Transformative Bodies in the Premodern World: Experiences and Materials

The theme of this workshop is the transformation of bodies through, with or in relation to experiences and materials. Eight speakers will be in exploring the ways in which past peoples engaged with objects and materials from a variety of disciplinary and geographical backgrounds. The presentations will engage with practices (e.g. ritual, artistic, medicinal) that affected an actual or perceived change (in/of the body of the practitioner or the materials used), for example practices involving the body and/or objects that could act as protection against something or charge objects or materials with apotropaic abilities, but also practices that could act as transformative in other ways. The goal of the workshop is to combine the ritualistic, the religious, the magical and the medicinal understanding of bodies in order to expand our understanding of the premodern way(s) of experiencing and engaging with the sensorial and material realities. While the temporal framework is what in Western historical writing is referred to as the medieval and early modern periods, the geographical framework stretches beyond the Eurocentric scope in order to widen our perspectives and further enrich the debate. The scope of the workshop is highly interdisciplinary and speakers have backgrounds in fields as diverse as the history of science, musicology, archaeology, art history, material culture, history, and religious studies.

Organised by Mads Heilskov (The Courtauld) and Zuzanna Sarnecka (University of Warsaw).