The Carolingian frontier and its neighbours

University of Cambridge, 4-6 July, 2014

While recent scholarship has done much to illuminate early medieval 
frontiers, the relationship between the Carolingian frontier and its 
neighbouring societies has yet to be the focus of sustained, comparative 
discussion.  This conference aims to initiate a dialogue between 
scholars of the Carolingian frontier and those of the societies it 
bordered, and in so doing to reach a better understanding of the nature 
and extent of contacts in frontier regions and the various manners in 
which these contacts – not to mention frontier regions themselves – were 
conceptualized.  Moreover, it will explore the interplay between various 
types of contact – whether military, political, economic, social, or 
religious – and the various ways in which these contacts could underpin, 
or undermine, existing relationships, both between the local societies 
themselves and between political centres.

By bringing together an international group of established and 
postgraduate scholars whose work lies both inside and outside the 
Carolingian empire, this conference seeks not only to open up 
comparative perspectives, but also to place the Carolingian empire 
within its global historical context.  Topics may include, but are not 
limited to: cross-border socio-political influence; religious contacts 
and ideological exchange; trade and material culture; the influence of 
political centres at the frontier; frontier fortifications; and local 
and central conceptualizations of frontiers within the period c. 750 – 
c. 950.  Participants are also welcome to consider different Carolingian 
frontiers in comparative perspective and the role of modern scholarship 
in the ‘creation’ of the Carolingian frontier.

Confirmed speakers for this conference include Dr. Caroline Brett 
(Cambridge), Professor Wojciech Fałkowski (Warsaw), Professor Joachim 
Henning (Frankfurt), Dr. Jonathan Jarrett (Birmingham), Professor 
Eduardo Manzano Moreno (Madrid), and Dr. Ivo Štefan (Prague).  Alongside 
invited papers, proposals are welcomed from postgraduate and 
postdoctoral students whose work focuses on the Carolingian frontier, 
and particularly from scholars of the societies which the Carolingians 
bordered.

This conference will take place over three days at the University of 
Cambridge.  Interested parties should send a 350 word abstract for a 
twenty-minute paper to thecarolingianfrontier@gmail.com.  The deadline 
for proposals is 11 April 2014.

This conference is generously supported by the George Macaulay Trevelyan 
Fund and by the Society for the Study of French History.

With all best wishes,
Ingrid Rembold
Fraser McNair
Sam Ottewill-Soulsby