The Many Cultural Centers of the Early Medieval Oikumene

The course is organised by the Medieval Platonism research group working at the Department of Medieval Studies of the CEU, in co-operation with  the Centre d'Etudes des Religions du Livre in Paris, the De Wulf Mansion Centre in Leuven and the Italian research group Progetto di ricerca interuniversitario “La diffusione dell’eredità classica nell’eta tardoantica e altomedievale. Forme e modi di transmissione”. 
 
Why this course? 
The course intends to foster a new, polycentric and alternative view on our common Medieval (that is, European) cultural heritage, especially in theology and philosophy, suggesting that various intellectual (that is, theological) centres were all dependent on the koine, the common language of the oikumene, while at the same time they worked out particular, independent solutions to common problems. The course thus offers a complementary aspect of the usual curriculum about late antique and early medieval cultural history (between the fourth and twelfth centuries). The standard approach, as it is taught from secondary school to university courses, concentrates on the cultures which are considered as subsequent focal points of the development of European civilisation, and it tells the story of a gradual westward move of these centres.
 
Who are we expecting to apply? 
Those young or middle aged researchers, academics, and university lecturers (assistant professors, associate professors) of the region (or from the West) who are working within some aspects of late antiquity, medieval cultural history or philosophy and desire to get acquainted with the latest developments in the historiographical awareness, the interdisciplinary methods and perspectives, or simply with the current state of the art in the research areas outside their narrower fields. Thus, although the course will offer an in depth analysis of the topics dealt with, it will not require more than a very basic previous knowledge of them. (The bibliography serves as a point of orientation). 
 
Coming from various Eastern European countries the participants will meet international scholars, intimately familiar and sympathetic to their respective smaller cultures and traditions. 
The course will also provide an excellent opportunity to establish contacts with the prospective young researchers, that is, the Nachwuchs of these fields.