Religious minorities, as well as ethnic minorities are terms widely used in recent historical and sociological scholarship as well as in the political language of the present. Their use is closely linked to developments in historical fields that have helped study the experience of so-called minorities in new ways, in particular developments in global history and the focus of some forms of global history on such phenomena as circulation, connectedness, movement, and transfer. This roundtable will address issues of multiculturalism, ethnicity and religion in the long term, starting in the Middle Ages but reaching contemporary confrontation in different geographical areas of the world, from the Mediterranean to East Asia.
We will discuss current research projects that deal with the administration of minority population by a dominant elite of a different religion, conversion, their internal organization, the legal frameworks of coexistence and the literary reflection of multiculturalism.
But we will also address new methodologies, exciting new sources and the ways of funding this growing field of research, as well as the impact it has in our current societies.