Join the Medieval Institute for its 20th annual Mellon Colloquium on "Lord of the Pen and Sword: Genealogy and Sovereignty in the Medieval Islamic West." The colloquium is a half-day public seminar discussion with the institute's 2021–22 Mellon Fellow, Prof. Mohamad Ballan (assistant professor of history, Stony Brook University), on his book-in-progress, joined by three distinguished discussants.
Registration
Registration is required to attend in person (lunch is provided) or via Zoom. Registration is limited to members of the Notre Dame community.
If you have difficulty registering, please email medinst@nd.edu.
Schedule
10:00 a.m. Opening remarks
10:05 a.m. Speaker 1: Mohamad Ballan
10:25 a.m. Speaker 2: Antoine Borrut
10:45 a.m. Coffee break
11:00 a.m. Speaker 3: Ana Echevarría
11:20 a.m. Speaker 4: Hussein Fancy
11:45 a.m. Lunch (provided)
12:15 p.m. Questions and discussion
01:00 p.m. End
About the Fellow
Mohamad Ballan is assistant professor of history at Stony Brook University, and during his year at the Medieval Institute he is completing his book manuscript. His project closely examines the phenomenon of the “scholar-statesman”—litterateurs, physicians, and jurists who ascended to the highest administrative and executive offices of state—in late medieval Islamic Spain and North Africa. He focuses on the career and writings of Lisān al-Dīn ibn al-Khaṭīb (1313–1374), the preeminent historian, philosopher and chancellor of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, situating this figure within a vast intellectual-political network of scholars, functionaries and statesmen that extended from Seville to Damascus.
About the Colloquium
Each year, the Medieval Institute selects an outstanding young scholar for its A. W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Medieval Studies. The Fellowship allows a tenure-track assistant professor to pursue research leading to the publication of a monograph. At the conclusion of the Fellow’s period of residency, a panel of senior scholars is invited to campus for a half-day public seminar discussion of the Fellow’s research. The panelists spend additional time with the Fellow in one-to-one conversation and close reading of the draft.
Originally published at medieval.nd.edu.