The Project and Objectives
The Purpose of the Action
The purpose of the Action is to provide a transnational and interdisciplinary approach capable of overcoming the segmentation that currently characterizes the study of relations between Christianity and Islam in late medieval and early modern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Over the last thirty years, some separate geographic and academic areas have been defined in this research field: the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Central Europe and the Balkans, and Greece and the different islands of the Mediterranean.
These different geographical areas have been analysed in isolation and have been further disjointed in a scientific context defined by the separation of disciplines and chronologies.
The intention of the Action is to mitigate this academic distortion by creating a common space for scientific exchange and reflection.
This space currently involves institutions from 31 different European and Mediterranean countries as well as around 100 senior and junior researchers coming from different disciplines (history, history of art, philology, anthropology, social sciences, history of the science, politics, etc.).
The creation of this network will help to provide a comprehensive understanding of past relations between Christianity and Islam in the European context through the addressing of three main research problems: otherness, migration and borders.
Beyond the strictly academic realm, the Action also aims to revive diversity and Euro-Mediterranean relations in education, at a moment when Europe is at a cultural and political crossroads.
Three Working Groups
The Objectives
The general objective of the Action is the creation of a stable network of researchers working on late medieval and early modern relations between Christianity and Islam in Europe, in order to identify common questions and open a transnational and transdisciplinary debate on them that will generate findings that can be exported to the entire academic community and society at large.
IS-LE has created a transnational and multidisciplinary academic network and a common and stable space for sharing news and knowledge on late medieval and early modern exchanges between Christianity and Islam in Europe and the Mediterranean.
In the short-term, the celebration of several Workshops and Conferences to discuss common questions will allow work on a connected perspective, and this debate will be disseminated in 4 publications.
In the long-term, the activities of the network will create a pan-European and trans-Mediterranean vision on the topic, which does not exist at present. In addition, as a result of the number of participants, a high percentage of the scholars currently working on the subject will be directly involved in the Action.
Therefore, the transdisciplinary and transregional model of research fostered by the Action will impact in the academy in long-term.
In the short and long-term, the Action will create the exchange between senior and junior researchers. In the short-term the Action will also entail a professional stimulus for junior researchers through the assumption of academic responsibilities.
The Action will hold 3 Training Schools focused on interdisciplinary methodological research about late medieval and early modern connections between Christianity and Islam in Europe and the Mediterranean. It is expected that this initiative will result in the creation of a transnational community of doctoral students.
This output will have a great long-term impact in the discipline due to its capacity to promote research models. For this reason, the Action will take a special care of the design and the implementation of the Training Schools.
In long-term, the Action will incorporate the digital humanities as a tool for the study of late medieval and early modern exchanges between Christianity and Islam in Europe and the Mediterranean, with a focus on the geographical analysis of data.
The web of the Action intends to serve as a reference in the subject for scholars and the interested public.
Socio-Economic Impact
- A greater awareness of the long history, the complexity and richness of the relations between Christianity and Islam in Europe and the Mediterranean;
- Increased public awareness of the bi-directional exchange between Christianity and Islam in Europe and of Islam’s historical contribution to Europe.
- A better understanding of the historical construction of the prejudices against Islam and the disagreements between Christianity and Islam in Europe.
- A greater dissemination of information about the involvement of northern Europe in historical relations with Islam.