Call for Papers: The Sharing of Doctrinal Knowledge and Erudition II. Memory culture, interconfessional dynamism, and transcultural embeddedness

Kolozsvár/Klausenburg/Cluj, October 22−24, 2026.

This conference intends to be a second act in a series that proposes to revisit the academic sharing of knowledge in early modern Central and Eastern Europe as part of REFORC’s Coram Deo Program. The conference will be hosted by the Babeș-Bolyai University in Kolozsvár/Klausenburg/Cluj and it will take place as the result of a joint effort of several organising institutes: Centre for Reformation Studies (CRS), ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities, Babeș-Bolyai University, “Lucian Blaga” Central University Library Kolozsvár/Klausenburg/Cluj.

Our conference takes recent developments and new findings in memory studies as a starting point, drawing in particular on the concepts of ‘prosthetic memory’ (Alison Landsberg) and ‘travelling memory’ (Astrid Erll). As both scholars propose a new form of cultural memory that has been liberated from national-cultural constraints and transcends the confines of a single culture, it seems a fascinating challenge to apply these concepts to early modern times and contexts. Astrid Erll, for instance, reminds us that the very foundations of Western cultural memory are the product of transcultural movements. This is equivalent to how pagan and Christian traditions were transmitted through time and space to be integrated into modern European culture. Similarly, the long Reformation era (1500–1800) seems to have been the outcome of assimilated and reinvented threads of tradition that travelled from previous times. Therefore, we are convinced that memory, and in particular travelling memory, is the most important vehicle for spreading doctrinal knowledge through education, as it allows both the transmission and accommodation of erudition amongst receivers. Ancient knowledge and previous experiences would shine anew when adopted in early modern contexts.

We invite experts of Central and Eastern European Reformation studies to submit proposals reflecting on this thematic:

Remembrance of events

• Recalling and (de/re)construction of recent and distant past event
• Confessional and interconfessional designs of a disputed past
• Sacred and secular dimensions of early modern master narratives
• Heroes, events, and narratives beyond national and confessional divides
• Early modern saints and martyrs in contexts and decontextualized
• From lieux de memoir/locus memoriae to travelling memory: early modern applications
• The making of Mohács (1526) and other similar early modern examples
• Travelling memory and persecution: French, Hungarian, Bohemian examples and their interplay
• Laniena Parisiensis (1572) as a prosthetic memory?

Remembrance of traditions

• Beyond confessional confines
• Invention and appropriation of ancient and medieval traditions
• Mnemonic practices and hermeneutics
• Mnemonic practices of early modern education
• The dialectics of oblivion and remembrance when making use of patristic authors
• Transfer of knowledge: recording and remembrance

Remembrance or the making of early modern memory culture

• Long Reformation and long remembrance
• Ars memoriae and its (mis)usage
• Jubilees as strategies of commemoration (1517−2017)
• Ecclesiastical history and the early modern linguistic turn (Latin vs. vernacular)
• Commemorative practices in print and manuscript
• Recalling the past from early modern perspective(s): transcultural and transconfessional foci
• From global to glocal perspectives: early modern time and space a disputed realm of memory and remembrance
• National remembrance as historical anachronism: early modern examples.

The 20 minutes long lectures can be given either in the native language of the speaker, or in English. Deadline for submitting a proposal by e-mail eruditionknowledge@gmail.com, March 31, 2026.

Practical Matters

All proposals will be evaluated by April 30, 2026, and an acceptance or refusal will be sent by email. Accepted speakers will be offered accommodation for two or three nights, along with moderate reimbursement for travel expenses. There is no conference fee.

Volume

A collective volume is aimed at being published based on a selection of papers presented at the conference in our series Studies of Early Modern Christianity in Central Europe.

With all best wishes on behalf of the organisers
Dr. Csilla Gábor, Dr. Katalin Luffy, Dr. Zsombor Tóth

---

Member