Transmitting and Preserving Languages in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean. Second International Workshop
Date: 4 June 2026
Venue: Balliol College, Gillis Lecture Theatre and Massey Room (Oxford OX1 3BJ) & online
Convenors: Daniel Gallaher and Ugo Mondini (University of Oxford)
The workshop explores how and why languages were taught, learned, and sustained across the diverse and shifting socio-cultural landscapes of the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean. Integrating history with historical sociolinguistics and adopting a comparative and cross-disciplinary perspective, the workshop aims to identify shared trends, comparable elements, and distinctive features in language learning and transmission. This approach offers a renewed perspective on the interconnected Mediterranean world—a region where multilingualism, mobility, and intercultural exchange were and are central to daily life. The impact of these dynamics on language teaching, preservation, and use has often been underestimated.
The event will include dedicated time for discussion and reflection, allowing participants to engage in a broader conversation about language, identity, and cultural transmission. At its core, the project reimagines the medieval and early modern Mediterranean, not merely as a space of teaching, learning, and multilingual exchange.
Speakers: Marina Bazzani (University of Oxford); Valentina Calzolari (University of Geneva); Benedetta Contin (Austrian Academy of Sciences); Andrea Cuomo (Ghent University); Karen Hamada (University of Tokyo); Anthony Kaldellis (University of Chicago); Markéta Kulhánková (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
For more information: https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/events/2026/june/04/transmitting-and-preserving-languages-medieval-and-early-modern-mediterranean
