Thomas Glick Celebratory Roundtable Discussion – 02/27/2016 (Boston)

John Tolan, co-director of the IPRA, will participate in the roundtable in honor of Thomas F. Glick (held on the theme: ‘Medieval Convivencia?’) with a lecture entitled : “Beyond Convivencia: Daily Contacts and Conflicts in Medieval Iberian Texts.” This roundtable is held as part of the 91st Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America.

Summary of the lecture: How did religious minorities obtain justice and in which venues?  To what extent could, say, Jews in ninth-century Cordoba or thirteenth-century Gerona regulate conflicts within their communities?  When and how could they (as individuals or groups) gain the ear of a Muslim qadi or royal bailiff?  One often reads that within Medieval Muslim societies, dhimmi communities (Jews and Christians) had their own justice systems to settle internal disputes between members of their communities, and only turned to Muslim qadis when they came into conflict with Muslims (or Jews with Christians).  And we tend to ascribe the same legal autonomy to many of the Muslim and Christian communities in Medieval Iberia.  This is not false, but in fact things are far more complex.  In the spirit of going beyond simple narratives of conflict or convivencia, this paper will attempt to give an idea of the complexity (and in many cases malleability) of access to justice in Medieval Iberian societies.

Roundtables program:

Roundtable 1: Friday 2/26: 430-615

1. Mark Abate: “Opening Remarks: Ever Since Castro: Thomas Glick and Convivencia”
2. Ken Wolf: “Reading Between the Lines in the Search for Convivencia”
3. Tom Burman: “Every Language is an Attempt: The Limits of Linguistic Convivencia”
4. Cynthia Robinson: “Once Again…Mudejar?”
5. Pamela Patton: “Making Faces: Convivencia and the Depiction of the Other.”

Roundtable 2: Saturday 2/27: 830-1015

1. Brian Catlos: “Just Say No to Convivencia: Convivencia and Complex Systems.”
2. Jonathan Ray: “Situation Autonomy: Meanings of Convivencia within Medieval Jewish Society.”
3. Jessica Coope: “Were Women a Part of Convivencia?”
4. John Tolan: “Beyond Convivencia: Daily Contacts and Conflicts in Medieval Iberian Texts.”
5. Thomas Glick: “Closing Remarks: Acculturation in the Social Sciences in the 1960s.”

Practical information:

• Date: Saturday, February 27 • 8:30am – 10:15am
• Place: Hyatt Regency, One Avenue de Lafayette, Boston
• Additional information (about price, entry, schedule) are available at this address: https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/?page=Current_Meeting