Using the Past for the Present: Medieval Narratives in Modern Political and Religious Discourse
On March 28 and 29, 2025, John Cabot University hosted the international conference “Using the Past for the Present: Medieval Narratives in Modern Political and Religious Discourse.” The event was organized by JCU History Professor Fabrizio Conti alongside historians Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri (University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”) and Serena Di Nepi (Sapienza University of Rome), and the Director of the Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo, Umberto Longo.
Sponsored by JCU’s President Franco Pavoncello, the Department of History and Humanities, the Department of Political Sciences and International Relations, and the Guarini Institute for Public Affairs, the conference was held in the framework of the Project of National Interest (PRIN) called “FRAME – Framing Medievalisms: Historiography, Cultural Heritage, Media Communication and Languages in Italy (1980-2022),” funded by Next Generation EU. It was also sponsored by the the American Academy in Rome, and the Democracy Institute of the Central European University in Budapest/Vienna.
The conference, focusing on an important and timely topic, attracted scholars and guests from around the world for a two-day event rich in discussion and insights. The organizers plan to publish the papers presented in a collective edited volume. The presenters were divided into 15 panels that approached the use of medieval narratives for the present from a variety of points of view and methodological angles, ranging from Medievalism and Nation Building between Western and Eastern Europe to Medieval narratives in the Russian context.
The Keynote Speakers: Medieval Narratives and False Memories
In his opening lecture titled “False Memories, Invented Histories, and the Historian’s Obligation to the Past and Present”, Professor Patrick Geary of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, pointed out how historians have the responsibility to speak out against the distortions, manipulations, and exploitations of the past to protect the present. In this regard, Geary affirmed that historians must educate contemporaries to understand that the study of history is not the study of “essences,” but rather, the study of differential change over time. This means that, while the origins of today’s great challenges in the world may arise from the past, their answers are to be found in the present. He concluded by affirming that historians must remain humble before this reality.
Geary’s lecture was followed by the two keynote speakers. Professor Gábor Klaniczay (Central European University in Budapest/Vienna), gave the talk “Political Time Traveling – Middle Ages Reloaded: Hungarian and Russian Examples,” where he highlighted how medieval narratives and traditions, often distorted or invented, are integrated in many ways in current political identity formation.
Professor Tamar Herzig (Tel Aviv University) presented “The Modern Uses of Medieval and Renaissance Narratives of Enslavement and Sexual Violence,” discussing women’s enslavement and its wide-ranging implications in Early-modern Mediterranean Catholic Europe, along with the role of medieval narratives in conceptualizing enslavement.
After the conference, nine students from Professor Conti’s Europe Before Nations course presented their research. Topics ranged from Tolkien and the Middle Ages to some of the most iconic medieval churches of Rome, and from medieval universities to modern-day nationalism. Professor Conti highlighted that JCU provides students with opportunities to take an active part in conferences of this nature in the spirit of the University’s mission as an American liberal arts institution.
