International Conference: “Living the End of Antiquity – Individual Histories from Byzantine to Islamic Egypt”

Hosted in Basel in May 18-20 2017, this international conference will revolve around the theme of “Living the End of Antiquity – Individual Histories from Byzantine to Islamic Egypt”.

The conference intends to bridge this gap between neighboring disciplines and thus to give researchers from different fields of Byzantine and early Islamic studies a platform for mutual scientific and personal exchange. To address this challenge, the envisaged conference will apply an interdisciplinary and comparative methodology.  Internationally established experts as well as young scholars will focus on change and continuity from late Antique to early Islamic Egypt through individuals’ experience, putting particular emphasis on continuities and disruptions during transition from the Classical to the post-­Classical world. By focusing on individuals we aim to combine a ‘compartmented’ analysis with a trans-­categorical approach. The purpose of the conference is therefore to insist on the plurality that is inherent to the dialectic of change and continuity. The adoption of an individual­-centered perspective allows, on one hand, to exemplify a system and, on the other, to concentrate on aspects of diversity inside that system and, consequently, to better mirror the circumstantial character of change and/or continuity.

We plan to publish an edited volume based loosely on the conference proceedings in an international peer-reviewed series.