Call for Applications

Autumn School for Postgraduate Students and Early Career Researchers

Venice, 30 September – 4 October 2024

In 2024, the year marking the 700th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s great explorers, Marco Polo, the University of Warwick, in collaboration with Nova University in Lisbon, University of Ljubljana, University of Arts in Belgrade, Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, Kazakh National Academy of Arts in Almaty, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, is inviting postgraduate students and early career researchers to an autumn school focused on the theme of Marco Polo and the Silk Roads.

In the popular imagination, Marco Polo features as arguably the most famous Western traveller to have journeyed along the trade route between Europe and Asia known as the Silk Road. As a young merchant, he began his journey to China in 1271 and his travels lasted for 24 years. Today the Silk Road is rapidly becoming one of the key geocultural and geostrategic concepts of the twenty-first century. A narrative of connected histories, it now operates as a platform for international trade, diplomacy, infrastructure development and digital connectivity (Winter 2022). Identified by two principal routes - maritime and overland, the Silk Road stretches across the Indian Ocean and Eurasian landmass; regions that will be of paramount importance in an increasingly multi-polar world.

Building on concepts and insights from theatre and performance studies, critical heritage studies, visual arts, history, cultural studies, and international relations and geopolitics, this vacation school calls for new research and approaches on how we should situate the mobilisation of the Silk Road imaginary historically and geopolitically within international affairs, and how the Silk Road is localised, interpreted, and contested within existing national and regional cultural contexts. Through talks, workshops, and demonstrations the participants will be exposed to a variety of disciplinary approaches and ways in which they could be combined to build a new critical framework to understand the Silk Road(s) performatively as a relational and intersectional critical concept and practice. The autumn school will also explore historical and art historical dimensions of the Silk Roads and the Venetian links to them through site visits within the lagoon city. We shall also visit the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, titled Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.

The autumn school is part of the University of Warwick’s Marco Polo International Programme and developed as one of the EUTOPIA Connected Community Education projects. You can find out more about the EUTOPIA Connected Community project here: https://eutopia-university.eu/english-version/integrated-connected-communities/thinking-through-the-silk-road-cross-cultural-exchanges-and-mobilities

 

Venue: Warwick Venice Centre at the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, Calle Giustinian, 2893, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy. The venue is in the centre of Venice near the Academia Bridge. See: https://warwick.ac.uk/about/campus/venice/

 

AUTUMN SCHOOL FACULTY AND GUESTS

Dr Maria Cardeira da Silva, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (NOVA - FCSH), Universidade Nova de Lisboa https://www.fcsh.unl.pt/faculdade/docentes/smamc/

Professor Alexandra Curvelo, The Department of History of Art (NOVA-FCSH), Director of the Art History Institute (IHA), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, https://www.fcsh.unl.pt/en/college/teachers/acurvelo_en/

Professor Bishnupriya Dutt, School of Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, India, https://www.jnu.ac.in/Faculty/pdutt/

Professor Milija Gluhovic, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/theatre/staff/dr_milija_gluhovic

Dr Chen Hao, Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, https://en.zhiyuan.sjtu.edu.cn/en/faculty/684/detail

Professor Silvija Jestrovic, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/theatre/staff/silvija_jestrovic/

Professor Kabyl Khalykov, Temirbek Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan, https://kaznai.kz/en/48853-2/

Dr Natalija Majsova, Associate Professor, The Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, https://www.fdv.uni-lj.si/en/news-and-information/contacts/teachers/info/natalija-majsova/

Dr Luca Molà, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Warwick, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/people/staff_index/lmola/

Professor Aljoša Pužar, Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, https://www.fdv.uni-lj.si/en/news-and-information/contacts/teachers/info/aljosa-puzar/

Professor Jelena Todorovic, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, https://royalfamily.org/jelena-todorovic/

 

 

Schedule (TBC)

*** All lectures and seminars will take place in the Warwick Venice Centre.

 

Monday, 30 September

9:00-9:30

Welcome and presentation of summer school: MILIJA GLUHOVIC

Lecture 1 (Chair, MILIJA GLUHOVIC)

9:30-11:00 LUCA MOLA, Marco Polo in Venice (1299-1324): New Findings and New Interpretations

11:00-12:00 Visit of the Rubelli Collection (the Palace is close to S. Stefano) with Luca Mola

12:00-13:00 Tour of the ancient silk areas (S. Giovanni Grisostomo/Fondaco dei Tedeschi) and Rialto (with Luca Mola)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

Lecture 2 (Chair, LUCA MOLA)

14:00-15:30 CHEN HAO, Central Asia in the Time of Marco Polo

 

Tuesday, 1 October

 

9:30-11:00

Lecture 3 (Chair, MARIA CARDEIRA DA SILVA)

ALEXANDRA CURVELO and JELENA TODOROVIC, With Cities, it is as with Dreams.

Calvino`s Marco Polo and the Worlds of Baroque Imagination

11.00-11.30 Coffee break

11.30-13.00 Seminar with students (Chair, MILIJA GLUHOVIC)

13.00- 14.00 Lunch

14.00- 15.30 Seminar with students (Chair, BISHNUPRIYA DUTT)

15:30-17:30 Visit to the Museo Correr and the Fra Mauro World Map (with Curvelo and Todorovic)

 

Wednesday, October 2

 

Group visit to the Venice Biennial – departure from Warwick in Venice at 10am.

 

Thursday, October 3

9.30 -11.00

Lecture 4 (Chair, SILVIJA JESTROVIC)

BISHNUPRIYA DUTT AND KABYL KHALYKOV, Traveller Routes as Colonial Geographies and Theatrical Imagination: Scenography, Objects, and Embodiment.

11.00 -11.30 Coffee break

11.30 - 13.00 Seminar with participants – responses to the Venice Biennial visit (Chairs, ALEXANDRA CURVELO AND JELENA TODOROVIC)

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14:00-15.30 Seminar with students (Chair, MARIA CARDEIRA DA SILVA) [Tbc.]

Friday, October 4

 

9.30-10:30

Keynote 4 (Chair, NATALIJA MAJSOVA)

ALJOSA PUZAR, Cultural transfers/dialogues and East-West Encounters

11.00 -11.30 Coffee break

11.30 – 12:45 Round table: Silk Roads and Interdisciplinary Methodologies

(Chair, MILIJA GLUHOVIC)

12:45-13:00

Closing Remarks

SILVIJA JESTROVIC

13.00-14.00 Lunch

 

HOW TO APPLY

Applicants must submit the following materials (in English) by September 2, 2024:

• a CV (1 page max. Including a list of publications (if any)
• a covering letter explaining how participation in the Autumn School will benefit your research and stating financial needs (500 words max.)
• One letter of recommendation

Please send these materials to m.gluhovic@warwick.ac.uk

Applicants accepted in the program will be notified by September 4, 2024, via email. They must confirm their participation by September 6, 2024. For further information please write to m.gluhovic@warwick.ac.uk

 

BURSARIES:

The University of Warwick is offering the following bursaries:

10 bursaries covering accommodation (based on 2 persons sharing a room)

If you are not able to access funds to attend, we offer a limited amount of accommodation bursaries based on financial need and merit of the application. Please indicate in your letter if you would need a bursary, provide a rationale for your request specifying if your attendance is contingent on receiving a grant.

 

ABSTRACTS:

Lecture 1

Marco Polo in Venice (1299-1324): New Findings and New Interpretations

Luca Molà (University of Warwick)

Marco Polo's will and other remaining documents regarding his life after the return from China, in which he acts in the first person or which refer to close family members, contain some traces of his trading activities in Venice. I will present some newly found documents, and then a close analysis of the inventory of his house drawn up in 1324, where objects and goods are given full prominence. A new interpretation will be proposed that emphasises, above all, an aspect of his activities that has so far been overlooked, namely that of merchant of silk fabrics, some imported from China and Asia and others produced in Venice as imitations of Asian models. It will also be shown how Marco Polo's palace in Venice witnessed an important meeting between East and West after his death, thanks to a document attesting to the first presence of an Asian craftsman in Italy.

Lecture 2

Central Asia in the Time of Marco Polo (abstract Tbc.)

Chen Hao

 

Lecture 3

With Cities, It is as with Dreams: Calvino`s Marco Polo and the worlds of Baroque imagination

Jelena Todorovic and Alexandra Curvelo

When in 1972, a notable Italian writer, Italo Calvino (Santiago de las Vegas, 1923-Siena, 1985), wrote his famous novel The Invisible Cities he composed a unique and complex narrative devoted to the very fabric of the city, which had two distinguished protagonists – the figure of Marco Polo (1254-ca.1324) and above the grand, albeit concealed presence of the city of Venice. In an imaginary dialogue between Marco Polo and the Great Khan (1215-1294), Calvino`s imaginary cities unravel in front of the reader.

In a series of poetic descriptions, Marco Polo describes to the Khan the forgotten cities of his Empire. Travelling through 55 invisible cities Calvino creates an elaborate architecture of memory where every city is an allegory of our relationship with the urban space, but also each of them is yet another portrait of the greatest city of all, La Serenissima. The entire structure of the Invisible Cities, as we shall present, displays a number of underlying concepts that are inherited from the Baroque age. There are several notions that both Calvino and Baroque artists explore to the great depths – the intertwining of utopia and dystopia, the inseparability of reality and illusion and the idea of the world as a dream. But above all, both the Baroque culture and the Calvino`s book are entirely fluid. The same sense of limitless ever-changing images populates both Calvino`s work and characterise many of the Baroque works of art, making them respectively highly compelling and surprisingly modern.

This presentation aims to offer students a fresh, unexpected literary portrait of Marco Polo, as envisioned by Italo Calvino. It will be viewed through the lens of the Baroque era, an age that not only inspired Calvino but also laid the foundations for our modern worldview.

Parallel to this presentation, a visit to Museo Correr and the Fra Mauro World Map, one of the most important maps in the history of cartography, would complement the voyage through Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

 

Lecture 4

Traveler Routes, Colonial Geographies, and Theatrical Imaginations: Scenography, Performance, and Embodiment

 

In recent years, critical historiography has increasingly taken cognizance of colonial and Imperial hegemonic structures and power matrices when dissecting different modes of encounters between the West and the East. Traveler narratives, even those pre-dating colonialism, such as Marco Polo’s travel to China and far East, including India, can be subjected to historiographical critique as they are not free of the civilizational colonial discourses. In fact, they exhibit the foundational principles of Orientalism from its inception. Edward Said’s formulation of Orientalism as a romanticized and eroticized perception of the East seen through the Imperial eye (Said, 1978), has been a valuable tool for analyzing the tendency of colonial theatre practices -- manifesting in scenography, costume, and actors’ embodiment on stage -- to feminize and infantilize Eastern Cultures. This lecture will explore theatre practices in two strategic locations: Central Asia, a central point of the silk routes and part of the Mongol Empire, and India, with its long colonial entanglement with English colonialism, in order to deconstruct the established representational conventions and theatre’s propensity to deploy such tropes uncritically, as well as the potentialities of their deconstruction and destabilization.

 

Lecture 5

Cultural transfers/dialogues and East-West Encounters

Aljoša Pužar

 

Cultural transfers are understood as objects, subjects, and concepts of culture in motion. They entail transferring ideas, artifacts, practices, and institutions from one location (spatial, temporal, discursive) to another. In the process, the initial cultural formation gets enriched, changed, adapted, and localized. To talk about cultural transfers between Asia and Europe is to consider both plurisecular and intricate histories of travels, contacts, conquests, and mutual learning, but also the problematic processes of the construction of otherness, and the formation of influential if hazy notions of East and West. The discursive articulations of Orientalism and Occidentalism alike have created landscapes of hegemony, and fantasies of superiority, often against the background of Euro-modernity and colonialism. Acknowledging the multifaceted transfers that have, for centuries, shaped cultures across Eurasia and beyond, the lecture will focus on recent and contemporary popular culture. Transfers and exchanges in popular culture and/or the creative industries are some of the most visible and, as of now, visibly under-researched fields of relations between Asia and Europe. To exemplify the dynamics of cultural transfers, the lecturer will explore the phenomenon of cuteness in creative industries and in everyday life from a cross-cultural perspective.