Rome Center and Honors College Host Conference on Early Medieval Judaism

ROME, Italy – The University of Arkansas’ Rome Center, Honors College, and Graduate School and International Education recently collaborated with the University of Tennessee’s Marco Institute for Medieval & Renaissance Studies to host a conference exploring early medieval Judaism in the West.  

Held in Italy, the conference welcomed attendees and presenters from around the world, as many scholars specializing in this period are based outside the United States.  

The Rome Center provided “strategic centrality in the Mediterranean” and a “profound historical connection to the themes of the conference,” said Consuelo Lollobrigida, professor of art history at the Rome Center and project manager for the event.  

“The conference highlighted the Rome Center’s ongoing commitment to advancing academic exchange and supporting initiatives in higher education and research — a mission that remains central to our work,” Lollobrigida added.   

The conference, “Jews in the Frankish Orbit,” focused on a period between late antiquity and the First Crusade, which presents unique research challenges due to a paucity of sources. In addition to the globetrotting in-person attendees, more than 500 people tuned into the conference virtually.  

“The interdisciplinary crew of scholars who met at the U of A’s Rome Center brought the expertise to uncover little-known or studied aspects of the presence of Jews in early medieval western Europe as well as unique methodologies for giving voice to their stories,” said Lynda Coon, dean of the Honors College. “The result entailed a significant revision in the ways in which scholars have understood this largely ‘silent’ history of western European Jews during this formative time in their history.” 

The conference attracted some of the top international scholars in history and Jewish studies. Johannes Heil, professor and Ignatz Bubis Chair of Religion, History and Culture of European Judaism at the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies, and Yitzhak Hen, professor of late antique and early medieval history and director of the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gave plenary addresses on the transformation of the Western Diaspora and Judaism in Carolingian liturgical writings, respectively.  

Amidst scholars from across the world, Laura Lieber, honors alumna and Sturgis Fellow, traveled from her appointment at the University of Regensburg to share a paper on the migration of folklorist motifs and traditions from southern Italy up into the Rhineland of Germany.  

“[My paper] began with traditions about how a famous family of rabbis came to Regensburg, because that legend preserves an echo of a centuries-old story from Megillat Ahimaatz (the Scroll of Ahimaatz) from Italy,” Lieber shared. “The similarity in the German and Italian stories let me discuss issues of memory, authority, gender, and communal dislocation and relocation.”  

Lieber, a professor for the transregional history of religion, specializes in poetics, Jewish studies, medieval and early modern history, research interests she developed as an honors student at the U of A.  

“I always felt that if you got the Sturgis Fellowship, it was your opportunity — even responsibility — to see everything,” Lieber said in a recent A+ Magazine article. “It’s part of the deal of being a Sturgis, and I’m still trying to do that.” 

While the larger public is familiar with Jewish life during the High Middle Ages, the conference offered valuable insights into medieval depictions of Jewish communities. Attendees learned about the interconnectedness of Jewish communities across Europe, gaining new perspectives on how early medieval Jews perceived one another and were perceived by Christian rulers and their neighbors, said Jennifer Hoyer, associate professor of German and director of the Jewish Studies Program at the U of A, who also attended the conference.  

“It is exciting enough to have a conference that focuses on this time period, which we don't often hear about, but what was even more exciting was that the speakers gave us archaeological evidence, textual evidence, legal and religious sources from both Jewish and Christian perspectives,” said Hoyer.

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