Call for Papers

The medieval and early modern period in Indian history witnessed significant political developments, intensification of administrative and economic activities, and a distinct vibrancy in religious and socio-cultural expressions across the Indian subcontinent. Fundamental to this milieu were diversification of literary forms and genres, the rise to prominence of several dialects, multilingual literary productions, extensive documentation, written tracts and various oral and performative traditions. Coalescing the vernacular, Sanskrit, Arabic and the Persianate ‘cosmopolis’ of the period, narratives in their polyvalent representational forms and regional variations came to play a pivotal role in the production, compilation and dissemination of ideas and knowledge; in the creation of an ingenious audience in the temporal regime; and in manning the complex bureaucracy through energetic networks of patronage. These narratives provide an interpretive framework for local and transregional norms, which were enacted by constantly evolving practices. These norms were edified by the philosophical and intellectual discourses of the period that shaped the prevalent religious beliefs, courtly conducts, medico-humoral systems, moral values, monetary principles, judicial and legal rules, aesthetic standards, gender norms and several other socio-cultural customs intersecting the royal and the quotidian. Rooted in this bureaucratic machinery buttressing the textual, oral, material and other normative realms, the period was remarkable in forging a world of interconnectedness marked by an increase in commercial undertakings; multi-directional movement of goods, species, ideas, motifs, people (officials, merchants, pilgrims, envoys, artists and other professionals); expansion in agriculture, maritime and overland trade; and frequent legal and diplomatic dispatches. This informed and tailored the practices underpinning the administrative, ecological, legal, technological, military, religious, commercial, medical, artistic and cognitive regimes of the period. Entwined between norms and practices, the period notably forged a dynamic landscape based on contact and exchanges, overlapping methods and moods of articulation, translations and transcreations that produced and reproduced multiple narratives, performative genres, visual forms, artefacts, commercial and judicial writs and religious treatises. Integrating the natural environ with several public and private spaces such as the court, household, urban centres, rural and rurban settlements, sacred sites, karkhanas, kothas, port-cities, routes and networks, the period manifested its distinctiveness through the multiple interplay of narratives, norms and practices.

This conference, therefore, aims to critically engage with emerging approaches and lenses to understand the continuities, discontinuities, interlinkages, creation, conflicts and contestations of the norms, narratives and practices of the medieval and early-modern world. We invite papers that are aligned to, but are by no means limited to the following themes: 

1. Cross cultural encounters, travelling lives and itinerant practices 

2. Entanglement(s) of the human and the non-human world

3. Material culture and socio-spatial construction(s)

4. Norms and practices in flux: encounters, exchanges and contestations in littoral spaces

5. Intersection of the sacred and temporal norms and narratives

6. Textual norms and performative practices in a multilingual space

7. Warfare, courtly practices and diplomacy

8. Narratives of the marginalised and voices of dissent 

9. Negotiating gendered norms and practices

10. Beyond disciplinary boundaries: emerging trends in history writing

We encourage advanced PhD candidates (including those who have submitted their PhD within the past year) to submit their write-up (600-1,000 words) with a brief bio note (100 words) by October 15, 2024. The write-up should give us a brief idea of the hypothesis, research questions raised and addressed in the paper as well as a note on the primary sources discussed in the paper. The responses will be anonymised before selection for a blind review.  

Application Deadline: October 15, 2024

Acceptance notification: by November 15, 2024

Full Papers Deadline: January 15, 2025

Conference Dates: March 5-7, 2025

To submit your abstract, kindly use the following link: https://forms.gle/GvoYaPj56YKgARxp8  (attached below)

For queries, please contact Noble Shrivastava or Nitika Sharma at medievalhistoryjnu@gmail.com.