Middle Eastern Christianity Unit

Itineraries of Mobility: Encounter and Difference in the Pre-Modern “Middle East”

The Middle Eastern Christianity Unit invites proposals on the theme of "Itineraries of Mobility" in the pre-modern Middle East, broadly construed. We seek to explore the circulation of individuals, communities, and their remembered and lived traditions as dynamic sites of cross-cultural encounter. We welcome submissions that analyze how these itineraries of migration, pilgrimage, and displacement facilitated the negotiation of linguistic, ethnic, and religious difference. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the movement of monastics, pilgrims, scholars, or refugees, and how their mobility shaped the construction of communal pasts and identities across the pre-modern landscape.

Nicaea at 1701: Canons, Memory, and Lived Religion

Reflecting on the recent 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and its reception, the Middle Eastern Christianity Unit invites proposals that move beyond doctrinal orthodoxy to explore the council's social, disciplinary, and ecumenical legacies. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the legacy of Nicea today and the often-neglected Nicene canons as windows into "lived religion"; how these regulations shaped community boundaries, clerical discipline, and social hierarchies across the Middle East; the tension between universal ecumenical aspirations and local realities; and the diverse ways Nicaea has been remembered, contested, or reimagined in Middle Eastern historiography and identity formation.