ABSTRACT
Is East Central Europe a forgotten region in medieval history? Why, and what can be done about it? These questions were posed at “A Forgotten Region? East Central Europe in the Global Middle Ages,” a conference held at the CEU Department of Medieval Studies in Budapest in March, 2014, in honor of János Bak, who has done so much for Medieval Studies in the region. The easy answer to the question “why?” is that for at least half of the twentieth century East Central Europe, mostly positioned behind the Iron Curtain, was seen from the point of view of Western-dominated international Medieval Studies. Historians, including medievalists, are aware today how much of what we see in history is formed by our own present, in the questions we ask, in the answers we get, and, not least, in the places we look for them.
