Transmitting and Preserving Languages in the Medieval and Early Modern

Transmitting and Preserving Languages in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean: Second Workshop

4 June 2026

Balliol College (University of Oxford), Gillis Lecture Theatre, 9am-5pm GMT.

This one-day workshop explores how and why languages were taught, learned, and sustained across the diverse and shifting socio-cultural landscapes of the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean. Integrating history with literary studies and historical sociolinguistics and adopting a comparative and cross-disciplinary perspective, the workshop aims to identify shared trends, comparable elements, and distinctive features in language learning and transmission. This approach offers a renewed perspective on the interconnected Mediterranean world—a region where multilingualism, mobility, and intercultural exchange were and are central to daily life. The impact of these dynamics on language teaching, preservation, and use has often been underestimated.

The event will include dedicated time for discussion and reflection, allowing participants to engage in a broader conversation about language and cultural transmission. At its core, the workshop presents the medieval and early modern Mediterranean as a space of teaching, learning, and multilingual exchange.

Convenors: Daniel Gallaher and Ugo Mondini

Speakers: Marina Bazzani (University of Oxford); Valentina Calzolari (University of Geneva); Benedetta Contin (Austrian Academy of Sciences); Andrea Cuomo (Ghent University); Karen Hamada (University of Tokyo); Anthony Kaldellis (University of Chicago); Markéta Kulhánková (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic).

Chairs: Stratis Papaioannou, Alice Rio, and Theo Maarten van Lint.

To register for online attendance, please contact Ugo Mondini at ugo.mondini@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk

This event is co-sponsored by the Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute (BII), the John Fell Fund (TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World), the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), the Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA), and the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research (OCBR).

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