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iCal calendarYou are cordially invited to attend the final seminar in the Inimkond series for this semester. Matthias Jost from EKA will present and discuss his paper entitled "Travelling to Mount Athos: Holy Mountain, Forbidden Place, Reference Point". The seminar will take place on December 10th, from 6-8pm in room T 415 (Tallinn University Terra building).
For event on FB, see https://www.facebook.com/events/484198465052018/
Abstract:
Mount Athos, an autonomous monastic state in Northern Greece, is a place that many have heard of but that only few have actually visited. Despite the fact that the number of visitors to Mount Athos is restricted, that visiting requires an official permission and women are denied entrance, this place has produced a great variety of travel literature throughout the centuries. Based on travelogues of the 19th and 20th centuries I will discuss the question whether Athos - as a place where "time stands still", a place where people have been living according to the same rules for more than 1600 years - makes a good reference point to measure change in the cultures visiting this place. We will have a look at the encounters of visitors and hosts dominated by attitudes that range from mutual interest to disregard, from reverence to direct aversion. Visiting a place is seen as a way to de-mystify the myth that nevertheless often just adds a new chapter to the production of myth.
About the speaker:
Matthias Jost was born and educated in Germany where he studied Philosophy and Germanic Literature. After working as an editor in a publishing house for almost a decade, he is today teaching aesthetics, history of art history and German language at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA). His main research interest however is travel writing where he is exploring new ways of writing about travel literature by applying concepts and methods from other disciplines, social anthropology among them.
About the seminar series:
Inimkond: Current issues in anthropology and beyond
fortnightly on Wednesdays, 18.00 – 20.00
full program at http://www.tlu.ee/en/estonian-institute-of-humanities/Anthropology/inimkond
This seminar series features speakers from anthropology and related fields, and fosters discussion of their research with a transdisciplinary audience. It aims to contribute to the culture of academic scholarship and debate at Tallinn University. Speakers include both local researchers and guests from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and with various takes on anthropological theory and methods. Presentations in the seminar series will be of interest to staff and students in anthropology, cultural theory, sociology, and history, among others.