Labnet: CFP: Slavery, Ransom and Liberation in Russia and the Steppe Area, 1500-2000 - Aberdeen 06/09

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From:    Christoph Witzenrath c.witzenrath at gmx.net 

CFP: Slavery, Ransom and Liberation in Russia and the Steppe Area,
1500-2000 - Aberdeen 06/09

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Dr. Christoph Witzenrath, Aberdeen Centre for Eastern European History,
University of Aberdeen, UK, Aberdeen
15.06.2009-16.06.2009, University of Aberdeen. Linklater Rooms
Deadline: 11.01.2009

Recent research has demonstrated that early modern slavery was much more
widespread than the traditional concentration on plantation slavery in
the context of European colonial expansion would suggest. Slavery and
slave trading were common across wide stretches of Eurasia, and a slave
economy played a vital part in the political and cultural contacts
between Russia and its Eurasian neighbours. This international
conference backed by the Leverhulme Trust concentrates on captivity,
slavery and ransom in the vicinity of the Eurasian steppe from the early
modern period to recent developments and seeks to explore its legacy and
relevance down to the present day. The conference will centre on the
Russian Empire, while aiming to bring together scholars from various
disciplines and historical traditions of the leading states in this
region, including Poland-Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Mongolia
and China, and their various successor states. At the centre of
attention will be transfers, transnational fertilisations and the
institutional mechanisms, rituals and representations facilitating
enslavement, exchanges and ransoming. Slaving, ransoming and captivity
have long been marginal subjects of historical research in this area;
however, recently historians in Russian imperial history and in some
other fields have returned to take a fresh look at a subject that
continues to influence mutual perceptions in the area as demonstrated by
popular culture, social movements and nineteenth century discourse on
Northern American slavery. Conference participants may approach the
subject informed by social and cultural historical methods. The
conference will seek to apply clearly defined terms, especially with
respect to slaves and other forms of bonded labour, and will look at
such topics as: 

-The material and military history of slavery in Eastern Europe,
Eurasia, and the Black Sea. In what ways and by what means did slavers
and slave owners capture, buy and exploit their victims?
-The scale of the phenomenon: what was the extent of slavery and how
extensive was the slave economy? 
-When and why did the medieval east-west trade in slaves change to
become largely a north-south trade? Who, and what social or ethnic
groups engaged in this specific trade?
-Where did slaves end up, alive or dead, and to which parts of the World
were they sent or dragged?
-How did captives and slaves returning to Eastern Europe and Eurasia
culturally manifest their - professed - plight? What can narratives of
captivity tell about the perception of slavery and captivity among those
who went through it? What is the documentary value of these sources? 
-Russia expanded at a time which saw a renewed focus on slavery and
ransoming. In how far were these trends connected? How did Russia and
other powers try to convert transnational contacts related to slavery
and captivity into power? 
-What kind of rituals and institutions - diplomatic and domestic -
helped to assert the power of the tsar far beyond the claimed sphere of
influence, on the slave markets and in the steppe? What were the
attitudes of the Orthodox Church towards slavery and redemption? To what
extent did the official culture of the Russian Empire engage with
slavery? 
-In what ways did captivity, slavery and ransoming become culturally
instrumentalized?
-In what ways were debates on human rights and ideas of freedom in the
steppe area related to or influenced by slavery and ransoming?
-What roles do captives and the memory of captivity play in the area's
contemporary culture, media and politics?

Don Ostrowski (Harvard) will deliver the key note.

Please send proposals for papers, consisting of a short c.v. and a 500
words abstract of the contribution.
Deadline for submitting proposals: 11 January 2008.
The conference will be supported by the Leverhulme Trust. Participants
whose home institution can not fund travelling might be partly
reimbursed pending further funding applications under way.
Contact, questions, and submission of applications: Dr Christoph
Witzenrath, History Department, Crombie Annexe, University of Aberdeen,
UK, AB24 3FX, tel. ++44-1224-272453, c.witzenrath at abdn.ac.uk.

Homepage http://www.abdn.ac.uk/history/research/acreeh/ 

URL zur Zitation dieses Beitrages
http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=10253 



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