General Information

Conference

The civilizations of the Ancient Silk Road networks are rightfully famous for their cultural multiplicity. Modern scholarship has likewise profited enormously from the collaboration of various disciplines concerned with this multidimensional heritage. The conference “Language and Culture in the Borderlands of the Eastern Silk Road” is organized by multiple research units in Vienna ranging from linguistics, philology, history to the digital humanities with the aim of advancing interdisciplinary research questions and methodologies. We therefore cordially invite papers from all disciplines concerned with the Ancient Eastern Silk Road region and especially encourage contributions with a transdisciplinary approach.

The conference will take place at the main building of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.

There will be an online option for attending papers but not for presentations.

Keynote speakers

We are glad to announce the following keynote speakers:

Carmen Meinert, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Georges-Jean Pinault, École Pratique des Hautes Études

Imre Galambos, 浙江大学 Zhejiang University/University of Cambridge

Early career researcher workshop

This workshop organized by the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is a networking event for early career researchers concerned with the languages and cultures in the borderlands of the Eastern Silk Road. There will be two sessions with lightning talks and a general discussion; one will be dedicated to “Digital Methods”, the other to “Cultural Heritage”.

Timeline

Abstracts by March 31, 2024 – CfP is closed!
Peer review by international scientific advisory board
Notification of acceptance by April 30, 2024
Preliminary programme announced by May 15, 2024

Conference fee (including workshop)

50 Euros until June 30, 2024
100 Euros from July 1, 2024 onwards
Online attendance only: 20 Euros (registration fee)

On spot registration fees include coffee breaks and one evening reception.
For details on the payment modalities please visit the registration page.

Abstracts submission – Abstract submission is closed!

Abstracts submissions are now open for presentations lasting 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute discussion. The presentations should be in English.

The abstracts should be limited to one page and submitted anonymously as PDF files to borderlandsconference2024.linguistics@univie.ac.at by March 31, 2024. Acceptance notifications will be sent out by April 30, 2024.

If you have any inquiries, feel free to use the conference email address: borderlandsconference2024.linguistics@univie.ac.at. Alternatively, you may reach out to the organizers using the contact information provided below:

Melanie Malzahn (melanie.malzahn@univie.ac.at)
Hannes A. Fellner (hannes.fellner@univie.ac.at)
Robert Rollinger, (robert.rollinger@uibk.ac.at)
Angelo Mascheroni (angelo.mascheroni@univie.ac)
Viktoria Reiter (viktoria.reiter@univie.ac.at)

Conveners

Austrian Academy of Sciences Commission “Transformation Processes and Empire in the Ancient Afro-Eurasian Worlds”
Excellence Cluster “EurAsian Transformations”, Austrian Academy of Sciences and University of Vienna
Young Academy of Austrian Academy of Sciences
Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna
Research Unit Digital Philology, University of Vienna
FWF Project “A Comprehensive Edition of Tocharian Manuscripts (CEToM)” (FWF Y492 START-Program)
FWF Project “The Characters that shaped the Silk Road (Tarim Brahmi)” (FWF Y1044 START-Program).