From the Ancient Narrative folks:

APULEIUS AND AFRICA

An International Classics Conference

April 29-May 2, 2010

Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, U.S.A.

From April 29 to May 2, 2010, Oberlin College will host a major international Classics symposium entitled “Apuleius and Africa.” The conference is being organized by Ellen Finkelpearl (Scripps College), Luca Graverini (Università di Siena, Arezzo), Benjamin Lee (Oberlin College), and Sonia Sabnis (Reed College), and has been made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon 23 consortium, the Oberlin Classics Department, and several anonymous private donors.

Apuleius (120-180 A.D.), author of the ancient novel The Golden Ass, was born and lived in Madauros (currently in Algeria) in the Roman province of Africa. He repeatedly discusses his identification with his native region rather than with Rome and Athens, where he was student. And yet, despite new work in Classics on provincial cultures that are distinct from the center of metropolitan Rome, surprisingly little scholarship has grappled with the implications of Apuleius’ origins. The conference will draw together leading historians of Roman North Africa, literary scholars of Apuleius’ novel and his other works, and critical theorists of Latin culture, in order to open the Apuleian corpus (especially The Golden Ass) to new theoretical and cultural lines of inquiry.

Multiculturalism, ethnicity, and post-colonialism are discourses particularly germane to our teaching because the classical canon is undergoing a process of reformation, especially as we choose texts to teach that are relevant to contemporary culture. A thorough vetting of these issues will aid our teaching as we devise courses that revive the Classics curriculum by integrating contemporary interest in identity formation and imperialism, and further, it will help Classics remain relevant to its increasingly diverse constituency of both teachers and students. As part of the conference, we have organized a special workshop session entitled “Pedagogical approaches to Apuleius,” chaired by Sonia Sabnis, which will address new approaches to teaching this important literary figure.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Ben Lee via email: ben.lee AT oberlin.edu.

Seen on AegeaNet:

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION

7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
History: From Ancient to Modern
28-31 December 2009
ATHENS, GREECE

The History Research Unit of the Athens Institute for Education and
Research (ATINER) will organize its 7th International Conference on History
in Athens, Greece on 28-31 of December 2009. The conference will be held in
downtown Athens, within walking distance of the Acropolis (Parthenon) and
other historical sites of Athens.

Papers (in English) from all areas of history are welcome. Special sessions
will be organized in the following areas: Ancient Greek and Roman History,
Cultural History, History of Religion, Arts History, Economic History,
Political and Social History, Sports History (History of Olympic Games),
History of Sciences, History of Philosophy, Intellectual History, Modern
American History, Latin American History, African History, Asian History,
European History, Personalities in Philosophy and History, Interactions of
Civilizations (East-West & North-South), Historiography, Historic
Preservation and the Future of Historical Studies. Selected papers will be
published in a Special Volume of the Conference Proceedings. You may
participate as panel organizer, presenter of one paper, chair a session or
observer. The conference website is http://www.atiner.gr/docs/History.htm.
The first 6 conferences produced a number of books. Visit our site
http://www.atiner.gr/docs/HISTORY_PUBLICATIONS.htm for titles, table of

contents and order form.

The registration fee is 250 euro, covering access to all sessions,
conference material and 2 lunches. Special arrangements will be made with
local hotels for a limited number of rooms at a special conference rate. In
addition, planned tours to historical sites and nearby islands will be
organized. A special evening is organized on Monday December 28th with live
Greek music and dinner. Wednesday 30th, 2009 a one-day cruise is organized
to the islands of Aigina, Hydra and Spetses. On Thursday the 31st, 2009 a
half day tour around Attica will be organized and a gala dinner will be held
under the Acropolis to celebrate NEW YEAR’S EVE. During the tour we will
visit among other sites: Hadrian’s Arch, Temple of Olympian Zeus,
Panathenaic Stadium where the first Olympic Games of the modern era were
held in 1896 and on Acropolis: the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike, the
Erectheion and finally "the harmony between material and spirit", the
monument that "puts order in the mind", the Parthenon.

Please submit a 300-word abstract via email only by September 18th, 2009 to
the following address: Dr. Nicholas Pappas, Professor of History, Sam
Houston University, USA and Vice-President of ATINER. 8 Valaoritou Street,
Kolonaki, 10671 Athens, Greece. Tel.: + 30 210 363-4210 Fax: + 30 210
363-4209 Email: atiner AT atiner.gr. Abstracts should include: Title of Paper,
Full Name (s), Affiliation, Current Position, an email address and at least
3 keywords that best describe the subject of your submission. We also invite
people to chair sessions, act as reviewers and editors of the book(s) that
will be published after the conference. If you want to participate without
presenting a paper, i.e. chair a session, evaluate papers to be included in
the conference proceedings or books, contribute to the editing, or any other
offer to help please send an email to Dr. Gregory T. Papanikos,
gtp AT atiner.gr, Director, ATINER.

seen on the Classicists list:

International Congress, Osnabrueck, 14th-18th September 2009:
Fines imperii, imperium sine fine?
Rome – Empire between resistance and integration

In celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the Varus battle of A.D. 9, University and City of Osnabrück, in corporation with the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, are organising an international five-day congress to discuss questions on the interaction between Romans and natives in the frontier regions of the Roman empire in the early Empire.
Based on our archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources it is the aim to analyse both the diverse Roman policies aimed at controlling, pacifying and ‘civilising’ frontier regions as well as the various indigenous strategies to adapt to or resist Roman imperialism. Besides Roman military occupation and demonstrations of Rome’s power, we want to focus on civic aspects, such as the integration of indigenous elites in the socioeconomic structures of the Roman empire, the developments in rural and urban areas, aspects of ethnogenesis and the consequences of cultural interactions and core-periphery relationships. It is the aim of the conference to explore parallels and discrepant experiences in the various frontier regions of the Roman Empire.
There are three thematic sections: (1) Roman and indigenous strategies to consolidate power and secure peace. (2) Pax Romana – Development of civic structures. (3) Instruments to consolidate Roman dominance: military and ideology.

Speakers include: Kurt Raaflaub (Brown University), David Mattingly (Leicester), Michek Reddé (Paris), Angel Morillo Cerdan (Madrid), Moshe Fischer (Tel Aviv), Martina Minas-Nerpel (Swansea), Simon James (Leicester), Helmut Halfmann (Hamburg), William Van Andringa (Lille), Maaike Groot (Amsterdam), Hartmut Wolff (Passau), Francois Favory (Besancon), Ariel Lewin (Potenza), Sandrine Agusta-Boularot (Aix-en-Provence), Miroslava Mirkovic (Beograd), Marjeta Sasel Kos (Ljubliana), Stefanie Martin-Kilcher (Bern), Peter Herz (Regensburg), Ulrike Ehmig (Mainz/Klagenfurt), Günther Schörner (Jena), Yann Le Bohec (Paris), G.A. Lehmann (Göttingen), R. Wolters (Tübingen), and Siegmar von Schurbein (Frankfurt).

Conference fee: 40 euros including excursions to Kalkriese (site of the ‘Varus battle’), Haltern and Detmold
For further information and booking see www.kongress-2009.uos.de or contact ralph.haussler AT uclmail.net

Seen on the Classicists list:

This is to notify colleagues of the Third International Ptolemaic Colloquium to be held in Piraeus/Greece on 18-20.09.2009. All welcome (no conference fee). For further information please contact marystef@arch.uoa.gr.

Ptolemaic Waterways and Power

Third International Ptolemaic Colloquium (18-20/9/09)
dedicated to the memory of Frank W. Walbank,
sponsored and hosted by the Laskaridis Library (Piraeus/Greece)

Programme

17/9/09: Arrival of participants and accommodation (17, 18 and 19/9) in the hotel Grande Bretagne (Syntagma Square, Athens).

18/9/09 (Friday: Laskaridis Library, Praxitelous 169-Piraeus). Transfer of speakers with hired coach from the hotel (coach departure: 8.15)

Welcome of participants-Addresses-Introduction: 9.00-10.00

First Session, 10.00-11.30 (3 papers)

1. An. Meadows, “The Ptolemaic League of the Islanders”

2. H. Hauben, “Callicrates of Samos and Patroclus of Macedon, Champions of Ptolemaic Thalassocracy”

3. V. Gabrielsen, "The waterways connecting Rhodes and the Ptolemaic Kingdom".

Discussion, 11.30-12.00

Break, 12.00-12.15

Second Session, 12.15-13.15 (2 papers)

4. A. Erskine, “Polybius and Ptolemaic Seapower”

5. K. Buraselis, “Ptolemaic grain, seaways, and power”

Discussion, 13.15-13.30

Buffet lunch for the speakers, 13.30-14.30

Free time/rest, 14.30-16.00

Third Session, 16.00-17.00 (2 papers)

6. Maria Stefanou, “The solution of emigration: Ptolemaic cleruchs of foreign origin”

7. P. McKechnie, “Our Academic Visitor is Missing: Posidippus 89 (A-B) and seaborne transfer of intellectual capital”

Discussion, 17.00-17.15

Break, 17.15-17.30

Fourth session, 17.30-18.30 (2 papers)

8. Eir. Peppa, “Clay figurines and vases between Ptolemaic Egypt and the Aegean”

9. Olga Palagia, “Ptolemaic seaways and the diffusion of royal portraiture”

Discussion, 18.30-18.45

Supper for the speakers (Hotel Grande Bretagne), 19.30-20.30

19/9/09 (Saturday: Second day of the colloquium, Laskaridis Library)

First Session, 9.00-10.30 (3 papers)

10. Lila Marangou, “Amorgos and the Ptolemies. Old and new evidence”

11. L. Criscuolo, “Ptolemies and Piracy”

12. D. J. Thompson, “The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne …’ (Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2, scene 2). The role of Hellenistic royal barges”

Discussion, 10.30-11.00

Break, 11.00-11.15

Second Session, 11.15-12.15 (2 papers)

13. An. Helmis, “Policing the Nile: measures against deserters of the Ptolemaic fleet”

14. Th. Kruse, “The Nile police in the Ptolemaic period”

Discussion, 12.15-12.30

Buffet lunch for speakers, 12.30-13.30

Free time/rest, 13.30-14.30

Third Session, 14.30-16.00 (2 papers)

15. St. Burstein, “Ptolemy I and the Beginning of Ptolemaic Activity in Nubia and the Red Sea Basin” (to be read)

16. Chr. Habicht, “Eudoxos of Kyzikos and the Ptolemaic exploration of the sea route to India”

17. F. Prontera, „Timosthenes and Eratosthenes: sea routes and hellenistic geography“

Discussion, 16.00-16.15

Break, 16.15-16.30

Fourth session, 16.30-17.30 (2 papers)

18. P. Nadig, "Ptolemaic elephant hunts“

19. Klaus Geus, “Roads or waterways? Ptolemaios’ description of Africa reexamined”

Discussion, 17.30-18.00

Visit at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus, 18.15-19.30

Supper for speakers (Hotel Grande Bretagne), 20.00-21.00

20/9/09 (Sunday: Third and last day of the colloquium)

Excursion to Methana/Arsinoe – Return to Athens (Hotel ”Grande Bretagne”) in the late afternoon – Farewell and departure of participants (if any wish to stay further in Athens please contact us).

Please note that the Syntagma Square is within easy reach from the Eleutherios Venizelos Airport of Athens by (a) bus (just outside the Arrivals gate at the Airport, bus X95, ticket price 3.20 euros); (b) metro network (station directly next to the airport, ticket price: 6 euros); (c) taxi (fare to Syntagma: ca 25 €)