Das Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Veranstaltungen

Donnerstag, 11.07.2024, 11:00 Uhr
Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, Am Wingertsberg 4, 61348 Bad Homburg

Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften der Goethe-Universität
Fellow Kolloquium

Dana Katz
»On the Interplay of Landscape, Architecture, and Interfaith Relations in a Medieval Mediterranean Society«

Abstract
The project, which is to be published as a scholarly monograph, focuses on an historical landscape of the medieval Mediterranean. The twelfth-century Norman kings of Sicily created a circuit of parklands to surround their capital Palermo. Modeled on elite Islamic estates, these Christian rulers carved monumental lakes into the landscape and ordered curated parks into which they introduced specific species of fauna and flora. For these sites, they relied on hydraulic engineering for water features and botanical and agricultural knowledge originating in the Islamic world. Their royal parkland palaces formed the nuclei of these green spaces and are some of the best-preserved examples of medieval secular architecture in the Latin West. Even more striking, the Norman kings placed monumental epigraphy in Arabic that exalted them atop their residences, facing onto the city, most likely composed by Muslim poets. Over time, there was a seismic shift in the relations between the Norman rulers and their Muslim subjects. From relative tolerance under the first king Roger II (r. 1104–56), this population faced persecution and systematic forced assimilation under his successors in the second half of the twelfth century. The study of these medieval parklands, delimiting a landscape of power, modifies current understandings that can be extrapolated to an examination of multi-ethnic relations in the wider region. The interpretation of the park architecture encompasses a comparative Mediterranean context, and I incorporate examples primarily from the Iberian Peninsula and Maghreb into my work. The book I am completing considers the interplay of the three connected elements of landscape, architecture, and interfaith relations in a pre-modern hegemonic society.

Die Rednerin
Dana Katz ist Kunst- und Architekturhistorikerin und hat sich auf die materielle Kultur des mittelalterlichen Mittelmeerraums spezialisiert. Sie promovierte an der Universität von Toronto. Zuletzt war sie Weinberg-Stipendiatin für Architekturgeschichte und Denkmalpflege an der Italian Academy for Advanced Studies der Columbia University. Im Sommer 2024 ist sie Postdoc-Stipendiatin am Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften auf Einladung von Hagit Nol, Juniorprofessorin für Islamische Archäologie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, und dem von der VolkswagenStiftung geförderten Projekt »Islamic Archaeology and Art History« (IAAH).

Teilnahme
Geschlossene Veranstaltung. Kontakt: Beate Sutterlüty; E-Mail: b.sutterluety@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de).