Summer Intensive Course - Luminosus Limes: Geographical, Ethnic, Social and Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity

Central European University, Budapest, July 7-12, 2014

http://www.summer.ceu.hu/limes-2014

What is a frontier? Does it serve to separate or to link countries, 
peoples, classes, ideas?   Frontiers have become increasingly 
significant in the study of Late Antiquity, the fastest growing 
historical discipline, as scholars recognized the fundamental importance 
of shifting barriers in the process of transformation that led from the 
classical to the post-classical world. People living in the Roman world 
between the second and the sixth century tore down many walls 
demarcating cultures, religions, ethnicities. Frontiers once firmly 
separating empires, ethnic groups, religions, friends and even the sexes 
have been intensely crossed in late antiquity – a phenomenon comparable 
only to the recent transition from modernity to post-modernity -- a 
comparison that we intend to exploit in our methodology.

The “Bright Frontier” summer course explores the dynamic transformation 
of classical frontiers between the second and the sixth century from a 
multidisciplinary perspective: archaeology, medieval studies, social and 
cultural history, art, theology, and literature. Offering a 
groundbreaking approach to the field of border studies including social, 
gender, ethnic and religious categories with the participation of 
outstanding scholars in the field, this course will provide students 
with a solid knowledge of up-to-date international scholarship on 
frontiers: a strong theoretical background as well as hands-on 
acquaintance with physical borders and material artifacts excavated 
along the Danube River (the ripa Pannonica) as well as in the late 
antique cemetery of Pécs in Hungary.

Course Director(s):
Marianne Saghy
Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, 
Hungary
Noel Lenski
Department of Classics, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Rita Lizzi Testa
Department of Roman History, University of Perugia, Italy

Course Faculty:
Claudia-Maria Behling
Department of Classical Archeology, University of Vienna, Austria
Maijastina Kahlos
Finnish Academy of Science, Finland
Levente Nagy
Department of Contemporary History, University of Pecs, Hungary
Anna Toth
Karoli Gaspar University, Budapest, Hungary
Zsolt Visy
Department of Archaeology, University of Pecs, Hungary

Guest Speaker(s):
Sylvia Palagyi
Museum Directorate of Veszprém County, Roman Villa Complex, Hungary
Adam Szabo
Archaeology, Hungarian National Museum, Hungary
Paula Zsidi
Budapest Historic Museum, Aquincum, Hungary