Research Group
Research Group
Research Group
DINÂMIA'CET-IUL
Centre for Socioeconomic and Territorial Studies
19th - 21st October 2023 | Monastery of Batalha - Portugal
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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Henrik Lindblad
University of Uppsala; FRH
+ INFO
Henrik Lindblad is an Art Historian and Heritage Consultant, specialized in ecclesiastical art, architecture and heritage management. He has worked as coordinator, senior advisor and strategist for the National Heritage Board, the Ministry of Culture and the Church of Sweden. He is one of the founders of the European organisation Future for Religious Heritage (FRH), member of its Council and co-chair of the FRH Scientific Advisory Committee. He is also co-founder and former Vice President of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee PRERICO (Places of Religion and Ritual). He will defend his doctoral thesis Ecclesiastical Heritage in a New Era on 17th March 2023 at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. In February 2023 he joined the Scientific Committee of the 4th International Conference Architectures of the Soul.
Among his recent publications can be mentioned:
“Living Religious Heritage and Continuous Use” (Olimpia Niglio, Intercultural Dialogue: Places of Religion and Rituals. Springer Nature 2022)
“Caroli Church. A Resource for Urban Regeneration?”, with Johan Eriksson and Christer Gustafsson (In Esempi di Architettura, International Journal of Architecture and Engineering. EdA, Vol. 9, n. 1, 2022)
”Ecclesiastical Heritage as a Human Right” (In Olimpia Niglio & Eric Yong Lee (2021). Transcultural Diplomacy and Human Right. Springer).
Caroline Bruzelius
Duke University
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Caroline Bruzelius has written extensively on medieval architecture in France and Italy, publishing books and articles on French architecture (Notre-Dame in Paris, St.-Denis and Cistercian Gothic in France), as well as the churches of medieval Naples and South Italy. A special focus of her research has been the construction process of medieval church architecture, especially in large-scale buildings. Her work often concerns the architecture of monasticism, especially that of the mendicant orders in the thirteenth century. Her most recent book, Preaching, Building and Burying. Friars in the Medieval City (2014), describes how the spiritual and architectural practices of the Franciscans and Dominicans transformed the urban landscape. At the same time, she has studied the architecture of women’s monasticism and especially the role of clausura in shaping the church architecture of religious women.
Bruzelius has also been a leader in Digital Humanities. In 2010 she co-founded the Digital Art History and Visual Culture Laboratory at Duke University, a laboratory that engages digital tools in teaching and new research (https://dahvc.org/about/) . She innovated the use of digital technologies in Art and Architectural History, exploring how new tools can engage with questions of time, space and change in cities and buildings: two of the best-known projects are The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database https://kos.aahvs.duke.edu/) and Visualizing Venice (https://www.visualizingvenice.org/visu/) . The capacity of digital technologies to communicate stories about objects and places to the public has been a special focus of her work (https://dahvc.org/project/medieval-color/) .
From 1994 to 1998 Caroline Bruzelius was Director of the American Academy in Rome. She is a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Medieval Academy of America, and the Society of Antiquaries.
Sofia Aleixo
Victor Mestre
VMSA arquitectos
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Victor Mestre is an architect, MSc in Architectural and Landscape Heritage Rehabilitation (University of Évora, 1997), with Diploma of Advanced Studies in Theory and Practice of Urban and Architectural Rehabilitation (University of Seville, 2005) and PhD in Heritage of Portuguese Influence, with the theme Vernacular Architecture of Goa (University of Coimbra, 2018) and researcher in the area of Architectural Heritage and Vernacular Architecture, construction techniques and typologies, and their conservation (since 1982).
Sofia Aleixo is an architect, an academic, and a researcher. She is an expert in architectural heritage conservation, architectural conservation design, and its implementation on-site, which became the reason to pursue a doctoral research on the topic, focused on cultural values and Theory of Change, in Oxford-UK, where she lived and taught at IARD Master. Teaching Design Studios at the University of Évora since 2002, she is currently an Associate Professor. Research Full Member, CHAM-SLHI/FCSH-UNL responsible for the area of Architecture in the Magazines of Ideas and Culture Project. Collaborator Researcher at CHAIA and IHC-CEHFCi, atUniversity of Évora.
Both founded Victor Mestre | Sofia Aleixo Architects in 1991, developing diverse types of projects, works and research in design and in project implementation in works, achieving several awards and distinctions.
Eduardo Carrero
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
+ INFO
Eduardo Carrero is a Professor of History of Medieval Art at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His line of research focuses on the relationship between European medieval architecture and its function, its changing uses throughout history and the way we see it in the 21st century. The main interest of his work focuses on cathedral and monastic complexes analysed from a functional perspective, through documentary sources and the interpretation of the architectural and urban space, unravelling the interaction of uses and functions based on the needs generated by the daily life of the clergy and the liturgy.
He has carried out various stays in prestigious research centres, including the École Française in Rome, the Department of History and Paleography at the University of Coimbra, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, in Paris, and the University of Bristol, as a visiting researcher for the 2021-2023 biennium.
He is the author of five books published by different recognised entities in the field of research, such as the Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation of La Coruña, the Royal Institute of Asturian Studies, the University of León and, most recently (La catedral habitada. Historia viva de un espacio arquitectónico, 2019) by the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
He has also coordinated the publication of several volumes of research, including: Arquitectura y liturgia. El contexto artístico de las consuetas catedralicias en la Corona de Aragón (Palma de Mallorca: Objeto Perdido-Lleonard Muntaner, 2015) and Aragonia Cisterciensis. Arquitectura, espacio y música en los monasterios cistercienses de la Corona de Aragón (Gijón, Trea, 2021).
ABOUT
The 4th International Conference Architectures of the Soul (aos4) aims at promoting the scientific study and discussion around the architecture and landscape connected to religious and spiritual practices, grounded on the experience of seclusion
and solitude.
For centuries, religious built heritage has played an essential role in shaping social, economic, environmental and cultural values. Across major or minor religious traditions, this expressed a particular way of understanding the life, the human condition, the world, opening it to the mistery, in search of the ultimate meaning of the life. Caves, eremitical settlements, chapels, monasteries, convents, churches and cathedrals have dialogued with their surroundings, be them mountainous or solitary places, fertile valleys, peripheral or urban centres. The search for the Sacred, for the absolute otherness, which is present or can be experienced in specific places, led also to the development of pilgrimages, and their associated itineraries. Nowadays, the memory of these places tends to be erased. The secularisation of many convents, churches or monasteries, as well as the abandonment or low usage of others, led to the loss of material values. On the other hand, a significant part of this heritage and its understanding as a unity (for example, in the case of monasteries, the relationship between the spaces of prayer, the daily life and the enclosure), or its connection to a particular natural and social landscape, is gone. These specific buildings and landscapes need to be rethought at the light of the contemporary challenges.
The conference is structured around two main topics, in order to understand the historical and current values of these places and how they can shape the future, through a renewed knowledge and new ways of turning them culturally meaningful:
1. History of religious experience; 2. Future of Religious Heritage.
The conference aims to establish the platform for a multidisciplinary approach on the subject, gathering and crossing history, architecture, landscape architecture, cultural heritage, art history, computing science, among others.
The three-day conference will be hosted by the Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória, in the municipality of Batalha. This is a former dominican monastery, on the initiative of the Avis dinasty at the end of the 14th century. The complex is recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, exactly 40 years ago. The conference will be an opportunity to experience this impressive place, sharing knowledge, thinking and debating around our common historical heritage.
TOPICS
Call for presentations - Submission
The organisers of the conference would like to invite authors to submit an abstract of recent and unpublished works. Selected authors have 15 min paper presentations. The conference will be structured around two main topics:
1. History of religious experience
1a. History of eremitical/monastic life
1b. Materiality of eremitical/monastic experiences
1c. Landscapes of the soul
Sub Topics ----->
2. Future for Religious Heritage
Sub Topics ----->
2a. Managment of UNESCO religious sites
2b. Community engagement and empowerment
2c. Sustainable reuse of secularised buildings
2d. Conservation and rehabilitation
2e. 3D survey with non-intrusive technologies
2f. GIS Systems applied to religious landscapes
2g. Information and communications technology
2h. Heritage communication
2i. Cultural and creative industries and tourism
Abstracts must have no more than 300 words, written in English and submitted before 31st March 2023, along with a short bio with no more than 200 words. Each abstract must include: context, aim, methodology, results, conclusions and 5 keywords. Otherwise the abstract will not be considered.
After the conference, we will open a call for papers. Selected papers, through a double-blind peer-review process, will be published in an international book with ISBN and/or special issue(s) in indexed scientific journals.
More information will be shared over the coming months.
REGISTRATION
(include conference sessions, certificate, coffee breaks, guided tour to the Batalha Monastery on 21st October)
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION FOR SPEAKERS | until 31st May
25€
Phd Students and Reseachers affiliated with DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte | CHAIA - UÉVORA
| CEHR - UC | IEM – FCSH
50€
Members of ESACH (European Students' Association for Cultural Heritage)
75€
Other Phd Students and first-stage researcher (until 5 years after the PhD)
100€
Other Researchers
Free
Students affiliated with DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte | CHAIA - UÉVORA | CEHR - UC | IEM – FCSH
10€
10€ Members of ESACH (European Students' Association for Cultural Heritage)
20€
Other Phd Students and first-stage researcher (until 5 years after the PhD)
30€
General Public / Non Students
REGISTRATION FOR ATTENDANTS | 30th June – 30th Sept
LATE REGISTRATION FOR SPEAKERS | 1st June – 30th June
50€
Phd Students and Reseachers affiliated with DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte | CHAIA - UÉVORA
| CEHR - UC | IEM – FCSH
75€
Members of ESACH (European Students' Association for Cultural Heritage)
100€
Other Phd Students and first-stage researcher (until 5 years after the PhD)
125€
Other Researchers
IMPORTANT DATES
1st February – 31st March
Call for abstracts + info
15th April
Abstract acceptance
1st May – 31st May
Early bird Registration (Speakers) + info
1st June – 30th June
Late Registration (Speakers) + info
30th June – 30th September
Registration (Attendants) + info
19th – 21st October 2023
International Conference
1st November 2023
Call for Papers - Announcement
Rolando Volzone is an architect, working on building rehabilitation, and a post-doc researcher at DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte. Since 2022, he is also Assistant Professor and lecturer at Master degrees and PhD programs at ISCTE-IUL. He concluded his PhD in December of 2020, funded by FCT, focused on the cultural heritage of religious orders in the South of Portugal.
Along his research path, through the coordination of the international seminars "Architectures of the Soul", in 2017, 2018 and 2020, and the Summer School "Digital Survey in Religious Architecture" in 2018, he strongly supported the establishment of an international and interdisciplinary scientific network around the religious heritage in Southern Europe.
In 2020 he joined the national project “CONVEMOS”. Currently, he is a Post-doc researcher hired under the European project "F-ATLAS”, led by the Università degli Studi di Firenze. He is member of ICOMOS Portugal and integrated into two International Scientific Committees, PRERICO and CIPA Heritage Documentation, as well as member of the Scientific Board of the association Future for Religious Heritage (FRH).
More recently, he joined two COST Actions “MARGISTAR” and “Underground4Value”). He authored several publications, edited two international books, and he has been reviewer of indexed scientific articles. Moreover, he attended numerous national and international conferences.
Assistant Professor in Medieval History at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon, where he made his PhD with a dissertation entitled "From “Poor Life” to the Religious Congregation of Serra de Ossa. Genesis and institutionalisation of an eremitic experience (1366-1510)". Researcher of the Institute of Medieval Studies of the same Faculty and of the Centre for Religious History Studies of the Catholic University of Portugal. He’s also deputy-director of the IEM’s e-journal Medievalista.
Between 2013 and 2019, he was a post-doctoral fellow by the Foundation for Science and Technology, with the project "The desert in the city: women's religious experiences in Portugal in the late Middle Ages (1350-1525)". His current research interests are Hermitism, Lay Spirituality, Hagiographic Literature, Courtly and Noble Culture and Piety, Social Elites, Geography and Heritage of Religious Institutions, Rituals and Liturgical Worship, History of Spirituality, History of Women.