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• 31 jan 2019

  01 fév 2019

  Zurich

  Conference, symposium - Political studies

  The Pillars of Rule

  The Writ of Dynasties and Nation-States in the Middle East and South Asia

  Max Weber famously argued that states lay claim to the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence over certain circumscribed territories. However, historical and anthropological research has challenged his ideal-typical vision by showing how the idea of the unitary state is a fiction that can only be produced through the action of interrelated but partly autonomous agents. States, and the various institutions that constitute them, face the strategic task of identifying and domesticating the social networks that are necessary for them to secure control over particular territories and their populations. Local strongmen and notables can in turn use their own local influence in order to gain recognition from higher-level, more powerful, state institutions. In this international conference, scholars from a variety of disciplines will explore the ways in which dynastic power and/or the rule of the state is asserted, negotiated and contested across both the Middle East and South Asia.

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• 07 déc 2017

  08 déc 2017

  Zurich

  Conference, symposium - Middle Ages

  Augustine, Augustinians and Augustinianisms in the Italian Trecento

  Se l’importanza di Agostino per alcuni autori trecenteschi italiani è fatto auto-evidente, basti pensare a Francesco Petrarca che lo scelse come suo inquisitore e guida spirituale nel Secretum, la lunga durata di questa influenza nel corso del secolo è ancora in gran parte da esplorare, a partire dal caso più contestato, quello di Dante Alighieri. Parallelamente questo convegno s’interesserà al modo in cui l’attività dei membri dell’OESA ha plasmato la vita culturale peninsulare nel corso del secolo e contribuirà a rimettere in questione le categorie storiografiche di agostinismo e anti-agostinismo.

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• 08 déc 2016

  09 déc 2016

  Zurich

  Conference, symposium - Middle Ages

  The Dominicans and the Making of Florentine Cultural Identity

  Influences and Interactions between Santa Maria Novella and the Commune of Florence (1293-1313)

  Florence, the celebrated city-republic, dominates the historiography of medieval Italy still today. Her glory and crises define the paradigm for investigating other medieval city-states. As attention to medieval cities has increased, so too the history of the Dominican Order has constituted a major field of study, since the Dominicans were at the forefront of the cultural and religious life of Medieval cities. This conference intends to analyse the reciprocal influences and interactions between the activities and works of this constellation of Dominican intellectuals and the making of Florentine cultural identity through the social and political events that consumed the public life of the Commune between 1293 and 1313.

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