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Proposals are being accepted for the one-day symposium “Minorities in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean” to be held in conjunction with the Mediterranean Seminar/UCMRP Winter Workshop on “Minorities” to be held at San Francisco State University on 7-8 March, 2014.On 7 March, three round-table sessions, "Opportunity,” “Assimilation and Exchange,” and “Vulnerability" will be held, each for discussing the status and circumstances of minorities. Minorities may include religious minorities, for example, Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands, Muslims and Jews in Christian lands, but also relations of heterodox groups within these three broad religious categories (e.g. Isma’ilis or Nusayris with Sunni Muslims, Karaites and Rabbinic Jews, Eastern or Byzantine and Latin Christians, etc.). The theme may also include ethnic minorities, such as Berbers in predominantly Arab locales or Slavs in predominantly Greek environments.“Opportunity,” will look at situations in which minorities exceeded formal bounds to which they were subject and potentially transgressed existing social norms; “Assimilation and Exchange,” will look at situations of social, cultural, intellectual, religious, and economic interchange and integration; and “Vulnerability” will look at scenarios in which minority relations broke down, whether in terms of official or popular violence or repression.To apply to one of the round tables, please submit a CV and a 300-word abstract relating to a theoretical or methodological position on one of the above themes (indicating clearly which panel you are applying to). Case studies may also be referred to. Round-table participants will submit a short (5-page) position paper prior to the meeting, and will make a brief (7-minute) presentation as an opener to discussion.The deadline for submission is January 1, 2014; please reply to mailbox@mediterraneanseminar.org with the subject line “Winter Symposium Proposal.” Presenters who also attend the Workshop will be eligible to apply for limited travel support.Presenters are also being sought for the Workshop on “Minorities" on 8 March:The Workshop will consist of discussion of three pre-circulated papers and a keynote presentation by our featured scholar, Stephen Humphreys (History, University of California-Santa Barbara), "Adapting to the Infidel: the Christian Communities of Syria in the Early Islamic Period.”The Mediterranean Studies MRP invites proposals for workshop papers (articles or chapters in-progress, approx. 35 double-spaced pages) on the topic “Minorities,” which may include works on Mediterranean methodologies or perspectives, or studies strongly informed by such. We seek papers in any relevant discipline, especially comparative or interdisciplinary work that uses the Mediterranean as a frame of analysis. Priority is given to faculty and graduate students from the UC system and collaborating institutions, but any North American-based scholars working on relevant material are encouraged to apply. (Scholars from further abroad are welcome to apply, but we cannot guarantee full travel support.) The Mediterranean Seminar/UCMRP will cover travel and lodging expenses for presenters.The deadline for workshop proposals is 15 January 2014. Please submit an abstract (250-500 words) and two-page CV by this date to mailbox@mediterraneanseminar.org (subject line: Winter 2014 Workshop Abstract). Please clearly indicate that the event you are applying to is the "Winter 2014 Workshop." Successful applicants are expected to submit a 35-page (maximum) double-spaced paper-in-progress for pre-circulation by 15 February.A separate call for symposium and workshop registration will be sent out on January 21.