Colloquia Ceranea

Colloquia Ceranea


Call for papers



The 7th edition of the conference will be held 8-10 May 2025.

The conference will be devoted to various topics related to the history and culture of the Eastern Mediterranean world in antiquity, the middle ages and the early modern period, especially Byzantium and the southern Slavic countries.

We propose to you three thematic sections:

> History of food and medicine

> Constantinopolitan education, Constantinopolitan university – marking the 1600 anniversary of the Theodosian constitutions

> Varia: history and culture of Late Antiquity, Byzantium and Slavic World

Section descriptions can be found below. 

 
INDIVIDUAL AND PANEL SUBMISSIONS:

You are encouraged to submit your thematic proposals or thematic group proposals, organised around one specific topic (i.e. thematic panels). Each panel should consist of a minimum of 3 speakers. Individual submissions are also welcome. Proposals for panel topics (including the list of panel speakers) as well as individual submissions should be sent by February 28, 2025 to: colloquia.ceranea@uni.lodz.pl.
 

APPLICATION FORMS:

individual (click to download)

new panel (click to download)
 

CONFERENCE PUBLICATION:

Selected conference papers will be published in article format in “Studia Ceranea”, a yearly journal indexed in Scopus, the Web of Science Core Collection (Emerging Sources Citation Index), EBSCOhost, and a number of other databases.

The deadline for submitting papers to “Studia Ceranea” is May 31, 2025.
However, if you are unable to supply it by that time, there will still be the possibility to deliver your text by December 31, 2025, for it to be published in the volume covering 2026. Here you will find all editorial instructions: czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/sceranea.

Selected papers on the history of medicine and food will be published in the series “Medical Traditions” or “Medicine in the Medieval Mediterranean” by De Gruyter.
The proceedings of the panel devoted to Constantinopolitan education will be published either in a separate volume of the series “Byzantina Lodziensia” or in “Studia Ceranea”.
 

CONFERENCE FEE:

In-person participants will be charged a 350 PLN (Polish zloty) conference fee, which will cover organisational costs, including lunches and coffee break snacks.

For on-line participants the fee will be 250 PLN.

Please note: if your university is unable to cover the conference fee, there may be the possibility to have it reduced to 150 PLN or waived. In order to obtain conference fee discounts or waiver, please specify your request unambiguously in the application form.
 

LANGUAGE:

Although we expect the majority of papers to be delivered in English, other languages are also acceptable, provided that the speaker prepares an English hand-out (or multimedia presentation) outlining the main points of the talk.
CONFERENCE SECRETARIES: Dr. Krzysztof Jagusiak
Dr. Karolina Krzeszewska
Dr. Zofia Rzeźnicka
Dr. Jan Mikołaj Wolski

Should you have any question, please contact us at colloquia.ceranea@uni.lodz.pl.


THEMATIC SECTIONS:
Constantinopolitan education, Constantinopolitan university – marking the 1600 anniversary of the Theodosian constitutions Keynote speaker: Prof. Dr. Albrecht Berger (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)

Two imperial constitutions of Theodosius II, promulgated in February and March 425 in Constantinople, reformed higher education in the capital of the eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire. Thus a new kind of a state run established institution was created, a much too often forgotten landmark in the history of European education. For many decades it has been called ‘a university’, yet not without hesitations, the inverted commas or semiserious treatment. Paradoxically perhaps, the very existence of this school seems to be only ‘internal knowledge’, as it is almost completely unrecognized outside Byzantine studies.
The reasons for the reservations are known: no system of superiors and subordinates, no faculties, no academic titles and diplomas. Mentor-pupil relationships and not student-institution ones. No evidence of stable continuity through the centuries.
And yet there are many arguments that help to highlight the unique and specific character of this establishment: the fact of its existence and the later reforms over its first two, the imperial decisions of the middle Byzantine period that reinvented higher education anew, the form of employment and dismissal of teachers, the auditoria, the customs, habits and students’ festivals (cf. Trullanum), the curricula for students (law), imperial supervision and concern, clear differentiation between public and private teachers, different arts united in one educational institution, the decision of 425 itself.
The 1600th anniversary provides a splendid opportunity to reconcile our views and to revisit our perception of higher education and of arts & sciences throughout the whole history of the Byzantine Empire, with a central focus on Constantinople. A broader perspective covering western medieval universities, and higher education of the era in Asia and Africa is more than welcome.

Proposals for discussion:
• constitutions of 425, their background and consequences
• further reforms and development, 6th-15th century
• topography of education in Constantinople
• comparative approach: western medieval Europe
• comparative approach: Caliphate, Iran, Caucasus etc.
• comparative approach: India, South-East Asia, China, Korea & Japan
• legal education in Constantinople, 4th-15th c.
• philosophy in Constantinople, 4th-15th c.
• grammarians and rhetors in Constantinople and their involvement in higher education
• the needs of the state, needs of intellectuals
• science in Byzantium, 4th-15th c.
• science and specific disciplines of knowledge (Fachwissenschaften) and their spread from Constantinople
• diffusion of knowledge, role of scriptoria and libraries
• Constantinopolitan imperial school: a university or not?
History of Food and Medicine

We intend to continue our interdisciplinary dialogue on various aspects of medical and culinary history in Antiquity and Byzantium. For this reason, we have secured the collaboration of a group of leading academics to form the conference's international Scientific Committee.
 

They are:
• Dr. Sean Coughlin (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences);
• Prof. Małgorzata Drywień (Warsaw University of Life Sciences);
• Dr. phil. Dr. habil. Isabel Grimm-Stadelmann (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich);
• Dr. Barbara Huber (Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and University of Tübingen);
• Prof. Maciej Kokoszko (University of Łódź);
• Dr. Manuela Marai (independent scholar);
• Dr. Evi Margaritis (The Cyprus Institute);
• Dr. Gerasimos Merianos (National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens);
• Dr. Dimitra Mylona (INSTAP Study Center for East Crete);
• Dr. Effie Photos-Jones (University of Glasgow);
• Dr. Danuta Raj (Wrocław Medical University);
• Prof. Alain Touwaide (Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions, Washington, DC);
• Prof. Joanita Vroom (Leiden University);
• Prof. John Wilkins, Emeritus Professor (University of Exeter).
The diverse backgrounds of the committee members guarantee that the symposium will be truly multidisciplinary, furthering our strong belief that it is only through mutual support that we can boldly cross the boundaries between our separate fields of research, and thus paint a more holistic picture of the past.

Keynote lectures will be delivered by:
• Dr. Barbara Huber (Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and University of Tübingen)
• Dr. Manuela Marai (independent scholar)
• Prof. Joanita Vroom (Leiden University)

In the present edition we would like to focus on:
• Re-enactment (= reconstruction = replication) as a research method in the studies into ancient and Byzantine medicine
• Re-enactment (= reconstruction = replication) as a research method in the studies into ancient and Byzantine food
• Re-enactment (= reconstruction = replication) as a means of popularising research into medicine and food of Antiquity and Byzantium
• Ancient and Byzantine diet and ars coquinaria – continuity or change?;
• Reception and reinterpretation of ancient medical theory in Byzantium;
• Transmission of ancient medical heritage into the Arab and Western world;
• Byzantine and Post-Byzantine medical manuscripts;
• Ancient and Byzantine medicine in the light of modern medical knowledge;
• New arrivals in the cuisine and pharmacology of Byzantium;
• Dangerous foodstuffs: materia medica between poison and remedy;
• Archaeology of Ancient and Byzantine medicine;
• Archaeology of Ancient and Byzantine alimentation;
• Foods and medicaments as markers of social status in the Mediterranean of Antiquity and Byzantium;
• Alchemy: sources and practices;
• Disability in Antiquity and Byzantium;
• Medical punishments (blinding, mutilation etc.) in historiographic and legal sources.
Varia: History and Culture of Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Slavic World

As always, we await papers discussing other research fields, such as:

• religion and spiritual culture: texts, monasteries, new ideas and heresies;
• material culture and everyday life;
• historical and political geography;
• historiography;
• political history, peace and war studies;
• society, mores and social norms;
• language;
• art and visual culture;
• political culture and ideology.