Welcome to the TUCEMEMS monthly lecture for December!
Tiago Queimada e Silva will be holding a presentation on the topic ”The Good Noblemen Who Conquered the Kingdom: Islam, Otherness, and Identity in Late-Medieval Portugal”. The presentation is in English.
07.12. from klo 4:15 pm at the University of Turku, Arcanum seminar room A270.
Registration for remote attendance: https://konsta.utu.fi/Default.aspx?tabid=88&tap=17087
Abstract: In this talk I will present my doctoral dissertation, which was approved at the University of Turku in November 2022. The thesis deals with aristocratic historiography and political legitimation in late-medieval Portugal (late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries). It offers a perspective into the historical imaginary of the late-medieval Portuguese aristocracy; an imaginary that underlay the argumentation of members of this social class in defence of their traditional rights and jurisdictions against political centralisation. It examines how the medieval Portuguese aristocracy utilized memories of past interactions with Islam to justify its privileged social status and defend its traditional prerogatives at a time when this social group opposed the royalist policy of political centralization. This research is included into wider debates on the role of culture — in this case, historical culture — as a resource to justify, reinforce, reproduce, and transform an existing social order. I will also present to the audience the main ideas guiding my post-doctoral research project.