BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Silk Road Worlds\, Large and Small: Intersections in Mongol-era Ar
 menia - Dr. Kate Franklin\, Birkbeck\, University of London
DTSTART:20231103T140000Z
DTEND:20231103T150000Z
UID:TALK206914@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Said Reza Huseini
DESCRIPTION:Abstract:\nThe scalar expanse of the Silk Road as a historical
  phenomenon and cultural imaginary challenges us to consider how such scal
 es—of distance\, difference\, and differential desire—might have been 
 understood by people living in ‘small worlds’ scattered across what we
  now think of as the Silk Road lands. In this talk I frame the span of the
  medieval Silk Road within the experience of people living in Armenia\, sp
 ecifically the southern region of Vayots Dzor\, during the ‘long Mongol 
 thirteenth century.’ I will explore intersections of material culture\, 
 modes of political life and human mobilities\, as well as considering how 
 the ‘big world’ we now call the Silk Road could be ‘provincialized
 ’ within the lifeworlds of people with local projects as well as univers
 al aspirations.\n\nAbout the speaker:\nKate Franklin is a Senior Lecturer 
 in Medieval History at Birkbeck\, University of London. Kate has worked in
  the Republic of Armenia for more than a decade\, with her 2014 PhD from t
 he Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago focused on the 
 participation of medieval Armenians in the networks of travel and trade no
 w called the medieval Silk Road. Kate’s work explores ideas of place and
  landscape in materiality and text\, and the role of space in entwining th
 e local\, the everyday\, and the global. Her first book\, Everyday Cosmopo
 litanisms: Living the Silk Road in Medieval Armenia (UCPress 2021) combine
 s historical and archaeological research centered on the role of caravanse
 rais\, or inns for travelers\, within Armenian political and social life. 
 Her second\, co-authored\, book Landscapes and Environments of the Middle 
 Ages (Routledge 2023) presents methods and case studies for thinking in in
 terdisciplinary ways about medieval creation\, perception\, and representa
 tions of the ‘natural’ world. Kate is Co-PI of the Vayots Dzor Silk Ro
 ad Survey\, which works to research\, record and re-imagine the medieval w
 orlds of Vayots Dzor\, Armenia.\n\n
LOCATION:Audit Room\, King’s College (and online) 
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR