Appel à communication : « Domestic Devotions in the Early Modern World » (Cambridge, 9-11 Juillet 2015)

Domestic Devotions in the Early Modern World (Cambridge,  9-11 Jul 2015)

University of Cambridge, July 9 – 11, 2015 Deadline: Jan 7, 2015

CALL FOR PAPERS Domestic Devotions in the Early Modern World, 1400-1800 An Interdisciplinary

Conference 9-11 July 2015 University of Cambridge

Across faiths and regions and throughout the world, the home was a  centre for devotion in the early modern period. Holy books, prayer  mats, candlesticks, inscriptions, icons, altars, figurines of saints  and deities, paintings, prints and textiles all wove religion into the  very fabric of the home. While research into religious practice during  this period often focuses on institutions and public ceremonies, it is  clear that the home played a profound role in shaping devotional  experience, as a place for religious instruction, private prayer and  contemplation, communal worship, and the performance of everyday  rituals.  The ERC-funded research project Domestic Devotions: The Place of Piety  in the Italian Renaissance Home will be hosting this three-day  international interdisciplinary conference in July 2015. The project  team invites proposals for 20-minute papers that explore domestic  devotions in the early modern world. Papers may consider this theme  from a variety of perspectives, including material culture studies, art  and architectural history, gender studies, theology, religious studies,  economic and social history, literary studies, musicology, archaeology  and anthropology. Topics may include, though are not limited to

– Religion, ritual and belief in the home

– The use of images, objects or books in private devotion

– Daily life and life cycles

– The relationships between collective (e.g. institutional or  non-familial) devotion and private devotion

– The role of the senses in spiritual experience

– The production and ownership of religious objects found in the home

– Gender, race or age and devotional life

– Policing and regulating household religion

– Encounters between different faiths and traditions in domestic context

– Domestic devotional spaces

– Music in domestic devotion

– Devotional literature

Plenary speakers will be Debra Kaplan (Bar-Ilan University), Andrew  Morrall (Bard Graduate Center) and Virginia Reinburg (Boston College).  Please email abstracts of no more than 300 words to Maya Corry at  mc878@cam.ac.uk, Marco Faini at mf531@cam.ac.uk, and Alessia Meneghin  at am2253@cam.ac.uk by 7th January 2015. Along with your abstract  please include your name, institution, paper title and a brief  biography. Successful applicants will be notified by 7th February 2015.  For further information on Domestic Devotions see our website  http://domesticdevotions.lib.cam.ac.uk/  The conference will take place at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.  College accommodation will be bookable nearer the time. Registration  fees (tbc) will be kept as low as possible and graduate bursaries will  be available to help with costs.