Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):

CALL FOR PAPERS
ΜΟΥΣΑ ΠΑΙΖΕΙ
GREEK AND LATIN TECHNOPAEGNIA, RIDDLES, ACROSTICHS, POETIC PUNS, METRICAL CURIOSITIES, ETC.
May 6th and 7th, 2011
Institute of Classical Studies
University of Warsaw

What?
The term technopaegnia is now commonly applied to ancient Greek pattern poems, but in his 1630 monumental Encyclopaedia Johann Heinrich Alsted used it in a wider sense, in reference to various riddling jeux de mots (he managed to list sixty types). Alsted’s unrestrictive approach is apparently close to the ancient understanding of what the riddle is, as the Peripatetic philosopher Clearchus of Soli discussed in his treatise On Riddles (Peri griphon) Castorion’s Hymn to Pan, a metrical experiment, which is not otherwise a riddle.

We invite scholars of ancient literature, as well as those interested in its reception (limited to the classical languages), to engage in a discussion of poetic and para-poetic riddles, acrostichs, anagrams, figure-poems, metrical tours de force, literary puns, alliterative artefacts, etc. – the Alstedian technopaegnia and Clearchian griphoi – that can be traced in Greek and Roman literature. It is our conviction that although such eccentricities lack the depth that one often seeks in ancient literature, serious scholarship must no longer neglect the effect they have had on contemporary and later poetry, or their role as documents of the poets’ and grammarians’ tastes and ingenuity. We wish to focus primarily on the forms that emerged in antiquity, but we are also interested in what their fates were in the hands of later poets, scribes, editors, and scholars.

We do not encourage searching for unnoticed puns, acrostichs, anagrams, and other mirages. Our intention is to provoke an unorthodox, multidimensional reflection on a relatively neglected field of ancient literature. Possible topics include the following:

– ancient and modern theoretical approaches to Greek and Latin riddles, technopaegnia etc.;
– jeux de mots: tradition and innovation (from the archaic riddling devices and alliteration to the Alexandrian and Roman poetic experiments);
– ancient riddles in the Indo-European context (e.g. ancient griphoi vs. Old English riddles);
– riddles and technopaegnia in the light of the orality/literacy debate;
– riddles and riddling devices at the symposium;
– the epigraphic and papyrological evidence for ancient jeux de mots;
– in and around Book 14 of the Greek Anthology;
– the Alexandrianism of the technopaegnia of Laevius, Iulius Vestinus, and Optatian Porfyry;
– the Byzantine, Renaissance, and 17th-century readers and scholars of the Greek technopaegnia;
– continuity and change in the history of figure-poems since Simias;
– a matter of taste: critical attitudes toward jeux des mots (e.g. the Greek technopaegnia).

How?
If you wish to present a paper, please submit a 250-300 word abstract including the title to the email address given below (.pdf, .doc, .docx, or .rtf). If your proposal is accepted, you will be required to provide a full manuscript of a 25-minute paper shortly before the conference, so that copies can be distributed to the participants. At the conference, each presentation will be followed by a 20-minute discussion (that will give a period of 45 minutes for each paper). We plan to record the discussion and include an edited selection of it in the conference proceedings.

We invite papers in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish, but the working language of the conference will be English.
The registration fee for participants is 150 €; this includes accommodation (three nights), meals and conference materials.

When?
The conference will be held on May 6th and 7th, 2011.
Please submit abstracts by September 30th, 2010.
Authors will be notified of the result by October 31st, 2010.
Finished papers will have to reach us before March 31th, 2011.
If you wish to respond to one of papers or otherwise participate in the conference, please express your interest by January 31st, 2011.

Where?
The University of Warsaw is located in the heart of the city, surrounded by historical places of interest, parks, walks, cafes, and restaurants. It can be easily reached from the airport, which is just 15 kilometres (9 miles) from the conference site. Further information will be given upon arrival.

For payment details, enquiries and expression of interest please contact Jan Kwapisz (preferably by email: jan.kwapisz AT uw.edu.pl).
Institute of Classical Studies
University of Warsaw
ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 1
00-927 Warsaw
Poland
Visit us at http://www.ifk.uw.edu.pl/mousapaidzei.html

Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):

The 2010 annual JACT conference is taking place on Saturday 15th May in Senate House, London. Full details (and a booking form) are available on the new JACT website (www.jact.org), but highlights include:

· A plenary lecture from Prof. Stephen Harrison, ‘Classics in the 21st Century’

· Children’s author, Caroline Lawrence, on ‘The Roman Mysteries: getting younger children interested in the Classics through literature’

· The Presidential Address, given by JACT President, Bettany Hughes

· A number of option groups: on exam board developments, using powerpoint in class teaching, non-specialist classics teaching, resources for Class. Civ., Catullus, and the Olympics.

To register, you need to be a member of JACT. I hope most recipients of this list will already be members, but if you are not already join today and you not only get the benefits of the conference, JACT publications (the Journal of Classics Teaching, and Omnibus as well as online resources), and an increasing range of discounts, but you also help us to support Classics in UK schools. For all further details go to www.jact.org

Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):

Northwestern University’s Classical Traditions Initiative and the Department of Classics present the final Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar series event in the 2009-2010 series, ‘Out of Europe: Greek Drama in America’:

‘Classicizing Chicago’

A two-day discussion about Chicago’s engagement with Classical antiquity on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 May 2010 to be held in the John Evans Alumni Center, 1800 Sheridan Road, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Speakers include: Kathryn Bosher, Northwestern University, Shannon Fitzsimons, Northwestern University, Elzbieta Foeller-Pituch, Northwestern University, Reginald Gibbons, Northwestern University, Robert Ketterer, University of Iowa, Lynn Kozak, McGill University, Libby Mahoney, Chicago History Museum, Margaret Malamud, New Mexico State University, Sara Monoson, Northwestern University, Thomas Gordon Smith, Notre Dame University, Hans Thomalia, Northwestern University, Daniel Tovar, Northwestern University, David Van Zanten, Northwestern University, LaDale Winling, Temple University, Amanda Wrigley, Northwestern University.

During the conference the pilot of the Classicizing Chicago electronic resource will be presented by Digital Collections and the Classics Department at Northwestern University.

The schedule for the two days is online at www.sawyerseminar.northwestern.edu/conference_may_2010.html.

All are most welcome to attend!

For more information please contact Dr Kathryn Bosher, Assistant Professor of Classics, Northwestern University (k-bosher AT northwestern.edu) or Dr Amanda Wrigley, Mellon-Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellow in Classics, Northwestern University (a-wrigley AT northwestern.edu).

Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):

DESTROY THE COPY! A WORKSHOP ON THE FATE OF PLASTER CAST COLLECTIONSSeptember 24-25, 2010
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA organized by Annetta Alexandridis, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornel University and Lorenz Winkler-Horaček, Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Freie Universität Berlin and Abguss-Sammlung Antiker Plastik, Berlin The histories of university classics collections in Europe and the United States demonstrate art, science, academia and politics were—and still are—closely intertwined, both on a global level and on more specific national, local, and disciplinary levels. Plaster cast collections of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture and architecture usually formed a core part of royal, museum, and finally university collections. Their heyday is marked by the nineteenth century when the cast collections—by now including other periods— constituted universal museums in Europe and in the United States. However, the nineteenth century marks also the beginning of a decline in the reputation of plaster casts that eventually ended in entire collections being dispersed and discarded, if not actively demolished. Our workshop aims to inquire the reasons for these destructive acts, which happened at different places in different moments. While it often seems that classicists or art historians themselves were in the end responsible for the destruction of cast collections, we want to place their decisions within broader political, economic, aesthetic orscholarly discourses. This approach from the opposite and often denied side of the reception of Classical antiquity and European art will provide further insight into the history of disciplines such as Classics and History of Art. We are looking for papers that address the question within and against European and U.S. American political, artistic and intellectual movements such as the enlightenment, neoclassicism, romanticism, nationalism, positivism, fascism, communism, capitalism etc.

Keynote speakers for the conference are Lorenz Winkler-Horaček (Institute of Classical Archaeology, Free University Berlin and curator of the Berlin Cast Collection of Ancient Sculpture); Marcello Barbanera (Department of History of Art, La Sapienza, Rome) and Stephen Dyson(Department of Classics, SUNY Buffalo). A publication of the papers is planned. Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be sent via email by July 31st to Annetta Alexandridis, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University,
aa376 AT cornell.edu

Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):

The 3rd meeting of the Yorkshire Ancient Philosophy Network will be on 21st May, in Seminar Room 2, Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied CETL, University of Leeds.

Further details at our website/blog "Sullogismos":

http://sullogismos.wordpress.com

Programme:

10:00-12:30 Reading Group

Plato Republic IV, 435-445 (using Grube/Reeve translation, publ. Hackett)

12:30-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30 Stephen Makin (Sheffield)

"Amusing Gorgias: Why does the Encomium of Helen end as it does?"

15:30-15:45 Coffee

15:45-17:15 James Wilberding (Newcastle)

"Secret Life of Plants in Galen"

All academics and postgraduates with an interest in Ancient Philosophy are warmly welcomed.

Lunch: own arrangements.

No booking is required, but an email to indicate attendance would enable us to circulate the papers to participants in advance.

Contact: Amber Carpenter (adc503 AT york.ac.uk), Jamie Dow (j.dow AT leeds.ac.uk) or Antony Hatzistavrou (A.hatzistavrou AT hull.ac.uk)