'Popularization' of Knowledge?

Two day hybrid conference,  attend online or in person for all or any part.

PLEASE REGISTER FOR in-person or virtual attendance before 24 August

‘Popularization’ of Knowledge? Circulation, Spill-Over and Adaptation of Scientific and Medical Expertise in Premodern Cultures

August 24-26 2026

Held jointly between the RFE-network ““Between Encyclopaedia and Epitome – Talmudic strategies of knowledge-making in the context of ancient medicine and sciences” (U. Tübingen, UC London, FU Berlin).Convenors: Lennart Lehmhaus (Tübingen), Markham J. Geller (UCL).Organizers: Lennart Lehmhaus (Tübingen), Sara Benisaac (UCL) and the UCL Institute of Jewish Studies

VENUE  Garden Room, University College London  Gower St., London WC1E 68T, UK

ALL PANELS ARE HYBRID

Day 1: Monday, August 24

15:30-16:30 Welcome Refreshments /Registration

16:30 Introduction

Mark Geller, UCL and Lennart Lehmhaus, Tübingen

Introduction

Panel 1, 16:45 – 18:15

Daniela Dueck, Bar-Ilan University: The Circular Life of Geographical Knowledge in the Greco-Roman World: Transmission, Exchange, and Common Sense

Sacha Stern, University College London:  Bloodletting Days in Medieval Ashkenaz: Between Talmudic Tradition and Latin Dies Aegri

18:15-18:45 Final Discussion

19:00 Dinner (by invitation only)

Day 2: Tuesday, August 25

Panel 2, 09:30 – 11:00

Michiel Meeusen, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin: Medical Culture and Learned Society in the High Roman Empire

Lennart Lehmhaus, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen: Popular belief, Peer-Expertise and Pragmatism – Talmudic Discourse on Healing and Health

11:00 Break

Panel 3, 11:45 - 13:15

Marketa Preininger, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg: Influences of Greek Medicine on Coptic Healing Practices

Abigail Pearson, University College London: An Eighth-Century Syriac Lunar Algorithm and its Afterlives in Modern Manuscripts

13:15 LUNCH

Panel 4, 15:00 – 16:30

Irene Salvo, University of Verona ONLINE ON ZOOM: Asclepius Knows How to Heal: Medical Knowledge and Faith Formation at Epidauros

Siam Bhayro, University of Exeter:  Ḥunayn’s Folly and Budge’s Ignorant and Credulous Men: the Persistence of Therapeutic Expertise in Medieval Mesopotamia

16:30 Break

Panel 5, 17:00 – 18.00

Dan Levene, University of Southampton: Teaching Healing - Looking Forward, Looking Backward. Ethiopia, Jundishapur, Nisibis, and more

18:30 Final Discussion

19:00 Dinner (invitation only)

Day 3: Wednesday, August 26

Panel 6, 9:30 – 11:00

Samra Azarnouche, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris:From Physics to Theology: Adapting Natural Knowledge in Zoroastrian Cosmological Discourse of Late Antiquity

John Mandsager, University of South Carolina: Classification, Ontology, Ambiguity, and Hybrids: The Rabbis Attempt to Map the Natural World

11:00 – 11:30 Break

Panel 7, 11:30- 13:00

Giulia La Cognata, University of Edinburgh: Performing the Doctor: Charlatanry, Social Performance and the Diffusion of Medical Expertise across the Greek World

Mark Geller, University College London: A Babylonian View of Narratives from Bavli Tractate Yoma

13:00 – 13.30

Final Discussion and Reflections on the Conference

13:30 FAREWELL LUNCH (by invitation only)