Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Conferences

See also events organized by the Network for Early European Research.

LATIN CLINIC FOR MEDIEVALISTS AND EARLY MODERNISTS

Call for Expressions of Interest: ARC Network for Early European Research-sponsored Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar.

Organisers: Yasmin Haskell (University of Western Australia) and Frances Muecke (University of Sydney)

13 November 2009

Venue: Classics Centre, University of Sydney, NSW

TRENDS, METHODOLOGIES AND RESOURCES IN STUDYING MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

http://arts.monash.edu.au/religion-theology/conference/pats.php

Thursday 19 November 2009

A NEER-MCD Postgraduate Advanced Training Seminar (PATS).

INTERPRETING ST FRANCIS IN A MULTI-RELIGIOUS SOCIETY: FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT

http://arts.monash.edu.au/religion-theology/conference/

20-21 November 2009

A conference celebrating the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Franciscan movement. Presented by the Yarra Theological Union, Melbourne College of Divinity and the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Monash University.

THE MEDIEVALISM OF NOSTALGIA

http://www.amems.unimelb.edu.au/nostalgia/

An ARC NEER Symposium at the Graduate Centre, University of Melbourne, 27-28 November 2009.

Nostalgia, first perceived in the 17th century as an obscure condition of homesickness afflicting soldiers serving abroad, is now recognized as a key symptom of modernity. Medievalism - the re-imagining and re-invention of the Middle Ages - has provided a desirable home for the longings of nostalgia since the 18th century or earlier. This symposium offers an opportunity to investigate the privileged association between the two terms.

Keynote speakers at the symposium are Professor Linda M. Austin (Oklahoma State University), Dr. Louise D'Arcens (University of Wollongong) and Professor Andrew Lynch (University of Western Australia).

A postgraduate/early career researcher masterclass will be held immediately after the symposium, on Sunday November 29. This day-long event will focus specifically on the theorising of nostalgia and will be geared toward assisting postgraduates and early career researchers in developing a rigorous and confident engagement with nostalgia and associated concepts. While the masterclass will have a medievalist emphasis, it will not be limited to medievalism, so postgraduates and early career researchers in a range of areas are welcome to apply. This event will be convened by Louise D’Arcens and Andrew Lynch as part of their current Australian Research Council-funded project on Medievalism in Australian Cultural Memory. The masterclass will also involve input from other academic guests working in the areas of nostalgia and cultural memory.

HOMER AND THE EPIC TRADITION (HOMER SEMINAR V)

Saturday and Sunday 28-29 November, 2009

This weekend seminar, to be held at The Australian National University, Canberra, is intended to give Australasian scholars interested in the epic tradition in the ancient Greek and Roman world - especially (but not only) postgraduates and early-career researchers - an opportunity to test out ideas, methodologies and findings in a supportive environment, and to maximise the possibility of constructive feedback. The focus of the seminar will be the great epics of the ancient world and their afterlife. If you are interested in these topics you are most welcome.

It is proposed that the first session of the seminar will begin on Saturday morning and that the seminar will conclude at lunchtime on Sunday.

There is no registration fee payable for what will be a small and more or less informal gathering. We shall, however, ask you on that weekend to pay $20, which will cover a picnic lunch (by Silo) on the Saturday, morning and afternoon teas, and end-of-day drinks as well.

Accommodation Information

If you need any assistance in making a booking we are happy to help. But here are some phone numbers and email addresses:

University House         6125 5211 (accommodation.unihouse@anu.edu.au)
Liversidge Court          6125 1100 (reservations.uas@anu.edu.au)
Bruce Hall                   6125 6000 (bruce@anu.edu.au)
Fenner Hall                  6125 9101 (enquiries.fenner@anu.edu.au)

Jessica Dietrich and Elizabeth Minchin
Classics and Ancient History Program, School of Humanities
The Australian National University
email: Jessica.Dietrich@anu.edu.au; Elizabeth.Minchin@anu.edu.au

For details of the weekend as the program is settled, see http://cass.anu.edu.au/humanities/events/CLASSICS_EVENTS_INDEX.php

SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE: 1657-1757

Campion College, Sydney, 4 December 2009

Full details

AUSTRALASIAN SOCIETY FOR CLASSICAL STUDIES - 31ST CONFERENCE

http://www.classics.uwa.edu.au/ascs31

The 31st conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies will be held at the University of Western Australia in Perth, with three full days of papers (3-5 February 2010) following a reception on the evening of Tuesday 2 Feburary.

The web site contains information on registration requirements, call for papers (absolute deadline for submission of abstracts is 30 November), accommodation, student travel subsidies, transport etc.

A conference registration form can be downloaded from the web site; it should be completed and mailed to the conference convenor at the latest by 30 November.

Any enquiries can be directed to Lara O'Sullivan (losulliv@cyllene.uwa.edu.au).

FROM AUGUSTINE TO ANGLICANISM: THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA AND BEYOND

http://www.anglicans-in-australia-and-beyond.org/

A scholarly conference, open to those in postgraduate study and beyond, exploring the historical and theological expressions of the Anglican Communion, open to scholars researching any aspect of the Anglican Church in Australia and abroad. Date and venue: 12-14 February, 2010, St Francis' Theological College, Milton, Brisbane.

This conference aims to bring together different currents of thought in the scholarly approaches to the Church of England, the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Church of Australia, combining the recent proliferation of scholarly activity into Australian Anglicanism and the traditional strengths of research into pre-modern, Victorian and colonial Anglicanism. Built into this approach is the scholarly commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Anglicanism in Queensland. Major themes could include: education and schooling; missionary activities; church government; charity; Indigenous history; historiography; ecumenism; canon law; archives; religion in fiction; the colonial church; church music; art and architecture; formation of religious identities; histories of religious orders; reformations and long reformations; heresy; economic history; female ordination and feminism; Christology; apologetics; environmentalism and the Church, the Military and the Church.

Please send abstracts (300 words) and brief author biography (50 words) by November 10, 2009 to conference@anglicans-in-australia-and-beyond.org.

VAGANTES GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE 2010

http://vagantesconference.org

In spring 2010 the medievalist graduate students of the University of New Mexico will have the honor of hosting the ninth annual Vagantes Medieval Graduate Student Conference from 11 to 13 March 2010. For information on the program, transportation and accommodations, please visit http://vagantesconference.org.

Vagantes is now the largest conference in North America for graduate students studying the Middle Ages. Vagantes aims to provide an open dialogue among junior scholars from all fields of medieval studies. The conference features two faculty speakers, twenty-four student papers and an audience of approximately 100 people. Vagantes emphasizes interdisciplinary scholarship; each year, presenters from backgrounds as varied as Comparative Literature, Archaeology, Art History, Classics, History, Anthropology, English, Philosophy, Manuscript Studies, Musicology and Religious Studies come together to exchange ideas at Vagantes. In this manner Vagantes fosters a sense of community for junior medievalists of diverse backgrounds and, because the conference does not have a registration fee, this community can flourish within the margins of a graduate student budget.

BYZANTIUM BEHIND THE SCENES: POWER AND SUBVERSION

XLIII Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham, 27-29 March 2010
http://www.iaa.bham. ac.uk/conference s/byzantine

The 43rd Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies welcomes communication papers (maximum 13 minutes) to be delivered during the symposium. Communications are expected to make an original contribution to any field of Byzantine studies. The abstracts will be published in the Bulletin of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.  Especially welcome are communications on the theme of the symposium. As usual, the organising committee will read all proposals. Please send proposals for communications (title and 150-word abstract) from now until 7 February 2010 at the latest to Dr Dimiter Angelov, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, Arts Building, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK, d.angelov@bham. ac.uk.

Deliverers of communication papers should register for the symposium either by submitting a registration form or electronically (see the symposium website).

GENRE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

The conference will provide a forum for both professional scholars and postgraduates, particularly those from Australia and New Zealand, to discuss genre as an overall concept, as well as streams of foci on particular genres, including (but not limited to) elegy, epic, epigram, poetry, epistolography, panegyric and history.

Date: 8-9 April 2010
Venue: Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia, University of Sydney, Australia
Keynote speaker: Professor John Frow, University of Melbourne

Convenors:
Ms Frances Muecke, Senior Lecturer, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney
frances.muecke@usyd.edu.au

Ms Michelle Borg, PhD candidate, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney
mlborg@optusnet.com.au

GENDER AND CLASS IN BYZANTINE SOCIETY: XVITH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE OF THE AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR BYZANTINE STUDIES

Call for Papers

The Australian Association for Byzantine Studies announces a call for papers for its XVIth Biennial Conference. The conference is being held in honour of Professor John Melville-Jones and the theme will be 'Gender and Class in Byzantine Society'. Contributors are invited to interpret this theme broadly and we welcome submissions from all fields. Both scholars with academic affiliation and working independently, as well as postgraduate students, are encouraged to apply.

The Conference will be held 16-18 April 2010 at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia (http://www.une.edu.au/).

Please submit abstracts of up to 500 words in length to:
Associate Professor Lynda Garland
School of Humanities
University of New England
Armidale
New South Wales 2351
tel +61 2 6773 3236
fax +61 2 6773 3520
headshum@une.edu.au
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~byzaus/

UNDERPINNINGS: THE EVOLUTION OF UNDERWEAR FROM THE MIDDLE AGES THROUGH EARLY MODERNITY

24 April 2010

A conference organized by the undergraduate students of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Binghamton University (Binghamton, NY) in conjunction with Troubadours and Trebuchets, The Medieval Studies Club

From the trailing sleeves and towering headdresses of the High Middle Ages to the ornate, jewel-encrusted ensembles of Elizabethan England and the elaborate turbans of the Mamluk and Ottoman empires, clothing and headgear have captured the imagination of historians for decades. Few, however, have given thought to what lies beneath, which, even while having a functional role, comprises a system of sartorial signs that tell much with respect to social mores and shifting views of the body. This conference aims to explore the evolution of undergarments from the Middle Ages through the early modern era in a variety of contexts, from the material forms of the garments themselves to their symbolic associations and latent meaning. Geographic and temporal reach: global, 500-1750.

Possible topics of discussion include:

Proposals for individual papers (20 minutes maximum) should be no more than 500 words in length and may be sent by email, with a current CV if graduate level and a resume if undergraduate, to hallen1@binghamton.edu (Re: Undergarment Conference). Those wishing to submit hard copies of the proposal and CV should forward them to: CEMERS (ATTN: Undergarment Conference), Binghamton University, P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000. We also welcome proposals for integrated panels. Panel organizers should describe the theme of the panel and send abstracts with names and affiliations of all participants along with current CVs. A panel should consist of no more than three papers, each twenty minutes in length. Deadline for submissions is December 5 2009.

ART OF THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA

April 28-30 2010
Muzeum Zamojskie
30 Ormiańska str.
Zamość
Poland

http://muzeum-zamojskie.one.pl

Armenians settled in Central Europe starting from the 14th century, first in the Old Polish Commonwealth, in Hungary, Moldavia and Transylvania, and later also in Austria and Bohemia. So far, Armenian art from these regions has not been the object of any bigger, separate scholarly undertakings devoted to the Armenian diaspora in Europe.

The conference is planned in two parts, the first one presenting papers on the art of Armenia, the Osman state and Persia, from where many artworks, primarily textiles, carpets and goldsmithing products were exported in modern times. Presentations will include objects of art brought with them by Armenian immigrants and held now in collections in Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia and Austria.

The second part of the conference is planned to cover presentations of art of the Armenian diaspora from the historical territories of Hungary, the Old Commonwealth, Moldavia, Transylvania, Austria and the Osman state. It is also intended to highlight the artistic ties between the centers in France and Italy in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Issues connected with the economic rivalry between Armenians and the Greeks and Jews and the Armenians' assimilation in their new countries of residence will be treated in a separate thematic block.

Participants: art historians, archaeologists, ethnologists, Church historians, artwork restorers
Languages at the Conference: English, French
Costs: registration fee 100 PLN
A block reservation for participants has been made at several hotels. All hotels are located in walking distance of the conference venue Museum of Zamość.

Details from:
Prof. Dr. Waldemar Deluga – main organizer: wdeluga@wp.pl
Maria Ołdakowska – conference secretary: mayah25@wp.pl  

45TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES

The 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies takes place May 13-16, 2010 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Details at http://www.wmich.edu/~medinst/congress/.

POVERTY IN THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN WORLD

UWA Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies in conjunction with Perth Medieval and Renaissance Group XVIth Annual Symposium

11-12 June 2010 at Trinity College University of Western Australia, Perth

This symposium will explore the subject of poverty and the poor in the medieval and early modern world, c.500-1800, across a range of disciplines. Within the field, paper proposals from any relevant areas of study are welcome.

Possible approaches and themes may include: poverty and the poor in social and economic history; religion and poverty; representations in literature, culture and the arts; intellectual and religious understandings; poor families; social attitudes; gender and poverty; the experience and utterance of the poor; anthropological approaches; archaeologies of poverty.

The confirmed keynote speakers are:
Professor John Barrell (Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York)
Professor Susan Broomhall (Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, University of Western Australia)
Professor Christopher Dyer (Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester)

Abstracts of c. 300 words for a 20 minute paper are now being called for from interested participants. Submissions of 3 x 20 minute paper panel proposals are also welcome. Please supply abstracts, names of contributors and contact details. Email submissions to Pam Bond: pam.bond@uwa.edu.au by March 1 2010.

Enquiries about the Symposium are welcome. Please contact: Professor Andrew Lynch (andrew.lynch@uwa.edu.au) or Dr Anne Scott (anne.Scott@uwa.edu.au). Further details will soon be available on the CMEMS web site (http://www.mems.arts.uwa.edu.au).

ORALITY AND LITERACY, COMPOSITION AND PERFORMANCE

The Classics and Ancient History Program at the Australian National University invites all classicists, historians and scholars with an interest in oral cultures to participate in the Ninth Conference on Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World, to take place in Canberra from Tuesday 29 June to Saturday 3 July 2010.

The conference will follow the same format as the previous eight conferences, held in Hobart (1994), Durban (1996), Wellington (1998), Columbia, Missouri (2000), Melbourne (2002), Winnipeg (2004), Auckland (2006) and Nijmegen (2008). It is planned that the refereed proceedings once again be published by E.J. Brill as Volume 9 in the Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World series. The anticipated publication date would be early 2012.

Location: The Australian National University, Canberra

Dates: Tuesday 29 June (registration that evening) to Saturday 3 July 2010

Theme: Composition and performance

Keynote speaker: Professor Richard Martin (Classics, Stanford)

Further information as it becomes available will be posted on the Classics site at http://cass.anu.edu.au/humanities/programs/classics.php.

The theme for the conference is 'Composition and Performance' and papers in response to this theme are invited on topics related to the ancient Mediterranean world or, for comparative purposes, other areas. Also welcome are papers that engage with the transition from an oral to a literate society, or which consider the topic of reception.

A range of accommodation options for your stay in Canberra and further details of other activities will be circulated in January 2010.

Abstracts of 250 words should be sent by 31 December 2009 by mail or email as Word attachments to:
Elizabeth Minchin
Classics and Ancient History Program
A.D. Hope Building (#14)
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA
Elizabeth.Minchin@anu.edu.au

COLLOQUIUM ON CULTURAL MEMORY AND RELIGION IN THE ANCIENT CITY

The University of Birmingham would like to invite papers from postgraduate students and early career researchers for Day One of a colloquium, taking place from 5-6 July 2010.

The possibilities offered by Cultural Memory as a methodological tool for reading and understanding modes of behaviour in antiquity have been steadily gaining currency in recent years. The aim of this interdisciplinary colloquium is to bring together scholars and research students working on the texts and material culture of the ancient world in order to exchange ideas and approaches relating to using Cultural Memory to analyse religion in various ancient urban contexts.

The colloquium will be arranged over two days; papers given on the first day will explore new research by postgraduates and early careerists currently working on Cultural Memory in ancient societies. On the second day we will turn our gaze on Rome as a case study for lieux de mémoire with papers given by invited scholars.

We warmly welcome papers from postgraduate or early career researchers on any aspect of the theme of cultural memory and religion in the ancient city. We encourage abstracts relating to any area of the ancient Mediterranean from the third millennium BC to Late Antiquity. Potential topics for papers could include but are not limited to:

It is hoped that a combination of speakers from a variety of disciplines and at different stages in their work and careers will generate some fascinating and stimulating discussion that will be of use both to individual research projects and to those who are interested in taking more collaborative approaches. Our keynote speaker is Professor Karl Galinsky (who is leading the Memoria Romana project at Ruhr University, Bochum) and provisionally agreed invited speakers include Thomas Kuhlmann, David Larmour, Maureen Carroll and Alain Gowing. It is anticipated that selected papers will be published as part of a series of Birmingham volumes on Cultural Memory.

Please send abstracts of c.300 words to Phoebe Roy (prr320@bham.ac.uk) and Juliette Harrisson (JGH139@adf.bham.ac.uk) by Friday 8 January 2010.

APPIAN AND THE ROMANS

On 5-7 July 2010 the University of Sydney will host a conference on Appian of Alexandria and his contribution to our knowledge of Roman History. Details of the conference, registration and the call for papers are available on the conference web site (http://classics.org.au/appian/). Enquiries may be sent to the designated conference email address, appian2010@usyd.edu.au (preferred) or to the convener, Dr Kathryn Welch (kathryn.welch@usyd.edu.au).

AHA 2010: EMOTIONS IN HISTORY

A team of scholars, headed by Philippa Maddern and Susan Broomhall at the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, UWA, is engaged in an exploration of both the history of emotions and emotions in historical writing. They are seeking papers for a stream of co-ordinated panels for the Australian Historical Association to be held in Perth, 5-9 July 2010.

Emotions, individual and communal, are often taken to be fundamental to human experience. Some neurological and psychiatric studies of emotions assume that universal (even genetic) factors produce emotions. Yet emotions are also subject to differing social and cultural understandings and formations and in communal settings may function as major agents of social, political and economic change. This stream seeks historical papers which explore the following questions in any period or context:

Abstracts should comprise a title and 150-word abstract and be submitted to Susan Broomhall (broomhal@cyllene.uwa.edu.au) by Friday 20 November 2009. Please note that all papers must also be submitted to the AHA convenors for final approval and that presenters at the conference must be members of the AHA.

DINING DIVINELY: BANQUETING IN HONOUR OF THE GODS

7-9 July 2010
The Department of Classics at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Commensality marked a range of public and private occasions in the ancient Mediterranean world. This colloquium will explore the evidence for banquets and feasts held in conjunction with or as a form of religious observance. Offers of papers from any branch of Classical Studies concerning the following topics are welcomed:

Organiser:
Alison B. Griffith
Department of Classics
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8140
NEW ZEALAND
Ph: ++64-3-364-2987 ext. 8578
Fax: ++64-3-364-2576
alison.griffith@canterbury.ac.nz

PRAYER AND SPIRITUALITY IN THE EARLY CHURCH VI: POLITICS AND RELIGION

The sixth conference in this triennial series will take place on the Melbourne campus of the Australian Catholic University from 7-10 July 2010. Full details including registration and the call for papers (closing 23 April 2010) can be found on the conference web site: http://www.prayerspirit.com.au/.

Keynote speakers:

Professor Sarah Coakley
Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity
Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge University, England

Professor Hal Drake
Department of History
University of California, Santa Barbara

Professor Sean Freyne
Director of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, Emeritus Professor of Theology
Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland

CONTROVERSY, PROTEST, RIDICULE, LAUGHTER, 1500-1750

The University of Reading Early Modern Studies Conference 9-11 July 2010

The annual Reading early modern conference invites research-based proposals in any field or discipline of early modern studies, but this year particularly aims to draw together scholars working on areas related to the themes of controversy, protest, ridicule, and laughter in the early modern period.

Plenary speakers include: Mary Ellen Lamb (Southern Illinois), Ethan Shagan (Berkeley)

Controversy, protest, ridicule and laughter are means to register more than disagreement: they convey contemptuous opposition to an opponent. How can the study of their uses advance our understanding of the nature and development of public debate in the early modern period?

How were new media (theatres, newsbooks, periodicals) and traditional forms (sermons, proclamations, disputations) used by the two (or more) sides in early modern controversies?

What were the connections between 'low' literary forms (pamphlets, ballads, satires, libels), and the learned seriocomic tradition of, for example, Erasmus's Praise of Folly?

What were the sites of protest: Parliament; stage; university; alehouse; Inns of Court - and what connections, if any, existed between these spaces?

What role did ridicule have in religious and political controversy, from Martin Marprelate to John Milton's anti-prelatical writings? How were the conventions for mocking one's opponent refracted by variables of class and gender?

Laughter might be a marker of intellectual achievement (distinguishing the human from the animal), or it might be condemned as a sign of brutality. If laugher was both elevating and debasing, what strategies were used by writers of satire, comedy and polemic to control its connotations? How can we write a history of laughter? How useful is more recent psychological and philosophical work on laughter - by Freud or Henri Bergson, for example - for work on early modern culture?

Possible topics include humanism, learning, wit, and laughter; gender and class; classical ideas of laughter and ridicule; disputation and debate in education; ridicule, stereotyping and national identity; European models of controversy and ridicule; popular radicalism and the public sphere; conduct manuals and the etiquettes of laughter; the Putney Debates; clowns and jesters; new media and popular radicalism; the Spanish Match; burlesque, parody, scatology and obscenity; Jonson's comedy of humours and satirical comedy; popular print (pamphlets, ballads) and 'low' literary forms; urban and rural forms of controversy; Rabelais and discourses of the body; legal controversy: sedition, libel, slander; the Marprelate Tracts; jokes and jests on the stage and page; Milton's Defensio pro populo Anglicano; the Oath of Allegiance controversy; mimicry and impersonation; Civil War religious radicalism; the carnivalesque; Jacobitism; traditions of complaint, satire and invective; the decorum of ridicule, controversy, and ideas of ethical restraint; the 'Glorious Revolution' and 'godly revolution'.

We invite papers that consider any or all of this year's themes. Proposals (max. 300 words) for 30 minute papers and a brief CV should be sent via email attachment by 4 December 2009 to Dr. Chloë Houston, School of English and American Literature, University of Reading, c.houston@reading.ac.uk.

Thanks to generous support from the Society for Renaissance Studies, bursaries will be available for postgraduate and unwaged speakers. Please indicate if you would like to be considered for a bursary when submitting your proposal.

ALWAYS COMING AFTER: THE INFLUENCE AND IMPACT OF POST-AUGUSTAN LATIN EPIC (LUCAN, VALERIUS FLACCUS, STATIUS AND SILIUS ITALICUS)

A conference at the University of Nottingham, July 12-14 2010

In recent years there has been a massive resurgence of interest in the Latin epic poets writing in the late first century AD. Lucan's Civil War, Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, Statius' Thebaid and Achilleid and Silius Italicus' Punica were very little read in the early twentieth century. They formed a little known corner of literary history, a chamber of horrors both literal and poetic, the definition of 'bad poetry'. This estimation, however, has not always held sway: Claudian greatly admired Statius; Dante made him an important character in the Divine Comedy; the Thebaid was translated into medieval Irish; the rediscovery of Silius in the fifteenth century caused great excitement among Renaissance humanists; Lucan inspired radical poets down the ages. Even now the radical scholarly reassessment is starting to have an impact outside academia: Valerius Flaccus is gaining new-found notoriety as a heart-throb in Caroline Lawrence's Roman mysteries. This conference aims to bring together specialists from different disciplines to explore the reception of Post-Augustan epic in different contexts, periods, media and locations. Through this, we will demonstrate the radical contingency of literary evaluation and investigate the impact of Classical epic on different times and cultures.

Speakers will include: Emma Buckley (St. Andrews); Suzanne Hagedorn (William and Mary College); Frances Muecke (Sydney); Carole Newlands (Colorado); Ruth Parkes (Oxford); David Quint (Yale); Andrew Zissos (University of California, Irvine).

Please send brief abstracts (not more than 400 words) on any aspect of the reception of one or more of Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, Statius and Silius Italicus to helen.lovatt@nottingham.ac.uk by November 1 2009.

3RD ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PHILOLOGY, LITERATURES AND LINGUISTICS

12-15 July 2010, Athens, Greece

The Athens Institute for Education and Research (AT.IN.E.R.) is organizing its 3rd International conference on Philology, i.e. languages, literatures and linguistics, 12-15 July 2010. For more information about the conference and the institute please visit http://www.atiner.gr/docs/Literature.htm.

The conference registration fee is 250 euro, covering access to all sessions, 2 lunches, coffee breaks and conference materials. A Greek night of dinner and entertainment, a half-day tour to archaeological sites of Athens and a special one-day cruise to Greek islands are organized. Special arrangements will be made with local hotels for a limited number of rooms at a special conference rate.

The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars and students of languages, literatures and linguistics. Areas of interest include (but are not confined to):

Selected papers will be published in special volumes of conference proceedings.

Please submit a 300-word abstract by 8 January 2010 by email to atiner@atiner.gr or to Dr. Gilda Socarras, Academic Member, ATINER & Assistant Professor, Auburn University, USA. Abstracts should include title of paper, family name(s), first name(s), institutional affiliation, current position, an email address and at least 3 keywords that best describe the subject of your submission.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS: TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION

The seventeenth International Medieval Congress will take place in Leeds from 12-15 July 2010. Full details at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2010_call.html.

MEDIEVAL TRANSLATOR 2010

Medieval Translator 2010 - In principio fuit interpres: The Cardiff Conference on the Theory and Practice of Translation in the Middle Ages, to be hosted by the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy, 23-27 July 2010.

Linguistic and literary traditions include translation in their myth of origin – thus the linguistic and scholar Gianfranco Folena proposed to substitute the motto In principio fuit poëta with the humbler In principio fuit interpres. Following his suggestion, we welcome papers addressing translation in the Middle Ages, marking the relationship between classical, Middle Eastern and vernacular languages and studying translation as the representation of ideas and texts in different media.

Plenary speakers: Roger Ellis, Domenico Pezzini, David Wallace.

Details from:

Alessandra Petrina and Monica Santini
Dipartimento di Lingue e Lett. Anglo-Germaniche e Slave
Via Beato Pellegrino, 26
35100 Padova
Italy

alessandra.petrina@unipd.it
monica.santini@unipd.it

Further information about the conference will be available in Spring 2009.

Following previous practice, it is planned to publish a book of selected papers in the peer-reviewed Medieval Translator series (Brepols) following the conference.

THOUGHT IN SCIENCE AND FICTION

The organizers of the 12th conference of ISSEI, to be held on 2-6 August 2010 at Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey (http://issei2010.haifa.ac.il) invite scholars from various disciplines such as History, Politics, Literature, Art, Philosophy, Science and Religion to re-examine, redefine and reassess the scope of interdisciplinary dialogue in the past and present.

The conference is divided into five sections:

  1. History, Geography, Science
  2. Politics, Economics, Law
  3. Education, Sociology, Women's Studies
  4. Literature, Art, Music, Theatre, Culture
  5. Religion, Philosophy, Anthropology, Psychology, Language

SEVENTH AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE OF CELTIC STUDIES

The Seventh Australian Conference of Celtic Studies will take place at the University of Sydney from Wednesday 29 September to Saturday 2 October 2010. Further announcements, including a call for papers, will be issued soon. Celticists wishing to be put on the mailing list for the Conference are invited to send expressions of interest to aahlqvist@usyd.edu.au.

RETHINKING EARLY MODERN PRINT CULTURE

An international and interdisciplinary conference at The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

15-17 October 2010

The view that early modernity saw the transformation of European societies into cultures of print has been widely influential in literary, historical, philosophical and bibliographical studies of the period. The concept of print culture has provided scholars with a powerful tool for analyzing and theorizing new (or seemingly new) regimens of knowledge and networks of information transmission as well as developments in the worlds of literature, theatre, music and the visual arts. However, more recently the concept has been reexamined and destabilized, as critics have pointed out the continuing existence of cultures of manuscript, queried the privileging of technological advances over other cultural forces and identified the presence of many of the supposed innovations of print in pre-print societies.

This multi-disciplinary conference aims to refine and redefine our understanding of early modern print cultures (from the fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century). We invite papers seeking to explore questions of production and reception that have always been at the core of the historiography of print, developing a more refined sense of the complex roles played by various agents and institutions. But we especially encourage submissions that probe the boundaries of our subject, both chronologically and conceptually: did print culture have a clear beginning? How is the idea of a culture of print complicated by the continued importance of manuscript circulation (as a private and commercial phenomenon)? How did print reshape or reconfigure audiences? And what was the place of orality in a world supposedly dominated by print textuality? What new forms of chirography and spoken, live performances did print enable, if any?

Other possible topics might include:

We invite proposals for conference papers of 20 minutes and encourage group proposals for panels of three papers. Alternative formats such as workshops and roundtables will also be considered. Abstracts of 250 words can be submitted electronically on the conference website, http://www.crrs.ca/events/conferences/print/. The deadline for submissions is 15 December 2009.

All questions ought to be addressed to the conference organizers, Grégoire Holtz (French, University of Toronto) and Holger Schott Syme (English, University of Toronto), at printconference@gmail.com.

BYZANTINE AND OTTOMAN CIVILIZATIONS IN WORLD HISTORY

A Symposium Sponsored by Istanbul Sehir University and the World History Association, 21-24 October 2010, Istanbul, Turkey.

Istanbul Sehir University and the World History Association proudly announce a symposium focusing on the world-historical significance of Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations, 330-1922. The symposium will consist of 30 papers by Turkish and international participants, plus a keynote address and several other plenary sessions. The official languages of the symposium are English and Turkish.

There is no registration fee. Persons not presenting a paper may also register for the conference, attend at no fee, and will be eligible for the discounted lodging. On-line registration will be found as early as 15 July 2009 at the WHA web site, www.thewha.org. In order to participate in any capacity, persons must register on-line no later than 15 September 2010.

The conference organizers will endeavor to publish selected papers delivered at the symposium.

Questions and inquiries should be directed to A. J. Andrea at aandrea@uvm.edu,  Hayrettin Yucesoy at yucesoyh@slu.edu or Nurullah Ardiç at nurullahardic@sehir.edu.tr.

Periodic informational updates will appear at www.thewha.org beginning September 2009.

LATE ANTIQUE POETRY AND POETICS

Call for papers for the Society for Late Antiquity panel at the Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association to be held in San Antonio, Texas, 6-9 January 2011.

Twenty years ago in The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity, Michael Roberts offered a novel approach to late antique poetry and poetics. Building on the work of European scholars such as Jacques Fontaine, Roberts departed from the 'unexamined classicism' still prevalent in negative analyses of late antique poetry, particularly in the English-speaking world. His stated intent in the volume was to 'propose a new focus of attention, a different manner of reading, for the classically oriented student of late antiquity and to formulate this poetics in such a way that the poetry stands a chance of receiving the same kind of sympathetic appreciation that has long been accorded late antique art.'(p.5) The 'jeweled style' he identifies ­ a culture-wide aesthetic identifiable in works of art and other written forms, not just poetry ­ is based on authors' understanding of their approach to be similar to that of a jeweler: it requires manipulation and careful placement of small and brilliant verbal gems and jewels. To properly appreciate and comprehend the poetics, one must be attentive to the high value placed on variatio by poets of the period.

A wider movement reconsidering late antique poetry and poetics is now under way, multiplying the efforts of scholars who consistently over the last few decades have drawn attention to late antique poetry. This expansion of interest has been facilitated, in part, by the recent appearance of critical editions and/or translations of works of, for example, Synesius of Cyrene, Gregory of Nazianzus, Ausonius, Paulinus of Nola and Fortunatus. Furthermore, given recent literary critical and philological work, we now seem better situated to reconsider and expand upon the basic premises of Roberts' book: namely, are there identifiable stylistic norms that transcend the multitude of poetic forms and span both Latin and Greek poetry of the fourth to sixth centuries?

The Society for Late Antiquity invites submissions of abstracts offering new approaches to late antique poetry and poetics that will facilitate our consideration of the above question. Other questions one might consider are: What is the relationship between late antique and Classical poetics and how is it manifested? How is function, liturgical or other, related to poetic form? How might consideration of late antique poetics inform discussions of genre theory (for example) or vice versa? Papers either addressing the poetic projects of individual authors or treating various poets thematically are welcome, as are theoretical approaches. One-page abstracts of papers (ca. 500 words) requiring a maximum of 20 minutes to deliver should be sent no later than 1 February 2010 via either email attachment to Suzanne Abrams Rebillard (scr29@cornell.edu) or by surface mail (Suzanne Abrams Rebillard, Department of Classics, 120 Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-3201). Please follow the instructions for the format of individual abstracts in the APA Program Guide. All submissions will be judged anonymously by two referees.

ANZAMEMS 2011

University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Enquiries to:
Peter Anstey peter.anstey@otago.ac.nz
Judith Collard judith.collard@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
Simone Celine Marshall simoneceline.marshall@otago.ac.nz

BYZANTIUM WITHOUT BORDERS

http://22byzantinecongress.org/

The 22nd International Congress of Byzantine Studies will be held at the University of Sofia, 22-27 August 2011. Details and the registration form are available on the conference web site.

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