Register for a CSMC lecture series

Written Artefacts across World Regions: Incommensurabilities and Comparisons

Lecture Series (hybrid format)

Convenors: Mariapaola Gritti and Martin-Jörg Schäfer

In the Winter Semester 2023/24, the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’ at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures convened the lecture series ‘Understanding Written Artefacts: Untold Stories / Schriftartefakte verstehen: Unerzählte Geschichten’ to explore aspects of written artefacts that have not yet been brought to the foreground of scholarly conversations in written artefact studies. The series also reflected on some of the cultural and disciplinary norms and ethical challenges that have shaped written artefact research so far. This year’s lecture series aims to expand these conversations on the (changing) norms, emphases, and trajectories of development that characterise contemporary written artefact research by presenting materials and perspectives from across world regions, and specifically from beyond Euro-American scholarly centres. In making room for further ‘untold stories’, we want to focus particularly on the connections – the similarities, the entanglements, but also the incommensurabilities – that emerge when we look at research on artefacts originating from or located in different regions or at research informed by different scholarly and conservation traditions as well as by different cultural and political contexts. We hope that contributions to the series will enable us to discuss the powers and pitfalls of cross-cultural comparison as a productive yet also potentially limiting approach in written artefact research. Comparisons can sharpen our sensibility for the cross-cultural diversity of written artefacts and writing practices, but also stifle our capacity to convey radically diverse modes of knowledge and practice to our audiences. What aspects of written artefacts and of writing practices invite or, instead, defy comparisons? What insights can comparisons yield, what understandings might they obscure? And what thematic, methodological, and epistemological expansions can a focus on cross-cultural or cross-regional incommensurabilities help us envision? Lectures in the series will explore these questions by looking at case studies from Algeria, India, Iran, Mali, Mexico, Thailand, and Yemen.

The series comprises lectures in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. Consecutive interpretation into English will be provided for the lectures in Arabic, French, and Spanish.

The series will be presented in hybrid format. We look forward to having you with us in the lecture hall, or alternatively on Zoom.

All lectures will be held on Mondays, 6:15 pm — 8:00 pm CET, at Erwin-Panofsky Hörsaal (ESA C), Hauptgebäude, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, and online (ZOOM).

Registration: https://www.zfw.uni-hamburg.de/oeffentliche-vortraege/programm-wise/11-written-artefacts-across-world-regions/anmeldeformular-zoom.html

Date	Lecturer	Title
14 October 2024	Hanna Wimmer, Art History Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’ at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, University of Hamburg	Introduction – Written Artefacts across World Regions: Incommensurabilities and Comparisons
21 October 2024	María Isabel Álvarez Icaza Longoria, Art History Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico – in Spanish with interpretation into English	La atribución regional y cultural de los manuscritos mesoamericanos calendáricos-rituales-adivinatorios / The Regional Culture Attribution of Calendrical-Ritual-Divinatory Mesoamerican Manuscripts
28 October 2024	Mohammed Tawaf, History École nationale des chartes, Paris, France – in Arabic with interpretation into English	Archives and Archival Practices in Yemen
11 November 2024	M.V. Muralikrishnan, Vedic Studies Vadakke Madham Brahmaswan, Thrissur, India	Key Features and Significance of the Manuscripts in the Panthal Collection: An Important Collection within the DiPiKA Project
18 November 2024	Nathael Cano, Heritage Conservation Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico	Pictographic Manuscripts from New Spain: The Heritage Science Approach
25 November 2024	Djibril Dramé, African Studies The British Library, London, United Kingdom	Malian Manuscripts through the Lens of Jenne: Socio-Linguistic Diversity in Digitised Collections
2 December 2024	Thaneerat Jatuthasri, Thai Studies Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand	Investigating Thai Court Dance-Drama Manuscripts: Texts, Paratexts, and Text-Performance Relations
9 December 2024	Djamel-Eddine Mechehed, Archival Studies & Codicology Lmuhub Ulahbib Manuscript Library, Béjaïa, Algeria – in French with interpretation into English	L'exploitation codicologique de la collection de manuscrits (arabes et berbères) de Lmuhub Ulahbib - Kabylie, Algérie / The Codicological Study of the (Arabic and Berber) Manuscript Collection of Lmuhub Ulahbib in Kabylia, Algeria
16 December 2024 online session	Elaheh Shahpasand, Qur’ānic Studies University of Qur’ānic Sciences at Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran	The Impact of the Idea of “the Masculinity of the Qur’ān” on Ten Qur’ānic Readings, with Case Studies from the Astan Quds Razavi Manuscript Library in Mashhad, Iran