Carol Lansing, 'Abduction as Ritual Humiliation in Late Medieval Italy'

Carol Lansing is Professor of History at the University of California Santa Barbara. She is a specialist in the society, politics and culture of medieval Italy. On 12 February 2014, she delivered this keynote paper at a conference on ‘Emotion, Ritual and Power in Europe: 1200 to the Present’ at The University of Adelaide. In the paper, she argues that accounts of abduction in late medieval Italy can be read as ritual power struggles that were carried out through displays of emotion.