Through Restoration of Monuments in Romania and Serbia in the Late 19th Century”
Friday, March 28, 15:00-16:30. GK12
The Reuse of Medieval Narratives in Early-Modern Times
Chair: Giulia Lovison, Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa
Michele Camaioni, Roma Tre University, “A Matter of Precedence. Early Modern Franciscans and the Use of Medieval Past in the Controversy on Missions in America and China with the Jesuits (XVII cent.)”
Vincenzo Tedesco, University of Messina / Central European University – Budapest/Vienna, “Reusing Hagiographies for Political and Religious Purposes. The case of Trajan’s Legend Between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance”
Tommaso Somigli Russotto, University of Milano-Bicocca, “Crusade, Peace, and Freedom: Narratives and Strategies of the “Italian Wars”
Hanna Feuer, Central European University – Budapest/Vienna, “The Emperor Beneath the Papal Foot: The Legend of Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III in the Context of the German Reformation”
Friday, March 28, 15:00-16:30. GK13
Political Identities Across the Two Sides of the Adriatic Sea
Chair: Vincent Ferré, Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris 3)
Izidor Janžekovič, Harvard University, “The Nationalistic History and Archaeology in Mid-War and Post-War Yugoslavia”
Şerban V. Marin, National Archives of Romania, “Clash of Civilizations in Venice. The Case of Attila”
Igor Vranić, University of Zagreb, “Medieval Narratives as Tools for Daily Political Struggles: The Role of Historiography in Early 20th Century Zagreb”
16:30-17:00 Coffee Break
Friday, March 28, 17:00-18:30. GK13
Medieval Narratives in the Russian Context
Chair: Olga Kalashnikova, CEU Democracy Institute / University of Turin
Dmitry V. Shlapentokh, Indiana University, “Medieval Discourse of Alexander Dugin”
Aleksandr V. Rusanov, Bielefeld University, “‘Ours’” and ‘Aliens’, Politicized and Depoliticized Middle Ages in Russian Local Memorial Practices”
Anna Zadora, Strasbourg University, “Perestroika and the First References on Belarusian History”
Friday, March 28, 17:00-18:30. GK12
Interplay of Religious, Cultural, and Political Narratives
Chair: Naomi Ruth Pitamber, Clark University
Pankaj Kumar Singh, Ambedkar University, “Contested Sacred Topographies and Political Mobilization: The Role of Medieval Temple Desecration Narratives in Contemporary Indian Politics”
Antonio Cuciniello, Università Cattolica Milan, “Christian-Muslim Dialogue: Between Past History and Present History”
Tommaso Zerbi, Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom – Max Weber Stiftung, “A Tale of Three Empires: Architecture, Rome, and the Cultural Politics of Historicism from the British to Mussolini”
Friday, March 28, 17:00-18:30. GK11
Medievalism and Music, Philosophy, Economy
Chair: Fabrizio Conti, John Cabot University
Paolo Prato, John Cabot University and Roma Tre University, “The Discreet Charm of Revival: The Middle Ages Reinvented in Popular Music (A Brief Love Affairs in the Seventies)”
Alexander Jordan, Metropolitan University Prague, “Thomas Carlyle’s Medievalism Reconsidered”
Alessandro Signorini, John Cabot University, “From Medieval Guilds to modern AI: Historical Parallels in Managing Innovation Resistance and Employment Disruption”
Friday, March 28, 19:00-20:00. GK11
Keynote Lecture
“The Modern Uses of Medieval and Renaissance Narratives of Enslavement and Sexual Violence”
Tamar Herzig, Tel Aviv University
Saturday, March 29, 10:00-11:00. Aula Magna
Keynote Lecture
“Political Time Traveling – Middle Ages Reloaded: Hungarian and Russian Examples”
Gábor Klaniczay, Central European University – Budapest/Vienna
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
Saturday, March 29, 11:30-13:30. Aula Magna
Medieval Narratives in Modern Political Discourse
Chair: Alessandro Micocci, University of Genoa
Balázs Nagy, Eötvös Loránd University, “The Mongol Invasions in the Discourse of the Twentieth-Century Hungarian Politics”
Nelson Lewis Bennett, Central European University – Budapest/Vienna, “A Fictional Narrative, A Real Call to Arms: The Clash of Civilizations Narrative Reimagined for the American Alt-Right”
Felipe Brandi, NOVA University – Lisbon, “The Medievalist Historian and the Political Uses of History. On Georges Duby and His Campaign Against Right-Wingers”
Saturday, March 29, 11:30-13:30. Boardroom
Religious, Political, and Literary Narratives
Chair: Huub Kurstjens, Dutch Institute for Educational Measurement
Luca Barison, Georgetown University, “Barbarians at the Gates, Barbarians Inside the Gates. The Wewelsburg and the Nazi Barbaric Middle Ages”
Levente Seláf, Eötvös Loránd University, “The Defamation of Charity. The Posthumous Sufferings of Saint Martin in the Mouth of Hungarian Populist Propaganda”
Elodie Burle-Errecade, Aix-Marseille University, “A Middle Ages Under the Magnifying Glass: Enlarging to Reveal”
Saturday, March 29, 11:30-13:30. G11
Medievalism and Politics in Comparative Perspectives
Chair: Fabrizio Conti, John Cabot University
Claire Dillon, American Academy in Rome and Columbia University, “Constructing Mediterranean Medievalism in Italian Africa”
Ibrahim Al-Marashi, California State University San Marcos, “Saddam as Crusader”
Ansil Kanjirathinkal Muhammed, Jawaharlal Nehru University – New Delhi, “From Hyderabad to ‘Bhagyanagar’: A Modern Perspective on Urban Nomenclature, Political Contestation, and Cultural Memory”
Saturday, March 29, 15:00-16:30. GG1
Identity Formation Through Folklore and Art
Chair: Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri, University of Urbino Carlo Bo
Giulia Lovison, Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa, “Do Witches Still Exist? Politics, Religion, and Society”
Francesca Vera Romano, Deputazione di Storia Patria per la Lucania, “Superstition and Identity: Ecclesiastical Authorities and Greek Minorities in Early Modern Southern Italy”
Marina Bernardi, Roma Tre University – UPEC Paris Créteil, “Antonello da Messina: Painter, Saviour and Saint. Recovering the Memory of Messina, Promoting Sicilian Identity”
Saturday, March 29, 15:00-16:30. G11
Medievalism in Literature
Chair: Levente Seláf, Eötvös Loránd University
Davide Iacono, PRIN “Framing Medievalism” –
University of Urbino Carlo Bo, “‘Disarmato, l’umile sarà ulteriormente umiliato’: Medievalism and Political Struggle in the Eymerich Cycle by Valerio Evangelisti”
Giancarlo Tursi, University of California Santa Barbara, “Dante, Prophet of Fascism”
Fiona McIntosh-Varjabédian, University of Lille, “Medieval Communal Freedom: The Political and Literary Stakes of Another Tradition of Freedom”
Hugo Lacoue-Labarthe, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, “Translating, Rewriting and Editing the Eddas, a Necessarily Political Endeavour? From Tolkien to the Contemporary French Editorial Field”
Saturday, March 29, 15:00-16:30. Boardroom
The Balkans
Chair: Balázs Nagy, Eötvös Loránd University
Tea Hodaj, Universität Flensburg, “Medieval Narratives, Ottoman Legacy, and the Balkan Conflicts of the 90s: A Historical Continuum”
Domagoj Krpan, University of Rijeka, “King Tomislav and Gregory of Nin in Modern Croatian Discourse”
Dženan Dautović, University of Tuzla, “The Most Potent Tool: The Use and Abuse of the Bosnian Church in Political Systems of Modern Bosnia and Herzegovina”
16:30-17:00 – Coffee Break
Saturday, March 29, 17:00-19:30. Aula Magna
Student Presentations / Final Roundtable Discussion
Concluding Remarks.