Rivers in the Middle Ages: Borders, Highways and Networks
Deadline Extended!
In the course of history, rivers could be anything: cultural landscapes like the Rhine. They can be lifelines of entire countries such as the Nile in Egypt or the Thames in England. Sometimes rivers also become landmarks of history. Sometimes they formed borders between two or more (dominion) territories, like for example Rhine and Donau. Another time they separate linguistic and cultural spaces. But rivers could also create spaces: expressions such as the
Rhineland bear witness to the fact that a river can define its catchment area, which lies to the left and right of its course and in which other rivers and brooks flow into it. The cities, which extend along both river banks, show that these areas belong to the same space. Furthermore rivers were often used as traffic routes and trade networks. So it is not surprising that settlements often were founded along rivers. Rivers could mean a way of contact between empires, languages, religions and cultures.
We, Stefanie Schild (Hilden) and Daniel Brown (Cologne), are currently organising a range of sessions for the IMC 2020 that explore new approaches in light of the IMC 2020 special focus “Borders” and are looking for papers that address some of the below points on Rivers as borders, highways and networks in the Middle Ages:
- effective powers of Rivers as borders
- Trading and cultural networks
- Rivers as commercial routes
- Rivers as medieval traffic routes
- Rivers as cultural, linguistic or sociological borders
- Rivers as a cultural, religious, linguistic or sociological space
- Rivers as political and military borders
- the River as a symbolic border
- Medieval perceptions and descriptions of rivers
- Living in river zones
We are especially inviting PhD students as well as early career scholars as well as historians using methodological approaches from gender studies, sociology, archaeology, queer studies, disability studies to submit their paper proposals of no more than 250 words and the usual information of academic affiliation, contact information to Daniel and Stefanie
until 20th of September 2019.
