Seen on the Classicists list:

Experiencing and Thinking about Borders in the Ancient Mediterranean World

(Université Paris-Sorbonne)

This conference for PhD students and young PhD holders aims to reflect upon the notion of the border, in the broadest sense of the word, and to see how the Ancients perceived it. Such a perspective can be interesting as it allows us to explore various disciplinary areas related to Classics.

It will thus be possible to understand the concept of the border in both a literal and figurative sense: it can refer to borders beyond human groups – that either isolate them or bring them together – geographical, social, cultural, religious and linguistic, as well as to borders located within such human groups, between communities, genders or origins…

Moreover, it might be profitable to question the differentiation between places or people implied by the notion of the border, inasmuch as such frontiers can be physical or metaphorical. The border indeed acts as an interface, and entails different modes of coexistence.

Here are a few ideas for further reflection – which are by no means exclusive:

1) Defining the border

It could be fruitful to investigate the lexicon referring to the border, and the conceptual and philosophical tools the Ancients used to define it. We will also reflect upon the formal representations of the border in Antiquity, and the criteria involved in its archaeological or historical definition. Such representations and realizations of the border as the horoi and the limes allow us to think about the principles of divisions, barriers or breaking up. Defining the border also implies thinking about the social, political and legal principles that govern it.

2) Respecting or crossing the border?

Considering the border as a limit involves dealing with the issue of whether it is respected or breached. The notion of an hermetic border conflicts with that of a permeable one. The border can be challenged in various ways: acculturation, trade, religious or linguistic interferences which are the sign of influences and mutual exchanges. Finally, through wars, we can question the reality of the border and its representation. The border thus appears as a process resulting from conflicts and exchanges. It is no longer a mere division, it becomes a means of making contact and relating to each other. We can then explore the status of travel and whether a form of “globalization” was born in Antiquity.

3) Shaping identities: the border and otherness?

Confronting others results in building a certain number of practices and ways of thinking. The border can thus be seen as a creative process for shaping identities. It will be possible to examine cross-cultural phenomena as well as factors that challenge such a process.

It could also be interesting to compare the areas of cultural or linguistic influence with the regions that are actually linked to a given political entity, to see how the cultural group can prevail over the geographical border. Finally, the notion of the border can also be examined within the human groups: to what extent is it a medium through which identity may be questioned?

Each paper will be allocated 30 minutes. The languages chosen for the conference are French and English.

Abstracts of about 200 words, as well as a C.V., should be sent by 30th November 2012 to the following address: assoc.antheia AT gmail.com.

The conference will take place on 28th-29th June 2013 at INHA (Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art de Paris-Sorbonne).

seen on the Classicists list:

AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
COMMITTEE ON CLASSICAL TRADITION AND RECEPTION

2014 ANNUAL MEETING

CLASSICS AND THE GREAT WAR: SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS

Organizer: David Scourfield, National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Please note the submission date below.

The Committee on Classical Tradition and Reception (COCTR) of the American Philological Association invites submissions for a panel to be held at the 145th Annual Meeting of the APA (Chicago, January 2-5, 2014), on the theme ‘Classics and the Great War’.

The Great War of 1914-1918 marks a watershed moment in European and world history in numerous ways. The panel envisaged will seek to consider the impact of that conflict on the field of Classics in a variety of respects. The Committee wishes in particular to invite proposals for papers on (a) literary receptions of classical texts or the classical world during or in the wake of the War, with a purview extending beyond the British war poetry which forms the subject of Elizabeth Vandiver’s Stand in the Trench, Achilles (2010), a study from which the panel draws much impetus, (b) the impact of the War on the scholarly reception of specific classical texts, in Britain, Germany, the United States, or elsewhere; but proposals on any other aspects or forms of reception, or on the cultural contexts within which such receptions were formulated, are also welcome. The panel will be restricted to receptions not later than the end of the 1920s.

Proposals for papers taking no more than twenty minutes to deliver should be sent via e-mail attachment (in Word format) to Professor Mary-Kay Gamel, APA Vice President for Outreach (mkgamel AT ucsc.edu), by no later than November 15, 2012. Abstracts should follow the guidelines for the preparation of individual abstracts to be found on the APA website at http://apaclassics.org/index.php/annual_meeting/instructions_for_authors_of_abstracts. All submissions will be subject to double-blind review by two referees and the panel as a whole evaluated by the APA Program Committee before notification of final acceptance. The Committee reserves the right to include in the full panel submission abstracts from invited speakers as well as abstracts selected through this call for papers.

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Dear colleague,
The Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus invites the submission of papers for the conference Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas: Mediterranean Networks and Cyprus dedicated to the study of Hellenistic and Roman terracottas from the Mediterranean region. The workshop will be held at the University of Cyprus, in Nicosia, during 3-5 June 2013. The conference is under the auspices of the Coroplastic Studies Interest Group.

Terracotta figurines embody ancient tangible and intangible cultural evidence and meanings. In addition to the artistic, technological and economic aspects involved in their study, they also objectify socio-cultural (i.e. religious and ideological) expressions; they become invaluable testimonies to everyday life, encoding important cognitive elements, expressing human self-awareness and reflecting meanings and ideas of the societies that produced and used them. The multifaceted significance of Cypriot terracottas has been acknowledged by a large corpus of published data that addresses a series of interlinked issues, related to their typological, stylistic and chronological classification, the technology and techniques employed in their manufacture, their provenance, the mode of their production, the scale of their distribution, and their role as cultural artefacts in differing social contexts. Despite the substantial studies on earlier Cypriot terracottas, the Hellenistic and Roman production remains â€" with very few exceptions â€" highly neglected and outside recent theoretical and scientific developments.

This conference is organised within the framework of a research project currently funded by the Anastasios G. Leventis Foundation via the University of Cyprus. The project aims at establishing a more concrete scholarly discussion on the study of Hellenistic and Roman terracottas. In particular, by integrating different approaches of analysis, it aims to study the terracotta figurines from the “House of Orpheus†at Nea Paphos, tackling simultaneously the aforementioned issues for these later periods of Cypriot Antiquity. Additionally, through comparative studies with other Cypriot and Mediterranean sites, this project proposes to examine continuing and changing patterns of production, distribution and function of Cypriot terracottas, as a result of the interplay between local structures and incoming Ptolemaic and Roman socio-political and socio-cultural impositions.

In the context of this on-going project we organize this conference on the one hand in order to present some of the material and preliminary results, and on the other in an attempt to introduce the “House of Orpheus’ figurines within their broader socio-cultural and socio-political Cypriot and Mediterranean contexts. Thus we welcome contributions related to material (both large and small scale terracottas) not only from Cyprus, but also from the wider Mediterranean region. Building on the International Symposium ‘Figurines in Context: Iconography and Function(s)’, held on December 7-8, 2011, in Lille, the purpose of a meeting with such a wide perspective is to gather reliable evidence from well-known archaeological contexts (e.g. sanctuaries, burials, houses) that will shed light on the function of Hellenistic and Roman terracotta figurines and their associated technology and iconography.

The conference will focus on: (1) The typological and iconographic analysis of terracottas; (2) Technological studies focusing on fabrics, slips and pigments; (3) Issues of chronology, technology of manufacture, provenance and distribution; and (4) The contextualisation of terracottas within their individual depositional intra-site and extra-site contexts.

Proposals for presentations could focus on one or more of the following research questions:
• What are the similarities/differences between the deposition of Hellenistic and Roman terracottas in different
contexts (i.e., sacred, funeral and domestic)?
• Do the meanings of the object change according to the context and/or the period?
• How can spatial analysis (both intra-site and across a wider range) of terracottas contribute to the identification of their distribution and function?
• What is the relationship between Hellenistic/Roman technological and iconographic traditions with the ear lier (Archaic and Classical) local traditions?
• What is the impact of local traditions and what are the levels of cultural transmissions and transformations?
• Can we determine and distinguish between locally produced and imported terracotta figurines?
• Can we notice any differences in the function of locally produced and imported terracotta figurines?
• What is the impact of comparative studies when studying Hellenistic and Roman terracotta figurines?
• How do the disciplines of anthropology, natural and computer sciences (e.g. archaeometry, digital humanities etc.) help in the better understanding of both the function and the manufacture/distribution of Hellenistic and Roman terracotta figurines?

• What is the relationship between Hellenistic/Roman technological and iconographic traditions with the ear lier (Archaic and Classical) local traditions?
• What is the impact of local traditions and what are the levels of cultural transmissions and transformations?
• Can we determine and distinguish between locally produced and imported terracotta figurines?
• Can we notice any differences in the function of locally produced and imported terracotta figurines?
• What is the impact of comparative studies when studying Hellenistic and Roman terracotta figurines?
• How do the disciplines of anthropology, natural and computer sciences (e.g. archaeometry, digital humanities etc.) help in the better understanding of both the function and the manufacture/distribution of Hellenistic and Roman terracotta figurines?

Abstract Submission
Abstracts of a maximum of 300 words should be submitted by 31 January 2013 to papantoniou.giorgos AT ucy.ac.cy in Word format including:
Surname
First Name
Position
Affiliation
Phone number
Email address
Title of the paper
You should be informed of the outcome of your abstract submission by 17 February 2013.

Presentations
The official language of the workshop is English. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. A draft version of the paper should be submitted by 30 April 2013. The papers will be read in advance of the meeting by a specialist who has undertaken the role of discussant. It is hoped that, in this way, there will be a meaningful discussion and contextualisation of the terracottas presented.

Conference Expenses
Participants are responsible for their travel and accommodation expenses. There will be no registration fee and, during the conference, lunch and coffee will be offered by the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus.

Publication
For the consistency of the volume we would advise you to address in the best possible way at least some of the research questions posed above. The peer-reviewed papers will be published in the form of an edited collection of studies and not as the proceedings of a conference. Acceptance for presentation of a paper, therefore, does not guarantee acceptance for publication.
Convenors
Prof. Demetrios Michaelides
Dr Giorgos Papantoniou
Dr Maria Dikomitou-Eliadou

Contact
Dr Giorgos Papantoniou: papantoniou.giorgos AT ucy.ac.cy