[Asec] CFP: Natural Light in Medieval Churches Between Byzantium and the West

[Alice Isabella Sullivan]

*[Please share, and apologies for cross-posting]*

Dear colleagues,

Please find below, and attached, a CFP for a workshop we are co-organizing
in Berlin (11-12 June 2020). The deadline for submissions is *20 March
2020. *

Thank you,
Alice Sullivan & Vladimir Ivanovici

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CALL FOR PAPERS


Licht aus dem osten?

Natural Light in Medieval Churches Between Byzantium and the West


Workshop | Freie Universität Berlin | 11-12 June 2020


Organizers:

Alice Isabella Sullivan, PhD, Dahlem Humanities Center, Freie Universität
Berlin

Vladimir Ivanovici, PhD, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, USI |
Masaryk University Brno

Throughout the medieval period, Christian churches were designed in such a
way that natural light was deployed to underscore a variety of theological
statements. The solutions usually found in Latin and Byzantine churches
have been analysed in recent decades. However, the cultures that developed
at the crossroads of the Latin, Greek, and Slavic cultural spheres,
particularly in regions of the Balkan Peninsula and the Carpathian
Mountains, advanced their own formulas for how to use natural light in
ecclesiastical buildings. These solutions depended on know-how inherited
from Antiquity, and were further shaped by local climatic, economic, and
theological parameters. The present workshop invites papers on the economy
of natural light in medieval churches constructed across Eastern Europe,
from the Balkans to the Baltic Sea, and throughout the medieval period.
Whether adopted or inspired from the more established traditions on the
margins of the Mediterranean, local customs are examined in order to
understand how natural light phenomena unfolded in ecclesiastical spaces,
and how they related to the design, architecture, decorations, liturgical
objects, or rituals performed inside the buildings. The multilayered
analyses of light Inszenierung examined in this workshop cast light on the
structuring of sacred spaces in the Byzantine-Slavic cultural spheres.
Moreover, the expertise behind the deployment of these natural light
effects reveals patterns of knowledge transfer and cultural interaction
between Byzantium, the West, and the Slavic world that extended in regions
of Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages.

Proposals for 30-minute papers in English should include the following: an
abstract (300 words max.) and a brief CV (2 pages max.). Proposals should
be emailed to the organizers of the workshop at aisulli[at]umich.edu
<aisulli at umich.edu> and vladimir.ivanovici[at]usi.ch
<vladimir.ivanovici at usi.ch> by 20 March 2020. Please include in the email
subject line “Berlin Workshop Proposal”.

For all accepted presenters, the cost of travel, accommodations, and meals
will be covered by the host institution through a grant sponsored by the
VolkswagenStiftung and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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