We are happy to announce the second international conference hosted by BaSaR.
Click here to see our program and here to see our abstract booklet.
Click here to enter the Webinar (Webinarcode: BaSaR2021).
In this conference, we examine the interrelationships between settlement and urbanism, on the one
hand, and political and economic development, on the other, within frontier zones. Following the work
of Elton (1996) and Parker (2006), we conceptualize frontier regions as broad zones where multiple
boundaries of different types (ecological, political, cultural, religious, etc.) overlap. We explore how the
meeting of difference in frontiers — flexible, fluctuating spaces with access to various cultural and social
spheres — impacts economic processes and the development of urban networks, markets, and exchange.
Urban networks played a critical part in creating the long-distance connections that spanned the
continents, and were in turn shaped by these connections. At the same time, they were also the
products of local political, religious, and economic developments — conditions that were particularly
complex in frontier regions. We hope to explore the interplay of the varied influences that operated at
different scales in their development; and to consider how their characteristics influenced the flows of
goods, people and ideas along the networks that they formed.
The following themes are of particular interest:
- Types of urban centers within frontier zones
- Coastal cities and local metropoles
- ‘Caravan cities’ and settlements as both local consumption centers and nodes of long-distance trade
- Structure of urban networks in frontier zones
- specific political, economic, and religious phenomena that shaped urbanism
- processes of economic integration and separation that can be identified
- the impact of geography and spatial configuration of urban centers in relation to eachother and to the environment and landscape
- Impact of frontiers on urbanism, urban development, and settlement
- special features of frontier settlements, towns, markets, and ports
- development of frontier zones and their impact on inter-imperial relations
- the role of military activity in frontier zones on settlement/town/market development
Logistical Details:
The conference will be held online on September 23rd and 24th between 14:00 and 19:00 CEST.
Speakers:
- Mark Altaweel (University College London)
- Jennifer Baird (Birkbeck University of London)
- Enno Giele (University of Heidelberg)
- Leonardo Gregoratti (Durham University)
- Valerie Hansen (Yale University)
- Jason Hawkes (University of Cambridge)
- Maxim Korolkov (University of Heidelberg)
- Rocco Palermo (University of Pisa)
- Andrea Squitieri (LMU Munich)
- Ladislav Stanco (Charles University, Prague)
- Arjan Zuiderhoek (Ghent University)