CALL FOR PAPERS: Merchants, Jurists and Other 'Intermediate Groups' in Modern Southern Europe (CIDEHUS - Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades) (DEADLINE 15 FEBRUARY 2015)

(image source: EEHAR)

Calenda.org announced an interesting call for papers for a conference to be held in Rome (Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma, in september 2015:

Abstract:

Merchants, farmers, jurists, clerks in large institutions, secretaries, independent landowners, local elites and highly sought master craftsmen, among many others, are individuals with an ambiguous social status. Looking at who was not born exactly noble, nor exactly commoner, but stood on the border between one world and the other, is one of the goals of this initiative.
The so-called ‘intermediate groups’ often appear in researches on mobility processes. And, although that may be an interesting means to approach and study the problem, it is surely not the only one. We can walk other paths, and try to find out, for instance, how did those groups got to that level. What kind of factors (if any) differentiated them? Does it make any sense to speak of ‘intermediate groups’ in colonial Ibero-America? Is it eventually possible to draw their profile? How did they socially interact? In the Iberian Peninsula, many of their presumed members enjoyed prestigious places in religious organizations or were familiares of the Inquisition. What other types of social distinctions did they get? Similar strata seem to have existed throughout southern Europe. What features did they present?
As part of a project developed in Portugal focusing on the Holy Office’s familiaturas, it will be held on September 16 and 17, 2015, a workshop at Escuela Española de Historia and Archaeological in Rome. Our aim is to select a total of 8 applicants, that will be joined by 4 guest speakers, for a joint reflection on the dynamics and profiles of ‘intermediate groups’, as well as on the methodologies for their study in Early Modern Times.

Submission guidelines

If you are interested in this theme and some or all of the above related issues, please send a title, an A4 page summary and a brief CV to cidehus@uevora.pt , before 15 FEBRUARY 2015

 The full text of the trilingual call can be found here.