Budapest, 20 July – 30 July, 2015
Apply before 14 February, 2015

CEU’s Medieval Studies Department jointly with he Hungarian Academy in Rome, American Academy in Rome, Vatican Library, Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Augustinianum Rome, Brown University, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne, University of Pécs, and the University of Exeter launches a ten-day, intensive, interdisciplinary, research-oriented, hands-on summer course.

While all the CEU summer courses are held in Budapest, Hungary, this course will be organized in Rome, Italy, where students will be accommodated in the Palazzo Falconieri of the Hungarian Academy.

The course invites applications from PhD and MA students specialized in Late Antique history, theology, philosophy, literature, archaeology, law, art history and gender studies.

The theme of the 2015 course, “Wealth and Poverty in Late Antique Rome” is recognized as one of the most important and most innovative research problems concerning Late Antiquity. The course provides a systematic, research-oriented introduction to the study of all aspects – economic, social, and symbolical — of wealth and poverty in a pre-modern society. It combines research and on-the-spot instruction within the framework of a uniquely innovative course.A vibrant multicultural society, fourth-fifth century Rome fostered the most far-reaching and the most significant social, religious and cultural changes that marked not only the transition from the Classical to the medieval world, but our contemporary concerns and attitude to wealth and poverty as well. The poor did not exist as a social category in the Classical city. “Poverty” emerged in late ancient Christianity as a social group, as a concept and as a program. Poverty became an ideal to realize on earth as the sign of following Christ, whereas ascetic discourse criticized wealth and the rich.

Our specialized interdisciplinary course will provide a full panorama of the fundamental change that took place in Late Antiquity in the concept of wealth and poverty. The on-the-spot full immersion training for PhD and MA students gives an opportunity for young researchers to meet with leading specialists in the field and to discuss up-to-date scholarship concerning Rome’s political, social, religious and material culture in Late Antiquity. The course invites students and lecturers from different disciplines to bring their specialists’ skills and knowledge and to engage into a creative dialogue. Because of the interdisciplinary collaboration new questions of wider significance will be asked and explored. These new questions will, in turn, enrich each student’s own specialist research and help him to establish an international network as an early career researcher. This interdisciplinary course links research and problem-based learning, offering a formation focused on inquiry and on-the-spot experimentation of monuments as well as new interdisciplinary approaches to co-teaching. We will use new technologies to support learning, such as new software and video documentation: the project includes a documentary on “Learning Late Antique Rome”.

This summer course is financed through tuition fees, therefore scholarships or tuition waivers are not available.

Course Director(s):
Marianne Saghy, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Kimberly Bowes, American Academy of Rome, Italy

Course Faculty:
Filippo Carla, Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter, UK
Nicola Denzey Lewis, Department of Religious Studies, Brown University, USA
Markus Löx, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
Michele R. Salzman, Department of History, University of California Riverside, USA
Claire Sotinel, Centre de recherche en histoire européenne comparée (CRHEC), Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne, France
Levente Nagy, Department of Contemporary History, University of Pecs, Hungary

Guest Speaker(s):
Fabrizio Bisconti, Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Roma, Italy
Stefan Heid, Campo Santo, Rome, Italy
Kristine Iara, German Archaeological Institute – American Academy of Rome, Italy
Ekaterina Nechaeva, American Academy of Rome, Italy
András Németh, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome, Italy
Lucrezia Spera, Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Rome, Italy
Umberto Utro, Musei Vaticani, Rome, Italy
Sebestyén Terdik, Hungarian Academy in Rome, Italy
Norbert Zimmermann, The German Archaeological Institute in Rome, Italy

Source de l’information : Central European University