CFP - sessions on Ravenna for Kalamazoo 2009

CFP - sessions on Ravenna for Kalamazoo 2009

Three sessions are being organized with Ravenna as the topic, as follows:

"Ravenna and its Contexts in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle
Ages" (2 sessions)
Organizer: Deborah M. Deliyannis, Indiana University
ddeliyan@indiana.edu

For 350 years, Ravenna served as a political center, successively for
the western Roman Empire, the Ostrogothic kingdom, and the
Byzantine exarchate of Italy. After the Lombard conquest of 751 the
city declined in importance, but its glorious past was not
forgotten, preserved as it was in art and architecture, in history,
hagiography, and liturgy. Because of Ravenna's importance, the city
is studied by scholars from a variety of different fields. The two
proposed sessions will provide an opportunity for historians, art
historians, archaeologists, literary scholars, and others to compare
and contrast interpretations in an interdisciplinary forum focused
specifically on Ravenna. The title "Ravenna and its Contexts"
refers both to the historical and cultural contexts in which Ravenna
developed, and to the modern scholarly contexts in which it is
studied today.


"Ravenna" in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Texts
Organizer: Daniel H. Abosso, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
dhabosso@uiuc.edu

The study of Ravenna has attracted scholars from a variety of
disciplines in recent decades. Most attention has been paid to
Ravenna's historical and artistic importance; less attention has
been paid to Ravenna as it is regarded in our texts. For example,
how do late antique authors treat Ravenna as a capital city in
comparison to Rome and Constantinople? How do Byzantine historians
narrate Ravenna's fortunes? Questions such as these form the basis
for reception studies on Ravenna. Papers on the Spicilegium
Ravennatis Historiae and later chroniclers of Ravenna such as
Desiderio Spreti are particularly encouraged.