Nova University of Lisbon 28th—30th September 2017
Proposals due by 15 march 2017
Splendid Encounters 6 is one of a series of international and interdisciplinary conferences which aim to bring together scholars from the broadest range of perspectives to consider diplomacy and diplomatic activities in the late medieval and early modern period. After successful meetings in Warsaw, Bath, Florence, Budapest, and Prague, we wish to invite you to join us for another event, hosted by Nova University of Lisbon.
Collecting and transferring information is a major aim of diplomacy, and one not confined to diplomats strictly speaking. People of different ranks and functions were still connected to diplomatic activity — ambassadors, nuncios, chargés d’affaires, secretaries and agents, members of ambassadorial households, consuls and merchants, and even the aides employed as middlemen or translators. Just as varied as the agents were the methods used to obtain access to the latest news and information useful to ruler or country. As diplomatic networks grew bigger and bigger in size and reach in this period, so did the need to find reliable sources of news and to develop ways to efficiently deliver them.
These are some of the issues that will be addressed at the upcoming conference, Splendid Encounters VI. The conference will focus on the role of news and information transmitting in diplomatic practices within and outside Europe between the fourteenth and the eighteenth centuries. In assessing the role of diplomats and networks in such exchanges, this edition of Splendid Encounters also breaks away from traditional chronological and geographical approaches. Please email by 15 March 2017 to se6.lisbon@gmail.com your abstract for either 20‒minute individual papers or 90‒minute sessions (to comprise a panel, roundtable, project presentation, etc.). We especially encourage proposals dealing with:
- Diplomatic correspondence: evolution, importance, cyphers, etc.
- Diplomats and diplomacy as a subject of news
- The languages, forms and performance of (written and oral) communication
- East–West/North–South encounters
- Channels of contact; Europe, Africa, Asia, America
- Diplomatic communication across cultures and the culture(s) of diplomatic communication
- Practices of information exchange in empire, states, regions
- The personnel of news networks
- Continuity and change in the long run: from ‘medieval’ to ‘early modern’
Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 15th April.