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Paper proposals are being accepted for Barnard College's 25th Biannual Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference, “Beyond Borders: Mutual Imaginings of Europe and the Middle East (800-1700),” to be held at Barnard College (New York NY) on Saturday 3 December 2016.Recent scholarship is challenging the stark border between Europe and the Middle East during the long period between 800-1700.  Rather than thinking of these areas in isolation, scholars are revealing the depth of their mutual influence. Trade, war, migration, and scholarly exchange connected Europe and the Middle East in ways both cooperative and adversarial. The distant world was not only an object of aggression, but also, inextricably, of fantasy and longing. Jewish, Muslim, and Christian thinkers looked to each other to understand their own cultural histories and to imagine their futures.Bringing together art historians, literary scholars, historians, scholars of the history of science, and scholars of religious thought, this interdisciplinary conference will explore the real and imaginary cultural interchanges between Europe and the Middle East during their formative periods.The conference will feature plenary lectures byProfessors Nancy Bisaha of Vassar College, andNabil Matar of the University of Minnesota.This conference is being organized byProfessors Rachel Eisendrath, Najam Haider, and Laurie Postlewate of Barnard College.Please send an abstract (with title) of approximately 200 words and CV to lpostlew@barnard.edu.Presentations should be 20 minutes.Deadline: April 10 2016