It is with great pleasure that we announce the Call for Papers for the First International Conference of the Medieval Caucasus Network, entitled 'Studying Non-Elites in the Medieval Caucasus'. This will take place at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels, Belgium, on March 13th-14th 2026. Interested speakers should please send a CV, a paper abstract of 100-300 words, contact details and information about funding requirements to mcnconference2026@gmail.com by 30th September 2025. Queries may be directed to this email, and we also refer to our poster.
This conference aims to present new, comparative and connective approaches to the study of non-elite groups in the medieval Caucasus, including but not limited to:
- Peasants and non-elite pastoralists
- Enslaved people
- Non-elite women
- Religious minorities.
We invite papers on any or multiple of the above groups living in the Caucasus, including all regions from the Pontic Steppe to Eastern Anatolia and the northern fringe of the Iranian Plateau, at any point between the fourth and sixteenth centuries CE. Papers may include theoretical, methodological or historiographical overviews; comparative studies, including comparisons between groups in the Caucasus and those in other world regions and time periods; or case studies of individual social groups, social networks, textual or ethnographic sources, or archaeological sites.
Papers may be presented in English, Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Turkish, or any other national or endemic language of the Caucasus. If participants wish to present in languages other than English, the organisers will endeavour to provide interpreters between these languages and English, although this cannot be guaranteed.
Papers may be presented in person in Brussels, or online via videoconferencing. Depending on the progress of funding applications, the conference organisers may be able to provide limited travel funding for some attendees with demonstrable financial need, with priority given to researchers travelling from countries of the Caucasus.