The Spring 2025 Mediterranean Seminar Workshop
Thursday and Friday, 10 and 11 April 2025
Case Western Reserve University
“Faking It!
Forgery, Fraud, Deception and Dissimulation
in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean”
Fake news, fake flags, fake papers... All were legion in the premodern Mediterranean. Whether or not this place of islands and enclaves, cultural archipelagos and fragmented sovereignties was especially conducive to dissimulation, it is an ideal place for studying different forms of forgery, fraud and self-fashioning. “Faking It!” invites specialists from across disciplines to think expansively about the historical motives, methods, milieus and meaning of imposture in and around the Inner Sea. Falsifying specimens, counterfeiting coinage, claiming expertise, feigning faith, concealing origins all implicated questions of identity, knowledge, authenticity, legitimacy and authority. So did the acts of unmasking, debunking and exposing. What can the construction and contestation of lies teach us about the premodern Mediterranean and vice versa?
Program & Papers
All papers [click on the title to download] are copyright the author and are not to be copied, distributed or cited without express written permission by same.
Click on the participant name to see their bio.
Thursday 10 April 2025
Location: Kelvin Smith Library (11055 Euclid Ave) • Dampeer Room (2nd floor)
9:45—10:15 Coffee and Registration
10:15—10:30 Opening Remarks
• Gillian Weiss (History: Case Western Reserve University), and Thomas Glesener (Temps, espaces, langages, Europe méridionale, Méditerranée: Aix-Marseille Université)
• Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: University of Colorado Boulder), and Sharon Kinoshita (Literature: UC Santa Cruz).
10:30–11:45 Workshop Paper #1
The Gentildonne of Fabriano: Forging Women’s Voices in Sixteenth-Century Italy [abstract]
• Laura Ingallinella (Italian Studies: University of Toronto)
Moderator: Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: CU Boulder),
Respondent: Maggie Vinter (English: Case Western Reserve University)
11:45–12:00 Introductions
12:00–1:30 Lunch (for speakers and registered participants)
1:30–2:45 Workshop Paper #2
Earthly Pleasures: Pearls, False Pearls, and the Sex Industry in Early Modern Venice [abstract]
• Hannah Johnston (History: Stanford University)
Moderator: Sharon Kinoshita (Literature: UC Santa Cruz)
Respondent: Erin Benay (Art History: Case Western)
2:45-3:00 Coffee Break
3:00–4:15 Workshop Paper #3
Sacred Lies. Mysticism, Propaganda, and the Struggle for Authority: The Case of Hindiyya al-'Ujaymi [abstract]
• Borja W. Gonzalez Fernandez (Political Science and International Relations: Necmettin Erbakan University)
Moderator: Thomas Glesener (TELEMMe: Aix-Marseille Université)
Respondent: Sergio La Porta (Education and Human Development: Fresno State)
4:15–4:30 Walk to keynote venue: Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, Clark Hall Room 206 (11130 Bellflower Rd,.)
4:30–5:45 Keynote Presentation:
True Miracles and Fake Prodigies in Early Modern Italy: the Case of St. Antonino’s Exorcisms in Sorrento [abstract]
• Stefania Tutino (History: UCLA)
Moderator: Gillian Weiss (History: Case Western Reserve University)
6:30–8:30 Dinner (see below) for workshop presenters, moderators, and round-table presenters
9:00— Post-workshop meeting (see below)
Friday 11 April 2025
Location: Kelvin Smith Library (11055 Euclid Ave) • Dampeer Room (2nd floor)
9:30–10:00 Coffee and Registration
10:00–11:15 Round Table 1
Strategic Fictions: How did the Mediterranean socio-cultural environment encourage deception, forgery and misrepresentation as strategies? What form did these take?
Moderator: Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: CU Boulder)
• Adriano Duque (Spanish: Villanova University) “ Forging Deception: Hannibal, Corinthian Bronze, and Roman Ideals in the Late Republic” [abstract]
• Rushika Hage (History: Bethel University/University of Minnesota) “Remembered Glory: Genoese Trade and the Canepa Portolan Chart of 1489” [abstract]
• Natividad Planas (School of Historical Studies: Institute of Advanced Study) “ Who "cares" about runaways ? Slaves and jurisdictions in Iberia and Mediterranean islands (XVI.-XVIII centuries)” [abstract]
• Sherif Abdelkarim (English: Grinnell College)“Diomede in Love: Diplomacy and Deception in Medieval "Courtship"” [abstract]
• Junko Takeda (History: Syracuse University)“ The French Ambassadors Who Faked It: Lies and Alibis in the Early Modern Mediterranean” [abstract]
• Rebecca Wartell (Jewish Studies: Earlham College) “Fake ID: Conversa widows, inheritance laws, and religious identity switching in family courts” [abstract]
11:15–11:30 Walk to keynote venue: Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, Clark Hall Room 206(11130 Bellflower Rd,.)
11:30–12:45 Keynote Presentation:
Religious Doubt and Self-Representation in Inquisition Trial Testimonies [abstract]
• Karoline Cook (History: Royal Holloway, University of London)
Moderator: Thomas Glesener (TELEMMe: Aix-Marseille Université)
12:45–2:15 Lunch (for speakers and registered participants) • Kelvin Smith Library (11055 Euclid Ave) • Dampeer Room (2nd floor) featuring a pop-up exhibit organized by the head of Special Collections, William Claspy.
2:15–3:30 Round Table 2
Wronging a Write: How did texts provide opportunities for deception and fakery in the Mediterranean world? What particular approaches did the regional environment elicit?
Moderator: Sharon Kinoshita (Literature: UC Santa Cruz)
• Covadonga Baratech (Jewish and Islamic Studies: Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and the Middle East (ILC - CSIC)) “Forging their way into hadith transmission: the falsification of audition certificates” [abstract]
• Océane Fontaine Cioffi (Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance: Université de Tours) “Imitating Nature, Counterfeiting Scents” [abstract]
• Valentina Pugliano (Philosophy and Cultural Heritage: Ca' Foscari University of Venice) “The “Mediterranean Authentic”: Forging Nature, Making Remedies and Recovering Tradition in the Early Modern Mediterranean” [abstract]
• Javier Castro (Spanish and Portuguese Studies: Rutgers University - Newark) “ Fake News Between Fact and Entertainment: The Mentideros of Madrid” [abstract]
• Daniella Kostroun (History: Indiana University, Indianapolis) “Apocryphal Correspondences of the Ottoman Sultan in France” [abstract]
3:30—3:45 Concluding Remarks
• Brian A. Catlos (Religious Studies: University of Colorado Boulder), Thomas Glesener (TELEMMe: Aix-Marseille Université), Sharon Kinoshita (Literature: UC Santa Cruz), and Gillian Weiss (History: Case Western Reserve University).
4:00—5:30 Visit to Cleveland Museum of Art (11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44106)
6:30-8:30pm++ Dinner (see below) for workshop presenters, moderators, and round-table presenters
Sponsors, Organization & Support:
This workshop is organized by Brian A. Catlos (University of Colorado Boulder), Thomas Glesener (Aix-Marseille Université), Sharon Kinoshita (University of California Santa Cruz), and Gillian Weiss (Case Western Reserve University). It is sponsored by Aix-Marseille Université and Case Western Reserve University, with the support of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, Department of History, College of Arts & Sciences, and the Provost's Office together with the Mediterranean Seminar and the CU Mediterranean Studies Group.