A Shared World? Muslim-Christian interactions in the early modern Mediterranean and their relevance for today
Submitting Institution
St Mary's University, TwickenhamUnit of Assessment
HistorySummary Impact Type
SocietalResearch Subject Area(s)
Language, Communication and Culture: Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies
Philosophy and Religious Studies: Religion and Religious Studies
Summary of the impact
The impact within this case study is two-fold. Firstly through the
dissemination of her research, which focuses on the political, cultural
and economic interactions, co-operation and conflict between Muslim and
Christian communities in the early modern Mediterranean world, Dr Claire
Norton seeks to create impact by challenging current negative media
stereotypes of Muslims and Islamic cultures. This has been achieved
through a variety of public lectures, academic and more popular
publications, media appearances and pedagogical workshops with teachers.
Beneficiaries of the impact include interested members of the public,
teachers, schools, and -academic community stakeholders - both religious
and non-religious. Secondly Norton is currently working with teachers with
the aim of converting academic research into subject knowledge and usable
classroom resources, thus enabling teachers to integrate knowledge of
Islamic cultures into mainstream educational contexts with the aim of
challenging negative misconceptions.
Underpinning research
The underpinning research for this case study is Norton's work on the
close cultural, economic, political and military interactions between the
early modern Ottoman Empire and western European states undertaken in the
past 10-15 years. Much of her research is manuscript based using
Ottoman-language sources, but she also uses modern Turkish texts and early
modern English-language printed books. The research has provided key
material that has, and will continue to form the basis of workshop
sessions for teachers and other members of the public, will be used as
possible classroom resources, and has provided material for public talks
and media appearances.
Norton organised an international conference entitled `The Renaissance
and the Ottoman World' (in conjunction with Prof. Charles Burnett of
Warburg Institute, and Prof. Anna Contadini of the School of Oriental and
African Studies) on 26-27th April 2006 to which highly regarded
academics from the fields of Renaissance and Ottoman Studies gave original
papers that explored the complex intellectual, diplomatic, and artistic
interactions between Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottoman Empire in
the Renaissance period. Together with Contadini, Norton edited a book of
papers from this conference The Renaissance and the Ottoman World
and authored an article that explored the close artistic, intellectual,
economic, and diplomatic relations between western European states and the
Ottoman Empire in the Renaissance period. Theoretically she highlighted
the problems with using a clash of civilisations interpretative frame to
narrate the histories of Mediterranean and western European states and
instead suggested that a `shared world' model might have more explanatory
and heuristic force.
In June 2013 Dr Norton organised another international conference on
early modern conversion in the Mediterranean entitled `The Lure of the
`Other': Religious Conversion and Reversion in the Early Modern
Mediterranean and Beyond' at St Mary's University College,
Twickenham, 4th-5th June 2013 which analysed how
early modern converts traversed not only religious divisions, but also
political, cultural and geographic boundaries. It also explored the role
conversion played in the fabrication of cosmopolitan Mediterranean
identities and how it intersected with trading networks, wider patterns of
voluntary or involuntary economic migration, and the dissemination of
ideas, intellectual traditions, cultural practices and material goods.
Norton is currently editing a volume of selected papers from this
conference and writing introductory essay for it. Again it stresses the
heuristic benefit of conceiving of the erranean world as a shared
geo-political and cultural space.
Norton has also written a number of articles during the REF assessment
period that explore interactions between Christian and Muslim communities
in the western Mediterranean and central European borderlands and which
further problematize, through a series of case studies based on primary
sources, the notion that an iron curtain divided Christendom from the
Islamic world and that these peoples inhabited different intellectual,
political and economic worlds.
Dr Claire Norton has been employed at St Mary's since 2005. She is
currently Co-director of the Centre for the Philosophy of History, and is
a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow in History.
References to the research
Contadini, A. and Norton C.(eds), The Renaissance and the Ottoman
World. London: Ashgate, 2013.
Norton, C. "Blurring the Boundaries: intellectual and cultural
interactions between the eastern and western; Christian and Muslim
worlds," in Contadini, Anna and Claire Norton (eds), The Renaissance
and the Ottoman World. London: Ashgate, 2013.
Norton, C. "Lust, Greed, Torture and Identity: Narrations of Conversion
and the Creation of the Early Modern 'Renegade'" Comparative Studies
of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, (2009), 259-268.
Norton, C. "Conversion to Islam in the Ottoman Empire," Wiener
zeitschrift zur geschichte der neuzeit 7/2, (2007), 25-39.
Norton, C. "Nationalism and the Re-Invention of Early-Modern Identities
in the Ottoman-Habsburg Borderlands," Ethnologia Balkanica, 11
(2008), 79-101.
Norton, C. "`The Lutheran is the Turks' Luck': Imagining Religious
Identity, Alliance and Conflict on the Habsburg-Ottoman Marches in an
Account of the Sieges of Nagykanizsa 1600 and 1601", in Marlene Kurz,
Martin Scheutz, Karl Vocelka and Thomas Winkelbauer (eds), Das
Osmanische Reich und die Habsburgermonarchie in der Neuzeit. Akten des
internationalen Kongresses zum 150-jährigen Bestehen des Instituts für
Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Wien, 22.-25. September 2004
MIÖG Erg. Bd. 49, (Wien: Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische
Geschichtsforschung, 2005), 67-81.
Research Grants
2006 British Academy Grant of £1995, British Institute at Ankara Grant of
£500, and Society of Renaissance Studies Grant of £1000 to support Renaissance
and Ottoman World Conference. In addition, to these grants my
co-organisers (Prof. Anna Contadini and Prof. Charles Burnett) and myself
raised more than £8000 in grants from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
and the Kress Foundation to support the conference.
2013 Society of Renaissance Studies Grant of £1000 to support Lure of
the Other Conference
Details of the impact
Norton's research has been disseminated through books, journal articles,
public conferences, workshops with teachers, and on the radio, all of
which has led to enhanced public awareness of the close interactions and
mutually beneficial co-existence between Islamic and Christian communities
in the early-modern Mediterranean World, something particularly relevant
in today's political and cultural environment. In this context the role of
Norton's research is to challenge the negative stereotypes of Muslims and
Islamic cultures and through its dissemination to enhance the cultural and
religious understanding, thoughts and behaviour of individuals and groups,
with the aim of promoting a more informed public discourse.
As a result of her research Norton has been elected to the Society for
Renaissance Studies council and also to the managing council of the
British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) - the BIAA plays a key role in
fostering positive relations between Turkey and the UK and in
disseminating knowledge about Turkey to the general public.
Norton was invited on Radio 4's In Our Time hosted by Melvyn
Bragg (14th May 2009) to discuss the second Ottoman siege of
Vienna (1683). Here again she challenged the idea of a fundamental,
hostile divide between the Christian west and Muslim east and instead
argued for the conflict to be seen in the context of local political and
economic, rather than religious, rivalries. She has given talks to local
history associations, schools and to students visiting the university on
similar topics.
Norton's most recent project involves working with primary and secondary
school teachers and PGCE students on a project entitled `Translating
Cultures: exchange, acculturation, inclusion'. The project provides
tangible benefits to non-academic community stakeholders, in particular
schools and local community groups. By providing alternative narratives of
what it means to be Muslim in both a cultural and religious sense, and by
exploring the fundamental role that Islamic communities have played in the
politico-cultural and scientific development of the ern world, the project
is challenging negative stereotypes of Muslims and Islamic cultures. It
also helps develop community cohesion and encourages the imagination of
more inclusive, plural British identities. Specifically it aims to produce
educational materials and provide teachers with the relevant subject
knowledge to facilitate the integration of knowledge of Islamic cultures
(particularly the Ottoman Empire) into mainstream educational contexts.
As a pilot for this project an interactive pedagogical workshop for
teachers and PGCE students in the London area was held with support from a
colleague at the British Library (Nur Sobers-Khan) on 7th March 2013
entitled `Promoting Inclusion and Critical Engagement through
Education'. It sought to encourage small but significant changes in
an educational context (primarily in the fields of history and religious
studies) in order to foster a greater sense of cohesion between different
British ethno-cultural and religious communities and an enriching of
possible imaginations of British-ness. It attracted a number of PGCE
students, teachers and head teachers who engaged in lively discussion with
the various academics, public policy advisors, and members of the police
who presented papers. Dr Norton also gave a paper derived from her
research for her article in the edited volume The Renaissance and the
Ottoman World.
Participants commented in the workshop feedback that they thoroughly
enjoyed the workshop felt that they could easily incorporate the
information contained in a number of the papers into their teaching, most
notably that on Islamic science and the input of Islamic cultures to the
Renaissance. Those involved with teacher training also said they would use
the information when teaching PGCE students whom they believed would pass
on the information to their students in turn.
The intention is to develop `Translating Cultures' further in
collaboration with primary and secondary school teachers (and in
association with colleagues in the School of Education, Theology and
Leadership at SMUC, and the Department of Education at the University of
Cambridge) and to design and pilot materials that can be used by teachers
in the classroom to foster public understanding of the rich heritage of
Islamic societies and civilisations. The reach of these various activities
among different non-academic audiences is significant and will increase as
the project continues into its second phase.
Sources to corroborate the impact
In our Time http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00k9h9g
Link to pedagogical workshop http://www.smuc.ac.uk/religion-and-history/promoting-inclusion-and-critical-engagement-through-education.htm
Primary Education Lecturer at SMUC and participant in Promoting
Inclusion and Critical Engagement workshop