Call for papers

[giorgia nicosia]

With apologies for cross-posting

Dear all, 

Please find attached a call for papers for the Workshop "Do not even shake hands with them. Purity as a demarcation tool in Egypt and West Asia in the 4th-8th c." which will take place in Ghent on 20-21 September 2027. 

We invite 20-minute papers investigating how Judaic, Christian (especially Greek and oriental Christianities), Islamic, Manichaean, and Zoroastrian sources used (im)purity discourses and ideas to demarcate and separate themselves from others – either other religions or other confessions. We particularly welcome papers exploring:

• the construction of alterity using (im)purity ideas

• the language of impurity, and especially whether it is possible to trace a specific language of “demarcational” impurity

• the construction of real and imagined spaces, especially in relation to the construction of boundaries with the heretics and the non-believers

• the differences between theological stances and social practices in relation to purity “demarcational” discourses

• everyday practices marking out the heretics or non-believers as impure

• interactions of different religions seen through the lens of impurity (including cryptoidentities and conversion processes)

• gender and impurity, and in particular how purity norms influenced the separation of a specific gender

Confirmed keynote speakers are Prof. Barbara Hjørdis Roggema and Prof. Albert de Jong.

If you are interested in submitting a paper, please send an abstract of 300 words, together with a 100-word professional biography, to giorgia...@ugent.be and Guillermo.Me...@UGent.be by 15 December 2026. The results of the selection process will be communicated by 15 January 2027.

Feel free to forward this call to anyone you think might be interested!

With all the best wishes, 

Giorgia and Guillermo