The ERC Project Open Jerusalem, directed by Prof. Vincent Lemire, is organizing its first international symposium entitled “Revealing Ordinary Jerusalem (1840–1940): New archives and perspectives on urban citizenship and global entanglements”.

The Open Jerusalem project aims to unlock and connect different archives and sources in order to investigate the ordinary entangled history of a global city through the lens of the concept of urban citizenship (citadinité). The objective is to produce historical narratives focusing on the way residents interacted with each other, inhabited and appropriated space(s). The symposium intends to be a forum for deepening discussions and opening scientific debates, based on contributions by scholars specializing in related topics, urban historians and specialists of the region. Therefore all participants are kindly requested to stay in Rethymno for the whole duration of the symposium.

Papers should address topics such as:

  • New archives and links between sources concerning the late Ottoman and Mandate periods (including cartographic materials)
  • Public policies, institutions and services (markets, charities, fountains, hammams, schools, hospitals, prisons, etc.)
  • Public time and civic events (city sounds, calendars, liturgies, feasts, imperial ceremonies, etc.)
  • Negotiation and struggle over shared or contested urban spaces
  • Civic actors (middlemen, dragomen, local notables, journalists etc.)
  • Itineraries inside and outside the city (pilgrims, travellers, tourists, migrants, etc.)
  • Connected sociabilities: economic, cultural and gender relations, interreligious encounters, etc.
  • Cultural exchange, press diffusion and reception, rumours, languages and creolisation.

We encourage comparative approaches, original studies based on new material and innovative papers, which will be published in a volume after the symposium. English will be the language for all papers, presentations and discussions.

We invite scholars to respond to this call for papers with a short CV, a title and a short abstract (ca. 200 words), including the sources that will be used, by 17 January 2016. The draft versions of the papers should be ready before the symposium (deadline 31 March 2016) and precirculated in order to leave enough time for discussants and participants to read the entire collection of contributions.

The Open Jerusalem project will be pleased to cover the travel and accommodation costs.

Abstracts should be sent to Dr. Angelos Dalachanis (angelos.dalachanis[at]gmail.com), a member of the Open Jerusalem team, who can also provide more information.