Annotation

Research from the last decade clearly shows that questions about who could be considered an authority and what purposes authority served were crucial to intellectual life during the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. Building on these insights, we seek to enrich current debates by focusing on East-Central Europe, a multi-confessional and multi-ethnic region where various scholarly traditions blended and encountered each other, opening up space for a wide range of discussions and disputes about whom to trust. Our conference aims to shed new light on how the credibility of scholars and trust in knowledge were forming and disappearing in this region, particularly in relation to the global contexts at the time.

The attached call for papers lists the questions and topics that our conference will address.

Please send the title of your paper, a 200–300-word abstract, and a one-page CV (including affiliation) in English by 28 February 2026 to the organising committee:

Organising Committee:

Lucie Storchová (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Lenka Řezníková (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.); Petr Pavlas (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.); Václav Žůrek (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.); Iva Kovaříčková Lelková (lelkova@flu.; as.cz); Vojtěch Bažant (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Notifications of acceptance will be issued by 31 March 2026.

The keynote lecture will be delivered by Stefano Gulizia (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice).

There is no registration fee; lunches and a conference dinner will be provided. Proceedings will be published in thematic issues of international peer-reviewed journals.