Presentation Title: "Constructive Resistance, Planned Migration, Synnomic Society: Locating Diplomacy of Prophet Muhammad in Managing Social Tumult" Abstract: Social tensions and the mass movement of people have emerged as important concerns of the contemporary world. In general, based on the push and pull factors analysis, migration is perceived as a way of escape. Authorities understand it as a plague on the developed societies of the Western world. Instead of understanding it as a chance to create a synnomic society, in the last decades, refugee influxes have increasingly been met with economical, racial, and ethnic concerns. Migrants are subjected to many problems including lack of food, inadequate health care facility, and non-availability of adequate shelter worldwide, notably, state policy enabled most of this. Taking the responses of modern nation-states to migration and migrants as a departure point, this paper analyses how the seventh-century Muslim migrations can be perceived as a phase of constructive resistance mechanized by the diplomacy of Prophet Muhammad, as a subject of history. How Prophet Muhammad materialized the existence of Islam as a subcultural entity in the Meccan geopolitical space, Instead of being an object of persecution, through the mechanisms of planning, consultation, and dialogue would be one important focus of this paper. Focusing on twin migrations of Muslims to Ethiopia and Medina, this paper traces the way Prophet Muhammad planned the constructive resistance and used migrations to Ethiopia and Medina as a part of this resistance. It also discusses how Prophet used the diversity of the society formed in Medina after Muslim arrival to form and materialize his vision of the new Medina State and a synnomic society, further strengthening the Muslim resistance. The study employed a qualitative method with an approach of content analysis evaluating relevant books, studies, and articles. The result indicates that Prophet Muhammad was successful in locating Islam as a subcultural entity in Mecca and he launched effective resistance mechanisms to resolve the problems faced by his followers using migration and state-building as two phases of resistance.

Presentation Title: "Life was easier and better: Nostalgia and political power in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union" Abstract: The presentation aims at deepening the political use of nostalgia in 21st century Russia in response to the crisis of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The collapse of the USSR constitutes a collective trauma, as it affects a whole community (Herman 2015: 51, Alexander 2019: 29). Trauma survivors experience reflective nostalgia, labelled as the melancholic longing for the reassuring reality that existed before the event (Bojm 2001: 41). However, the purpose of the Russian government is to fuel nationalistic waves spreading restorative nostalgia, i.e., the desire to bring back an idyllic past (Bojm 2001: 41, Marchesini 2015: 154) based on the synthesis of Soviet severity and Imperial grandeur (Caramitti 2010: 267, Липовеский 2008: 743, Sulpasso 2021: 476). Hence, the presentation goal is to demonstrate that the Russian government deliberately manipulates feelings of nostalgia so to assert that the country is bound to become an everlasting power. Since the focus is on how the collapse of the USSR is perceived in 21st century Russia, the presentation hypothesis investigates the role of postmemory in the processes through which this crisis has been defining the country for generations (Hirsh 2019: 172).

Presentation Title: "From Great Persecution to Great Christian Empire: The Role of Martyrs in the Great Transition" Abstract: The great transformation that Christianity went through from the third to the fourth century implies a process in which religion both influenced and was influenced by social movements. While one source of influence on Christianity was the support of Constantine after his victory of Licinius, another important impact on the formation of Christian identity was the reality and literature of martyrdom. Martyrdom is one of the most influential notions in the transition from great persecution to victory discourse. The paper argues that when Early Christians experienced the great persecution of the mid-third century, they also glorified the past local and sporadic persecutions through martyrology. In so doing, their exaggerated readings of the past shaped both their history and the Christian identity of the day. The rhetoric of victimization of Christian martyrs elevated the sufferings of these persecutions beyond reality. Based on Eusebius' Martyrs of Palestine, this paper aims to explore the meaning of martyrdom, and its social and religious role especially in Eastern Christianity. The primary goal of this paper is to question how religious and cultural change takes place by incorporating both legal and martyrological documents. In so doing, it is possible to observe the interaction of religion with social and political institutions broadly, while better examining a particular moment of historical transition.

Presentation Title: "Inconclusive by Designed: Rethinking the “Ti esti” question in the Context of the Declining Greek Civilization" Abstract: It is often said that when western philosophers begin their course of inquiry about certain concepts, they usually start by asking the definitional questions, that is, the so-called “Ti esti” question (“Ti esti” is Greek for “What is”). In this conference paper, I shall argue that this idiosyncratic tendency of western philosophers from Socrates onward is not merely what Plato suggested, a by-product of their innocent curiosity; instead, this idiosyncrasy was an outcome of the reactionary aristocrats against the decline of Greek civilization. Through a comparative reading of 17 different dialogues by Plato, I will demonstrate in detail how Plato treats Socrates’ dialogue partners differently, depending on whether the dialogue is advanced by Socrates’ dialogue partners or whether the dialogue is willingly moved forward by Socrates himself. It is worth noting that within the 17 dialogues that I surveyed, there are only two works from Plato, which Socrates leads the discussion. Moreover, beyond the close engagement of primary text, I intend to enrich the readings of Plato with their respective social-historical context. Ultimately, this paper aims to provide insights regarding why Greek aristocrats perceived their civilization was in decline and how such decline was related to “Ti esti” question as a strategy of resistance rather than academic inquiry.

Presentation Title: "A Marriage of Power: The Strength in Isabelle of Castille" Abstract: This paper analyzes Isabella’s power after the 1492 expulsion of religious minorities, as one of the Queen’s actions as part of a political and social crisis. The identity imposition that came with it was a rupture from a context of coexistence among the Christians kingdoms, the Muslim territories and the religious plurality of the Iberian Peninsula. My analysis of the Alhambra Decree (1492) shows the enforcement of Castilian religious power, following what was established by the Concordia of Segovia (1475). The two documents demonstrate that the queen consolidated her power through Christianity by erasing the history of Spanish minorities. Isabella pursued the rejection of those who she believed did not conform with the Spanish Christian identity. The all-Catholic kingdom triggered the expulsion of minority groups from the Iberian Peninsula, making Isabella of Castile a central figure for the nation-building process in Spain. My contribution is to examine the discourse produced by Isabella to disparage the Jewish population. My research contributes to the existing historiography by reflecting on how Isabella’s wishes transcended her death. The consolidation of Isabella’s legacy of a Christian identity was perceived as a salvation, since it became an image of power and stability, which was constantly recovered in Spanish history as an answer to political and economic turmoils. Isabella’s marriage strengthened Castilian identity’s policy, enforcing a crisis among the non-Christian minorities, thus becoming a crux element to comprehend Spanish history.

Presentation Title: "Beyond the Epidemic Villain: Disease, Pollution, and Human Animal Relations in Early Modern China"