Call for Papers
Exemplaria: Medieval / Early Modern / Theory
After Abu-Lughod: Comparative Frames for a Global Middle Ages
Due By 1 August 2023
Exemplaria is pleased to announce a call for a Special Issue examining the legacy of Janet Abu-Lughod’s landmark text of global medieval studies, Before European Hegemony, on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the book’s publication.
Scholars across disciplines continue to draw upon Janet Abu-Lughod’s book Before European Hegemony, published in 1989, as a means of conceptualizing the premodern world. We propose a discussion of emerging frameworks as well as revisions to or new applications of Abu-Lughod’s groundbreaking ideas. As a journal devoted to the intersection of theory and medieval studies, we invite panelists to theorize their approach to the Global Middle Ages or to reflect on the legacy and impact of Janet Abu-Lughod’s influential work. We welcome extensions of and revisions to her prescient model of medieval globalism, including interrogation of its temporal and spatial boundaries or its critical blindspots. We also welcome discussion of Abu-Lughod’s other writings beyond (or in relation to) Beyond European Hegemony.
Abu-Lughods’s ideas have found application in a wide array of disciplines—history, sociology, literature, art history, music, development studies and more—and we hope to draw scholars from an equally wide range of disciplines to contemplate her legacy.
If accepted, papers would be 7000-8000 words in length, with drafts due by July 1, 2024. Please send brief proposal Abstracts (250 words) by August 1, 2023 to Shirin Khanmohamadi (shirin1@sfsu.edu).