The Conference Programme is now available via this link

As of 14 June 2022, the following measures apply in Greece:

• Face masks are mandatory in hospitals, medical and diagnostic centres and in pharmacies; on means of public transport where standing passengers are allowed (for example city buses, tramways, metro); and on passenger boats.

• Face masks are strongly recommended indoors and outdoors if crowded conditions prevail.

• The use of disinfectant lotion, careful airing and frequent self-testing as means of protection of self and others are strongly recommended in all cases.

In view of these government measures, our conference policy is to strongly recommend the use of face masks in the Lecture Rooms and outdoors when conditions of congestion are present.

The Conference Organisers are monitoring the COVID-19 situation and will issue an updated notice in case a change in policy occurs. The University of Crete and the Institute for Mediterranean Studies-FORTH have implemented all appropriate measures regarding COVID-19 but disclaim any liability for exposure to the virus.

Participants are asked not to attend the conference if they have symptoms of Covid-19 and/or have tested positive for Covid-19 within the previous 5 days.

HOW TO ARRIVE AT RETHYMNO

Plane

Crete has two international airports, at Heraklion (the capital: [N. Kazantzakis Airport – HER]) and at Chania (the second biggest city: [Daskalogiannis Airport – CHQ]). Rethymno is almost at half-distance between the two airports (about 80km from Heraklion, a little less from Chania), and well-connected to both. There are flights to Crete via Athens throughout the year, and direct flights from major European airports in summer. 

Boat

Heraklion and Chania are also connected to the port of Athens, Piraeus, by boat. The main ferry lines are provided by Minoan Lines, ANEK Lines, and Bluestar Ferries. Once at the port of Souda-Chania or Heraklion, you can choose the bus or taxi options listed below.

LAND TRAVEL IN CRETE

Taxi

Taxi is a convenient way for land travel on the island. Rates are more or less fixed for all taxi companies. Transfer from Chania Airport to Chania city costs about €25, and from Heraklion airport to Heraklion city centre about €15. Transfer by taxi from either Heraklion or Chania airport directly to Rethymno costs around €100. This cost can be divided if more than one passengers share the taxi. You can also hire a minivan of up to 8 passengers. The cost is about €120-130. 

Bus

There is a frequent and efficient bus service connecting all major and minor settlements on Crete, run by the KTEL bus company.

There is a DIRECT BUS SERVICE from Chania airport to Rethymno and vice versa. Trip duration about 60-70 minutes.

There is a frequent shuttle service from Chania (https://www.chania-airport.com/chania-airport-bus-chq/), and Heraklion (http://astiko-irakleiou.gr/en/#main) airports to the respective city centres and KTEL bus stations; alternatively you can take a taxi from the airport to the KTEL bus station, and the respective costs are mentioned above. 

Bus services to Rethymno from Heraklion or Chania leave every hour between 05:15 and 22:30.

For the timetable from Heraklion to Rethymno, follow this link: https://ktel.azureedge.net/assets/docs/20-06-2022%20ρεθυμνο-χανια.pdf

For the timetable from Chania city to Rethymno, follow this link: https://www.e-ktel.com/images/pdfs/2022/JUN_22/RETHYMNO_FROM_27-06-2022.pdf

For the timetable from Chania Airport to Chania city and to Rethymno, follow this link: https://www.e-ktel.com/images/pdfs/2022/JUN_22/AIRPORT_FROM_16-06-2022_TO_30-06-2022.pdf

PLEASE NOTE that the last KTEL bus service from Heaklion to Rethymno is at 22:30, from Rethymno to Heraklion at 00:00, from Chania to Rethymno at 22:30 and from Chania Airport to Rethymno at 00:00. Check the timetables before you finalise you travel arrangements.

Car Rental

Renting a car can be convenient and reasonably priced. All major car rental companies have branches at the airport. Do consider, however, that due to its mountainous landscape, the island has a limited network of motorways and more A-roads.

The Conference will be hosted in the lecture halls of the Faculty of Letters and the Department of History and Archaeology (http://www.history-archaeology.uoc.gr/en/start/), at the University Campus of Gallos (https://en.uoc.gr), 5 km SW of the city centre. 

• There is a frequent bus service that crosses the town of Rethymno from east to west and then south to the university campus. Tickets cost €1.30. 

• The Conference has also arranged a special, free bus service from bus stops in the city centre to the University Campus and back to town in the morning and in the afternoon-evening. Details can be found here. 

• Alternatively, there are numerous taxi stands in and around the city centre, and a taxi ride to the university costs around €5 (again more than one passengers can share the fare). You can call for a taxi at the following telephone numbers: 28310-24000, 28310-25000.

• If delegates do not have their own means of transport, it is advisable to choose accommodation in or close to the city centre, as this is where all shops, cafés, restaurants, museums etc are located, and access to the bus route or taxi stands is easy. 

Please consult the maps in the final programme.

Internet access:

Within the Campus area, conference delegates can use the University (UoC) wireless network. Those affiliated with institutions that participate in the eduroam network may use their own accounts.

Receiving and making international calls:

International dialling code for Greece: +30

Area dialling code for Rethymno: 28310; for Heraklio: 2810: for Chania: 28210.

Electric sockets:

Greek sockets are standard European sockets (voltage of AC/230 V/50Hz). Please bring your own adapter if your devices are incompatible.

Weather:

July is usually hot and dry in Crete, with the average high at 30C and the average low at 21C. Accordingly the sun can be stronger than you might expect. It is advisable to wear a hat and a sunscreen with a high SPF during the day.

Other Info:

If you need to print or make copies, you can visit Klapsinakis bookstore at Egoumenou Gabriel street, n. 59, opposite the Municipal Garden and close to the Four Martyrs Church in Rethymno (please consult the maps in the conference programme).

(For attendees and accompanying persons)

Wednesday 13 July, 20:30:

Conference dinner, €45

Thursday 14 July, 15:00-20:00:

Visit to the Etz-Hayyim Synagogue, and presentation of the research centre and library; short guided visit to the Byzantine and medieval monuments of the city.

Cost: €20

Friday 15 July, 9:00-18:30:

Day excursion to Heraklion and its hinterland. We will visit the city’s Byzantine, medieval and Ottoman sites, the Archaeological Museum and the Historical Museum; lunch break at a restaurant by the seaside; in the afternoon excursion to the castle of Emperor Nikephoros Phokas at the village of Profitis Elias, 18 km south of Heraklion. Expected return to Rethymno at 18:30.

Cost: €45 (includes transport by bus, reduced museum tickets and lunch)

For the visit to Chania and the day excursion, please make your reservations soon, as places are limited to 50 for each event.

Rethymno offers many options for accommodation, both in town and along the sandy beach to the east. We recommend that, unless you have your own means of transport, you choose a hotel or B+B in town, where access to means of public transport and taxis is easier. Swimming is possible if you choose to stay in town. The long, sandy beach starts right east of the Rethymno Marina; some locals prefer the Koumbes beach west of the Fortezza.

Recommended hotels:

Jo An Palace Hotel,

8 Dimitrakaki Street, Rethymno

From the website, choose Jo An Palace (it is the one in the city centre, recently refurbished) and make your online reservation.

Alternatively call +30 28310 24241, mention that you are from the Conference organised by the Department of History and Archaeology on 11-15 July and make your reservation.

Rooms from €80

Hotel Theartemis

https://theartemis.gr

email: info@theartemis.gr

Address: Markou Portaliou 26, 74100 Rethymno

Tel.: +302831053991

Double Room from €133

Single Room from €110

Early booking discount until 31 March 2022

Melrose Hotel

https://www.melrosehotel.gr

Machis Potamon & Kapetan Lemonia, 74100 Rethymno

email: info@melrosehotel.gr

Tel.: +3028310-35494, 35495, 35496

Single and Double Rooms from €113

Early booking discount

Swell Boutique Hotel

https://swellboutiquehotel.gr/en/

Address: S. Venizelou 69 and Kapetan Lemonia, 74100 Rethymno

Tel.: 2831050110

Single and double rooms from €148

Veneto Boutique Hotel

https://venetohotel.gr/it/

Address: 2-4 Epimenidou street, 74100 Rethymno

email: info@veneto.gr

Tel.: +302831056634

Single rooms from €148

Double rooms from €179

Mythos Suites Hotel

https://mythoshotelsuites.com

Arkadiou 122 and Karaoli 12, 74100 Rethymno

email: info@mythos-crete.gr

Tel: +302831053917

Single and Double Rooms from €170

Early booking discount

Achilleion Palace Hotel

https://www.achillionpalace.gr/en/home/

Address: Giamboudaki 27, 74100 Rethymno

email: info@achilleionpalace.gr

Tel.: +3028310-54423, 51502

Single and Double Rooms from €130

(An older establishment, but very central)

Rimondi Boutique Hotels

https://hotelsrimondi.com/?_ga=2.126640653.1844645513.1645991812-1823807963.1645607012

Address: Xanthoudidou 21, 74100 Rethymno

Tel.: +302831051001

email: info@hotelsrimondi.com

Single and Double Rooms from €170

Major accommodation sites (Booking.com, Airbnb.com) offer endless alternatives. Make your reservation soon, as prices tend to be lower until the end of March.

Early Bird Registration: until April 30 2022 (23:59 GMT +2): €160

Early Bird Registration for SMM members: until April 30 2022 (23:59 GMT +2): €128

Regular Registration: May 1 – June 10 2022 (23:59 GMT +2): €190

Regular Registration for SMM members: May 1 – June 10 2022 (23:59 GMT +2): €152

Accepted speakers will have until April 20 2022 to register. After that date, others will be offered their places and will be required to register before April 30 2022.

Registration fee will include: coffee breaks and lunches; reception at the conference venue on Monday 11th July; museum reduced prices

Join the SMM here to qualify for members' rates

The Special Account for Research Funds of the University of Crete is the Conference’s financial administrator and payments must be made to the following Bank Account:

Piraeus Bank S.A.BANK

SWIFT CODE: PIRBGRAA

IBAN: GR33 0172 7570 0057 5700 1504 314

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 5757-001504-314

ACCOUNT HOLDER: Special Account for Research Funds of University of Crete / Ειδικός Λογαριασμός Κονδυλίων Έρευνας Πανεπιστημίου Κρήτης

When making your payment, please quote the following information:

• The reference number KA 11012

• Your name and surname

• The registration category, as follows: Early Bird; Early Bird SMM (for SMM members); Regular; Regular SMM (for SMM members)

• The optional activities you choose to attend as follows: Dinner (for the Conference Dinner on 13 July); Chania (for the visit to the Etz-Hayyim Synagogue and the city of Chania on 14 July); Heraklion (for the day excursion on 15 July)

Ph.D. candidates and early-career scholars who have **received a Conference Bursary** are exempted from fees and are invited to the conference dinner. However, they are kindly asked to send an email to smm2022crete@ia.uoc.gr confirming their participation by April 20, which is the deadline for registration of accepted speakers.

Delegates who need a receipt or invoice are kindly requested to let us know and their request will be dealt with by the Special Account of the University.

The keynote lectures will be delivered by:

Andy Merrills (University of Leicester)

The Spaces in Between: Metaphor and Methodology in the Study of Early Medieval North Africa

Historians and archaeologists of the early medieval world commonly compare their work to a jigsaw puzzle, albeit one in which most of the pieces are missing and the box art has been irreparably damaged. The challenge (and joy) in this scholarship is thus founded on inferring broader patterns from small pockets of evidence, and making connections between seemingly disparate pieces of information. In this paper, I consider the gaps that are frequently occluded by this approach, particularly in the study of early medieval North Africa (roughly 400 – 700 CE). Looking particularly at the political and religious history of the ‘Moorish’ world, I suggest that different metaphors may be more useful for appreciating the ‘unknown unknowns’ within this world.

Nukhet Varlik (Rutgers University – Newark)

Rethinking the Pandemics of the Medieval Mediterranean: Disruption and Resilience

The medieval Mediterranean experienced a series of epidemic and endemic diseases, among which were the two most disruptive pandemics of plague of the premodern world, i.e., the Justinianic Plague and the Black Death, each initiating the new disease regimes of the first and the second pandemics of plague respectively. Both series of epidemics left a deep imprint in Mediterranean societies, transforming them irreversibly. But how do we study such epidemic episodes of the past? Where is our attention focused and what are our blind spots? And how to we rethink the legacy of past pandemics? In this present age of pandemics, it is critical to rethink how we write that history. With a conviction that the past helps us to understand the present and the present should help us to rethink the past, I turn to past plagues and the legacy they left behind.

In this presentation, I will take stock of the lasting legacies of past plagues because they continue to shape the way we think about new pandemics. First, I will stress that the reflexive discussion of past pandemics as short-term cataclysmic events must be replaced by a broader, more realistic vision that recognizes that pandemics are long-term processes. This can be only achieved by adopting a longer, multi-century timescale that facilitates detecting the ebb and flow of diseases over the longue durée. Then, I will emphasize that we need to shift our focus beyond epidemic episodes of disruption to better understand how past societies learned to live with diseases and the processes by which they developed the means of resilience in facing them. In both cases, the medieval Mediterranean serves as an excellent case in point with a rich repository of historical experiences. Against this backdrop, I will then turn to the lasting legacies of past plagues and address persistent problems, such as European exceptionalism, triumphalism, and epidemiological orientalism that are not only ubiquitous in the historical scholarship, but also staples of public opinion about pandemics, past and present.

“INTERRUPTIONS & DISRUPTIONS IN THE MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN, 400–1500”

In response to the abrupt and largely unforeseen way in which the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown our world and everyday life into uncertainty since early 2020, the theme of the 7th International Conference of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean (SMM) is Interruptions and Disruptions. Scholars are invited to explore and challenge meanings and experiences of interruptions and to reflect upon whether and to what extent interruptions prompted change or acted as ‘turning points’ in the medieval Mediterranean.

We invite papers that examine the theme of interruptions from different disciplinary perspectives, including History, Archaeology, Literature, Linguistics, Art History, Religious Studies/Theology, and any other disciplines focusing on the medieval Mediterranean. We welcome research papers that, through the analysis of diverse types of sources, apply innovative approaches and stimulate debates to reflect upon individual and collective perceptions and experiences of interruptions.

The following list of possible topics of discussion is indicative and by no means exclusive:

* Crisis and recovery

* Epidemics and natural catastrophes

* War, invasion, conquest

* Dynastic change

* Social unrest and rebellion

* Disruption of social, religious and/or cultural systems

* Political interruptions

* Material evidence of interruptions

* Integration and segregation

* Geographical interruptions: insularity, land and sea, mountain and plain

* Displacement and mobility

* Lived experience of interruptions

* Interruptions and historiography

* Apocalypticism

The cfp deadline has now passed; conference registration is open .

Postgraduate student bursaries:

The deadline for bursary applications has now passed.

The SMM will offer up to 15 bursaries for PhD students (or ECRs/Independent scholars with limited access to travel funds) who wish to present their research at the conference. The bursaries will cover the costs of both registration fees and the conference dinner. Proposals for panels (or papers) must be received following the information in the CFP by 17.00 UTC on 31 January 2022. This extended call for bursaries is also open to those who've already submitted paper/panel proposals, please indicate this in your bursary application.

Please apply using this Application Form

Eleni Sakellariou, Associate Professor, European Medieval History

Vicky Foskolou, Assistant Professor of Byzantine Archaeology

Demetrios Kyritses, Assistant Professor of Byzantine History

Kostas Moustakas, Assistant Professor of Byzantine History

Ioannis Theodorakopoulos, Assistant Professor of Byzantine History

Christina Tsigonaki, Assistant Professor of Byzantine Archaeology

Specific questions can be directed to: smm2022crete@ia.uoc.gr