The Art of Mediation: agents, practices and afterimages of intercultural dialogue
This year’s ICSAH meeting approaches “the Art of Mediation” as a framework for understanding cross-cultural interaction in history. Throughout time, individuals, institutions, communities, and cultural forms—ranging from language and performance to visual and material culture—have acted as mediators between societies. In negotiating religious difference, political conflict, economic rivalry, and artistic exchange, they shaped the shared spaces where civilisations met, interacted, and coexisted.
Scholars and practitioners are invited to explore the many forms and functions of intercultural mediation in the past and present. From royal marriages and diplomatic missions to multilingual performances and artistic hybridities, the organizers aim to shed light on the human and cultural mechanisms that enabled communication, negotiation, and coexistence across boundaries. Contributions are particularly welcome which analyse how contact across languages, belief systems, and political structures was facilitated and made meaningful through a mediating agent – individual, institutional, or material – and how the legacies of such encounters continue to shape our world today.