The Turin Humanities Programme and Fondazione1563 are pleased to invite doctoral students and early career researchers to submit their applications to the Summer School Writing global medieval history: comparative and connected approaches.

The Summer School aims to discuss connected and comparative approaches to the global Middle Ages, exploring new and avenues for research in fields such as politico-institutional, intellectual, religious, economic, and environmental studies.

A global approach to the study of the medieval period has only recently come to the fore and is yielding important results, which emphasise the potential of combining the longue durée with a wider geographical scale. While the term ‘Middle Ages’ has proved more pragmatically useful for areas outside the Euro-Mediterranean world than it could have been anticipated, research on the global Middle Ages demands collaboration across different areas of historical research and openness to languages and traditions of studies operating in separate academic disciplines and departments.

The Summer School intends to highlight the dynamic between connected and comparative approaches to the Middle Ages, offering opportunities for methodological reflections as well as examples and case-studies. One of such case-studies is the body-politic metaphor and its role in Euro-Mediterranean and East Asian political thought, as well as the challenges it poses to a comparative and connected intellectual history of the medieval period.

The THP Summer School provides a forum for postgraduate students and early career researchers in the field of humanities and the social sciences (history, philosophy, literature, art history, anthropology, religion) to engage with the most up-to-date academic debates and global historiographical currents on the global Middle Ages.

We encourage applications from researchers with a strong interest in

– the history of trans-regional contacts and exchanges in the medieval and early modern period
– comparative history
– ‘deep history’ and the history of the body
– environmental history
– intellectual history of the Middle Ages and the early modern period
– the history and anthropology of religion on a global scale

English will be the default language of the Summer School. The Summer School programme includes keynote lectures of Professor Hilde de Weerdt (Ku Leuven), Professor Nicola di Cosmo (Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University), Professor Daniel Smail (Harvard University), Professor Lucia Dolce (SOAS University of London), Professor Serena Ferente (University of Amsterdam), early career researchers’ presentations of original research, feedback sessions and roundtable discussions.

To foster dialogue between senior and young scholars, the Summer School offers its participants a unique opportunity to contribute to the broader discussion on theme of global medieval history with their own ideas and research. Successful applicants will also have the chance to present their papers in panel sessions which will be followed by a Q&A led by a panel discussant.

To apply for the Summer School, prospective participants should submit a brief academic CV (max. 2 pages), an abstract of the research they wish to present (max. 400 words) and a short essay on why they would like to attend the Summer School (max. 200 words).

Please, upload these materials within the application form that can be found on the website of Fondazione 1563 at the following link: www.fondazione1563.it/application-form-thp-summer-school/ by 10.00 AM (Italian/CET time) of June 30, 2023.

The Summer School will be activated only with a minimum of 10 participants; a maximum of 12 participants is allowed.

The participation in the Summer School is free to all Italian and International postgraduate students and early career researchers. Travelling expenses to and from Torino and accommodation expenses in Torino will be borne by the participants. Fondazione 1563 will provide the participants with a list of hotels where they can get special offers as participants of the Summer School.

Upon acceptance of the participation in the Summer School, the participants will be asked to confirm their participation in the social events proposed by Fondazione 1563. For information, please contact the organisers at info@fondazione1563.it

The candidates will be selected according to a meritocratic criteria based on the curriculum and the relevance of the submitted research. The candidates will be informed of the selection result by July 12, 2023 via the email address they included in the application form. The selected candidates will receive the attendance form that will have to be signed for acceptance and returned, on pain of forfeiture, within 5 working days starting from the date of the communication of having been selected by Fondazione 1563. Fondazione 1563 reserves the right to suspend, modify or cancel this selection procedure or the Summer School in any moment at its incontestable discretion, without that being in any way for the Candidates a right or a demand to claim any refund, compensation or reimbursement.