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GREENING THE GODS: ECOLOGY AND THEOLOGY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 18th-19th March 2014 CALL FOR PAPERS

A seismic shift in thinking about the environment from the 1960s onwards can blind us to the fact that inhabitants of the ancient world (c. 800 BCE – 400 CE) were also acutely aware that they existed as part of an ecological system. Yet for these thinkers it was not rapidly melting icecaps which made examining their relationship with the environment so urgent, but the theological questions it raised. This conference will embrace pagan, Jewish and Christian thinking about the intersection of theology and ecology, whether expressed in sources we might now label philosophy, scripture, natural history, science, liturgy or folklore.

How did these thinkers understand their natural environment to stand in relation to the divine? And how did this understanding condition human interaction with the natural world? By bringing together biblical scholars, classicists, philosophers and theologians the first aim of this conference is to paint a cohesive and multi-disciplinary picture of the theological sophistication of ancient thinking about nature.

At the same time, the conference will not lose sight of our current ecological crisis. What impact, if any, should ancient thinking about the environment have on our own ecological thinking? While individual advances have been made in theorising how ancient thinking might inform modern responses to ecological issues, there is still vital need for cross-disciplinary discussion of the impact of such thinking on relatively new disciplines such as environmental philosophy and eco-theology, and on contemporary calls to environmental action. As such this conference aims, in a mutually reinforcing process, to shape both our knowledge of the ancient world and the work of those who are writing the theology, philosophy and ethics of the twenty-first century.

The conference is sponsored jointly by the Classics Faculty, University of Cambridge and the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and will be held in St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Plenary speakers include Prof Robin Attfield (Cardiff), Prof Melissa Lane (Princeton), Prof Michael Northcott (Edinburgh), Prof Richard Seaford (Exeter), Prof David Sedley (Cambridge), Dr Helen Van Noorden (Cambridge), Dr Emmanuela Bakola (KCL) and Dr Edward Adams (KCL). The conference organisers, Dr Ailsa Hunt and Dr Hilary Marlow, invite short papers that examine any aspect of how ecology and theology intersect in the ancient world, and how such interplay impacts on contemporary thinking about the environment. Papers may include, but are not restricted to, those areas outlined below:

· textual, theological and philosophical perspectives on human relationships with nature in the ancient world

· visions for nature in prophetic, apocalyptic and eschatological literature

· the influence of Stoicism or other philosophical systems on ancient attitudes towards the natural world, and their significance in modern environmental philosophy

· the theological thinking behind ancient attitudes to issues such as deforestation, mining, dams, pollution, vegetarianism, sacrifice or vivisection

· philosophical ideals of self sufficiency and their impact on ancient thinking about nature

· the intersection of theological and ecological thinking in ancient philosophical debate about the perishability of the world / periodic cataclysms in which civilisation is erased

· the identification and interpretation of natural disasters and portents

· (ab)uses of ancient thinking about nature in neopagan environmental movements

It is anticipated that the allocated time for each paper will be 20 minutes, with additional time for questions/discussion. If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send a title and abstract (200 words max) to Dr Ailsa Hunt at agm46 AT cam.ac.uk before 31st October 2013.

Presenters and delegates (apart from invited plenary speakers) will be responsible for their own accommodation in Cambridge and a list of options will be provided. For further enquiries please contact either of the organisers on agm46 AT cam.ac.uk or hm309 AT cam.ac.uk. It is hoped that selected papers from the conference will be published in a volume edited by Dr Hunt and Dr Marlow.

From I, Claudius, to Private Eyes: the Ancient World and Popular Fiction.
16-18th June 2014

Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Keynote speakers:
Professor Edith Hall, Kings’ College, London
Dr. Nick Lowe, RHUL
Authors confirmed as participating:

Steven Saylor (Gordianus the Finder series)
Caroline Lawrence (the Roman Mysteries series)
Over the last few years work, has begun on the subject of classics and children’s fiction, with conferences being held in Lampeter (Hodkinson and Lovatt, 2009) and Warsaw (2012), and three publications presently forthcoming on this subject. Yet there has been surprisingly little sustained consideration of adult fiction and the ancient world, or indeed of children’s literature within the wider context of popular fiction, despite the fact that this is a vast and rich field. The forthcoming conference, therefore, by way of setting about rectifying this situation, will be the first serious consideration of the full range of receptions of classics in popular fiction. It will bring together scholars from a range of disciplines (classics, English and other modern languages, comparative literature etc.) with popular modern authors, in order to acquire a range of perspectives on the subject.
Abstracts (up to 300 words) are invited for papers (20 minutes in length) on any aspect of the reception of the ancient world in popular fiction. Papers may focus on broader issues and overviews of the subject in general or more specific reading and interpretations of individual texts or collections.
Possibilities of subjects include, but are not limited to the following questions and issues:

What role does popular fiction play in contributing to general impressions of the ancient world? What (other) roles should it play?
What makes ancient Greece and Rome attractive as a setting for popular fiction? What are the difficulties inherent in utilising the ancient world?
What differences are there between Greece and Rome in popular fiction?
What role do ancient Greece and Rome play in popular fiction in different societies and countries in the modern world?
Changing trends in historical fiction concerning the ancient world.
The overlap between historical fiction set in the classical world and other genres: detective novels, mystery novels, romance etc.
Classical mythology and popular fiction.
How does popular fiction interact with other media (film, television, computer games, the internet etc.)?
How does juvenile fiction about the ancient world differ from, or overlap with, adult fiction in the same field?
Please send abstracts to lisa.maurice AT biu.ac.il, citing full name and title, institution, provisional title of the paper, by 31st December 2013.