Eric Dursteler (Brown, 2000) is Professor and Chair of History at Brigham Young University. His research focuses on gender, religious identity and food in the the early modern Mediterranean.  His publications include Venetians in Constantinople: Nation, Identity and Coexistence in the Early Modern Mediterranean (2006), Renegade Women: Gender, Identity and Boundaries in the Early Modern Mediterranean (2011), and A Companion to Venetian History (2013).

His next book, The Mediterranean World: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Napoleon, co-authored with Monique O’Connell, was published this year.  His research has been funded by, among others, the Fulbright Commission, the NEH, Villa I Tatti and the Delmas Foundation. He is editor of the News on the Rialto, and book review editor for the Journal of Early Modern History.

Language and Communication in the Multilingual Early Modern Mediterranean

The Mediterranean is a space of tremendous linguistic diversity.  This characteristic has marked its past and present in important ways. From intermediaries, to phrase books, from lingua franca to gesture, recent years have seen a growing body of scholarship devoted to describing the linguistic landscape of the Mediterranean, and the various ways in which its inhabitants navigated this richly complex reality.  This paper will examine the broad historiographical outlines of the history of language and communication in the Mediterranean, as well as considering potential future directions.