2nd September School in Medieval Studies (Prague-Leibzig): Communicating Discord: The Media of Polemic in the Late Middle Ages and Early Reformation

Organized by GWZO Prague, CMS Prague, University of Kassel, University of Leipzig

Detailed information

September school website

Conflicts of all kinds are inevitably accompanied by polemical and hostile communication. Under favourable circumstances and where necessary resources were found, such communication could grow to a veritable media campaign even in pre-modern times. The September School on “Communicating Discord: The Media of Polemic in the Late Middle Ages and Early Reformation” suggests to analyse how disapproval and abuse were communicated not only in various social contexts, but also through various channels and media (written, oral, pictorial). The focus will be on the Holy Roman Empire from the fourteenth to early sixteenth centuries, and thus on a space and time that witnessed a number of social upheavals, military conflicts and religious novelties, including the emergence of Hussite and Lutheran Reformation. In this way, the Summer School attempts to overcome the traditional separate treatments of national histories and historical eras. The relevance of the epochal divide between the Middle Ages and the Reformation should be tested against the development of communication media, with due attention given to both the revolutionary potential of technological progress and the long-term stability of cultural and communicative practice.

Programme

Monday 16 September / Prague, CMS
9:00–12:00 Introduction | Input Politics [coffee break] Presentations & Discussion
12:00–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–15:00 Input Religion [coffee]
15:30–17:30 Walking Tour in the Old Town of Prague: Places of Hussite Controversy

Tuesday 17 September / Prague, CMS
9:00–12:00 Presentations & Discussion Religion [coffee break] Group Work
12:00–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–17:00 Input Society [coffee break] Presentations & Discussion | Group Work

Wednesday 18 September / Wittenberg
8:30 Bus transfer Prague-Wittenberg
13:00–14:00 Lunch
14:00–15:00 Walking Tour 1
15:00–16:00 Guided Tour “Judensau” & Stadtkirche
16:00–18:00 Walking Tour 2
18:00 transfer to Leipzig

Thursday 19 September / Leipzig, Sächsische Akademie
9:00–12:00 Session at the Saxon Academy with Sebastian Roebert
13:30–15:00 Visit to University Library (TBC)
15:30–17:00 Group Work

Friday 20 September / Leipzig, Leibniz-GWZO Specks Hof
9:00–12:00 Presentations of Working Groups | Final Discussion

 Programme__Info_2024.pdf