Migration and Mobility in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

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The Centre for Advanced Studies is devoted to the study of migration and mobility in Europe and the Mediterranean between 250 and 900 CE. Its objective is to set the scholarly debate about a phenomenon that fundamentally shaped this period in Eurasian History on a new footing by raising new questions and exploring innovative approaches and methods for answering them. While in the last decades scholarly debate about late antique and early medieval migrations has centered around questions of ethnicity and identity, our group aims to broaden the horizon of debate by embedding the mobility of ethnically defined groups in the wider history of migration and mobility at the time. To this end we move beyond the traditional boundaries of the so-called “migration period” (ca. 375-568) and examine pertinent phenomena from the 3rd to the 9th century CE. More particularly, we look beyond the migration of large ethnic or military groups and analyze it in the context of other phenomena of individual and collective mobility in the period. We propose to add new or neglected aspects to the scholarly debate by bringing in the economic framework of migration and mobility as well as analyzing their consequences for local communities. And we analyze migration and mobility in the period from a comparative historical perspective and draw on approaches and insights from research on mobility and migration in contemporary societies.In the second funding period we wish to continue working on these objectives but also add new aspects that help develop the perspectives for future research on migration and mobility in late antiquity and the middle ages. We propose to focus on the following four themes which we regard as particularly promising areas for future research: (1) an intensification of research on the Eurasian dimension of migration in our period; (2) a critical engagement with scientific methods and technologies currently applied to the study of our period; (3) the micropolitics of migration and mobility; (4) silent migrants; and (5) elite mobility.By combing these perspectives with those of the first funding period, we aim to achieve results that can be brought into dialogue with research on migration and mobility in other periods, including those in present-day societies. At the same time, the Centre wants to test conceptualizations of migration and mobility developed with regard to modern societies on the basis of a paradigmatic historical precedent. In so doing, we seek to make a contribution to understanding a phenomenon of utmost political, social, economic, and cultural significance in the contemporary world.