臺大外文系學術演講

📖Abstract

What can we learn about the activities of those who do not write histories, or do not have histories written about them? Over the course of 1000 years (from 500 – 1500 AD), medieval Italy witnessed two pandemics, major and dramatic climate change, and extended periods of war and conflict. Our knowledge of these events primarily comes from historical records, and to a lesser extent archaeological research, which tends to favor stories of elites and their institutions – dukes, kings, bishops, and abbots – and those living in urban centers. By using evidence from paleoecology (the study of natural archives of past landscapes using data from fossil pollens) and close readings of medieval charters (documents that record land transfers and disputes) we are able to recover new histories of those outside the elite, both free and unfree, as they worked to adapt to new political, environmental, and economic regimes.

👤Bio

Edward (Ned) Schoolman teaches at the University of Nevada, Reno, and is a historian of the medieval world with a focus on the Mediterranean from the sixth to the 11th century. He has published on a range of topics related to late antique and early medieval cultural history, and his first book, Rediscovering Sainthood in Italy investigated the development of the cult of saints in Ravenna from the fifth to the tenth centuries. His current research extends in two main directions: the first is exemplified in the forthcoming Greek Identity and Culture in Early Medieval Italy, 500-1000, an investigation of difference making and cultural minorities in the early Middle Ages, under contract with Oxford University Press; the second on the intersections of land management, climate, and environment made visible through medieval historical records and paleoecological data as part of interdisciplinary collaborations.