Last week, CEU hosted the second workshop in the "Multilingualism in Eurasian Premodern Societies: Social Hierarchies and Space" Urban Multilingualism Workshop Series, entitled Urban Religious Spaces and their Languages. This workshop series is part of the EurAsian Transformations Cluster of Excellence, a collaboration between the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University of Vienna, the University of Innsbruck and CEU.
After a welcome by Prof. Katalin Szende, the workshop opened with a keynote from Prof. Pavlína Rychterová, from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Rychterová spoke on religious communication in late medieval cities, focusing on the case of Prague at the time of Jan Hus. This fascinating talk encompassed the layout of preaching sites, inscriptions of the walls of the Prague Bethlehem Chapel, and Hussite riots. Tensions between groups speaking different languages were highlighted and comparisons drawn with the reaction to Savonarola in Florence.
Over the following two days, we heard papers across a broad chronological and geographical range. Chronologically, the papers covered ancient Mesopotamia to the present day, and the geography moved across Eurasia, drawing constant comparisons and emphasizing links between societies. Contributors came from a number of universities, travelling from as far afield as Toronto. We also had many contributors from the University of Vienna and CEU.
The concluding discussion emphasized the question still to be asked around multilingualisms in the urban spaces of Eurasia, with a particular focus on the medieval period. We look forward to continuing the discussion with a third workshop in November.