Civilization in Voskopoja / Moschopolis and the Century of Enlightenment in the Balkans
Tirana and Voskopoja, November 9-11, 2017 (to be confirmed)
The Academy of Sciences of Albania is inviting contributions to the International Scientific Conference on the topic: Civilization in Voskopoja / Moschopolis and the Century of Enlightenment in the Balkans.
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the blossom of Voskopoja. In 1767, following a crisis in the Church hierarchy, the Archdiocese of Ohrid, in whose jurisdiction the ecclesiastical provinces of Voskopoja, Vithkuq and Korca were, lost an historical status, acquired since the early 11th century, and returned under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Two years after the loss of this status, Voskopoja was burnt for the first time. Changing trading routes and socio-economic conditions of the Ottoman Empire led to the decline of the once thriving city, thereby changing the set of nodes and ties in which Moschopolis and Moschopolitans engaged as part of wider social and power networks. The city's destruction was accelerated by looting and destruction by provincial irregulars, as a consequence of which churches and monasteries, libraries and manuscripts, icons and iconostases were ruined and pillaged. While the city gradually shrank to a modest settlement by the beginning of the 20th century, its inhabitants scattered throughout the Ottoman Balkans and Habsburg Europe, following the immigration examples of many of their ancestors, whose diaspora to the Italian states and the Habsburg Empire is attested at least since the 17th century.
We would like to approach the multi-faceted phenomenon of Voskopoja, with its heterogeneous ethnic, lingual and religious reality, from the networks theoretical perspective. Thus, we encourage contributions investigating the various communication, formal, affective, material or work-flow, proximity and cognitive ties, in which Voskopoja / Moschopolis and Moschopolitans became active from the later 17th century to the early 20th century and which led to the city's blossom. We are thus calling for studies of the ways, prerequisites and processes in which related social networks transformed into European imperial and post-imperial power networks (17th-20th centuries), socio-political, economic and cultural capital, constituting what is currently understood as European culture. The conference shall also look Voskopoja?s empathetic acceptance of the Other in the light of contemporary concepts of European culture and heritage.
In this theoretical underpinning, the conference will address issues included but not limited to the topics below:
1. Historical and cultural development factors that influenced the thriving of Voskopoja;
2. Voskopoja manuscripts (e.g. Codices of the Monastery of St. John the Forerunner, Codex Dimonie) and incunabula: tradition and current state of research;
3. Voskopoja and the development of alphabets among the Balkan peoples (Theodore Kavalioti, Theodore Haxhifilipi, Mihail Boiagi?s primer);
4. Voskopoja and the century of linguistic Enlightenment in the Balkans;
5. Voskopoja and the regulation of urban life: guilds and their registers;
6. The New Academy, typography, dictionaries and grammars;
7. Balkan languages and national ideologies. Byronism, Leibniz philosophical ideas for the peoples languages and the developments in Voskopoja; lingua franca and lingua vernacula in 18th century Voskopoja;
8. The ecclesiastical status of Voskopoja under the Archdiocese of Ohrid and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople later: social-cultural ramifications;
9. Moscopolitans and their diaspora (e.g. the case of the decorator painter Teodor Grunde / Grundovich);
10. Voskopoja, Ioannina (Zosimea) and other Balkan centres of Enlightenment;
Timeline:
1. May 15, 2017: Submission of title and abstract in English or Albanian (max. 250 words); together with a resume(ca. 50 words) at the conference's Secretariat: Edmond.cane@akad.gov.al; ecane2000@yahoo.com and vitoreveli@gmail.com.
2. June 30, 2017: Selection of papers by the Organizing Committee.
There will be no conference fee. The Albanian Academy of Sciences will cover costs relating to in-country transport, visits to museums and historical sights, cultural & artistic activities.
For the Scientific Organizing Committee
Prof. Dr. Floresha Dado, Academician
Chair, Albanian & Social Sciences Section
Albanian Academy of Sciences
For more information please click "Further Official Information" below.