… seen on the Classicists list:

SCIENTISTS AND PROFESSIONALS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD CONFERENCE
School of Classics, University of St Andrews
7-9 September 2009

Booking is now open for the ‘Scientists and Professionals in the Ancient World’
conference. Please visit the conference website:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/science-and-empire/scipro.shtml

A booking form (bottom of the page) may be completed on-line, or printed out and
posted (together with payment) to Mrs Margaret Goudie
(classcon AT st-andrews.ac.uk).

Booking deadline: 29 August 2009
Venue: School of Classics, Swallowgate 11, Butts Wynd, St Andrews

Conference organisers: Dr Emma Gee (ergg AT st-andrews.ac.uk), Dr Jason Koenig
(jpk3 AT st-andrews.ac.uk), Dr Katerina Oikonomopoulou (ao40 AT st-andrews.ac.uk),
Professor Greg Woolf (gdw2 AT st-andrews.ac.uk)

The conference is part of the activities of the Leverhulme project ‘Science and
Empire in the Roman World’
(http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/science-and-empire/)

The conference programme is available from the conference website:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/science-and-empire/scipro.shtml

… seen on the Classicist list:

Lucretius in the European Enlightenment
A Conference hosted by the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology
The University of Edinburgh

3 – 4 September 2009
For more information and registration details, see
http://www.shca.ed.ac.uk/conferences/lucretius09/index.html

Programme:
David Butterfield (W.H.D. Rouse Research Fellow, Christ’s College, Cambridge):
‘Lucretius’ De rerum natura and classical scholarship in the eighteenth century’

Gianni Paganini (Professor of the History of Philosophy, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy):
‘Lucretius and Bayle’

Ann Thomson (Professor of British History, Université Paris 8 Vincennes-St. Denis):
‘Lucretius and la Mettrie’
Piet H. Schrijvers (Emeritus Professor of Latin, Leiden University):
‘Lucretius in the Dutch Enlightenment’
Tim Hochstrasser (Senior Lecturer in International History, London School of Economics and Political Science):
‘The role of Lucretius in Diderot’s later political thought’
Wolfgang Pross (Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of Berne, Switzerland):
‘»Atheorum antistes et oraculum«: Enemies of Lucretius in the European Enlightenment’
James Harris (Lecturer in Philosophy, University of St. Andrews):
‘Lucretius and Hume’

Alan Charles Kors (George H. Walker Term Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania):
‘Lucretius and d’Holbach’
Avi Lifshitz (Lecturer in History, University College London):
‘Lucretius and German debates over the origins of language, c. 1750’
Mario Marino (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena):
‘Herder and Lucretius’

Ernst A. Schmidt (Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Tübingen):
‘Wieland and Lucretius’
Andrew Laird (Professor of Classical Literature, University of Warwick):
‘Lucretius and Spanish Jesuit culture after the Bourbon Reforms: Diego José Abad and Rafael Landívar in Italy’

… seen on the Classicists list

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS: 10TH UNISA CLASSICS COLLOQUIUM

University of South Africa, Pretoria

THEME: ‘Family as Strategy in the Roman Empire’

DATE: October 15 – 17, 2009

Papers are hereby invited on any aspect of the family in Greco-Roman
antiquity and early Christianity that may be seen to further illuminate
the conference topic. The approach of this conference seeks to emphasize
that family, house and household were contextualised within the social and
power relations of the time (see abstract below). Apart from literary
investigations, we would like to encourage contributions with an
historical or archaeological concern. Enquiries regarding theoretical and
methodological issues, such as the interaction between literary and
material evidence, the design of interpretive strategies and the
fabrication of a socio-historiography are also welcomed.

This year’s colloquium is a collaborative effort by Classics and New
Testament & Early Christian Studies at the University of South Africa and
aims at fostering interdisciplinary perspectives.

Abstracts and submission date
Please submit abstracts of appr. 200 words via e-mail attachment to
Olympus AT yebo.co.za or bosmapr AT unisa.ac.za by the end of July/beginning of
August 2009.

More on the conference

The Unisa Classics Colloquium is a pleasant and intimate conference in a
relaxed atmosphere with ample opportunity for discussion. Over two and a
half days, appr. 20 papers from scholars around the world are presented.We
try to avoid parallel sessions to promote unity and focus in the
conference, and delegates get to know one another properly. We also try to
show guests from abroad a little of the country during the conference.

Venue

The colloquium takes place at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in
Pretoria, capital of the Republic of South Africa. Among other
attractions, Pretoria is famous for its Jacaranda trees, which are in full
bloom at the time of our colloquium
(http://www.southafrica.info/travel/cities/pretoria.htm)

Programme

We start on Thursday morning the 15th and end at lunch time on Saturday
the 17th of October. This means that you should preferably book your
flight to arrive on the 14th at the latest. You may book your ticket out
for Saturday evening, but that might have cost implications (staying for a
Saturday night often reduces the ticket price considerably) and you will
lose out on the Pilanesberg outing (ses below).

A preliminary programme will be compiled from the received proposals and
will be published after the final date for submissions at
http://www.unisa.ac.za/Default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=18743

Conference Fee

The conference fee will be $150 for overseas visitors, inclusive of
transport (from and to the airport and during the conference) and meals
during the conference. You may work on an exchange rate of roughly ZAR
8.00/$, ZAR 13.50/£ or ZAR12/EUR.

Postgraduates, other students and interested parties not able to claim
their conference fees back from their institutions should please contact
the organisers for a discount.

Accommodation

We will provide more information on accommodation in due course. Pretoria
offers a variety in this regard. During past conferences, guests stayed at
the Brooklyn Guest Houses (http://www.brooklynguesthouses.co.za/) situated
in a safe and attractive neighbourhood close to Unisa, the University of
Pretoria, and the Brooklyn and Hatfield shopping centres.

Excursions

We plan a trip for Sunday 18 October to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, 1½
hours drive west of Pretoria where the Big Five may be seen (if we are
lucky) in their natural habitat. Transport will be provided.

Depending on interest, a visit to Cape Town as a group is a distinct
possibility.

Possible publication

Depending on the quality of submissions, the colloquium papers may be
published in an edited volume on the theme. Submitted papers are subject
to a refereeing process. If you would consider submitting your paper to be
published, please indicate that to us via return mail for further
guidelines on style.

Abstract on the conference theme

The last few decades witnessed an explosion of studies on a multitude of
aspects concerning the family in Greco-Roman antiquity. This conference
wishes to contribute to the ongoing debate by exploring the specific ways
in which the family was used as a strategy for a variety of social
purposes. On the one hand, the family was generated by political,
economic, cultural and moral forces. On the other hand, it functioned
reciprocally to cultivate, reinforce and sustain the very practices from
which it emerged.

The family may be interrogated in terms of its various dimensions; for
instance, as a social site occupying space. It may be asked how the
individual’s place was determined in interaction with his or her family?
How was the family, in terms of cultural discourses, strategically
utilised as microcosm within a particular macrocosm? Exactly what was
public and what was private in the workings of the Graeco-Roman family and
how rigid was this distinction? How was the family determined by and—in
its turn—fashioned material sites and cultural products: household
architecture, art, decoration, utensils, and the like? The family may also
be investigated in terms of its temporal dimension, such as its legacies
from pre-colonial times, its role in Romanization and the ideal of
Romanitas, as a nucleus of identity, cooption, and resistance.
Furthermore, Early Christianity emerged as part and parcel of this complex
discursive world and structured itself in continuity (e.g. patriarchy),
but also deviated from the model in significant ways, for instance in how
desire and gender was regulated within the structures of family life, and
in its cultivation of movements such as asceticism and monasticism. How
was the dominant family discourse appropriated by early Christianity and
to what extent did the family as a form of strategy cooperate in the
Christianization of the Roman Empire?

Finally, papers concerned with appeals to either the continuity or
discontinuity of the family formed in the Roman Empire will also be
considered.

… seen on the Classicists list:

CALL FOR PAPERS

‘HINDSIGHT, or THE IMPORTANCE OF UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS IN GREEK AND ROMAN HISTORY’

Chairs: Kai Brodersen (Erfurt) and Anton Powell (Classical Press of Wales)

To form a conference panel at the sixth Celtic Conference in Classics, Edinburgh, 28-31 July 2010.

If, as a historical magazine puts it, ‘What happened then matters
now’, it may seem to follow that we should privilege those aspects of
ancient history which most clearly lead to the modern world, or at least had
long-lasting and obvious consequences in Antiquity. And so we may downplay
ancient expectations which were not fulfilled. But such expectations may
have been predominant in their day. To neglect them may make it impossible
to reconstruct ancient mentalities, or even to understand why history’s
winners acted as they did. Especially in periods of gross instability, unfulfilled
forecasts may be numerous and rewarding to reconstruct. Some examples: after the disgrace
at Sparta of three recent royal predecessors, what were Leonidas’ prospects
if he were to return alive from Thermopylai? After Caesar’s death, how
persuasive was the fear that his empire, like Alexander’s, would fragment
into permanent successor kingdoms? What chance did the militarily-inept
Octavian seem to have of surviving – before Naulochus? Or, given his record
of poor health, after Actium? But even in less troubled times, unfulfilled
forecasts which influence policy may be the norm, subject afterwards to
downplaying by historians in Antiquity as today.

The organisers of this conference panel believe that one of the most promising ways to
improve the writing of history is to train ourselves not to impose our hindsight
onto the necessarily-diverse and imperfect forecasting by political actors
of Antiquity. This approach is also currently under discussion by academic and other lawyers,
interested in the concept of `negligence’ in relation to the benefit of hindsight.

We warmly invite suggestions for papers on this theme, concerning any period
of Greek or Roman Antiquity.

Reply to:
kai.brodersen AT uni-erfurt.de
and
powellanton AT btopenworld.com

… seen on the Classicists list:

THE CELTIC CONFERENCE IN CLASSICS
with, and at,
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
July 28-31 2010

The next Celtic Conference in Classics, the sixth, will meet at the University of Edinburgh from Wednesday 28th to Saturday 31st July 2010. The Conference is open to all.

It is expected that there will be between eight and ten panels, to include the following:

‘Epic Poetry and Flavian Culture’ – Chairs: Emma Buckley (St Andrews), Helen Lovatt (Nottingham) and Gesine Manuwald (UCL).

‘Hindsight: or, The Importance of Unfulfilled Expectations in Greek and Roman History’ – Chairs: Kai Brodersen (Erfurt) and Anton Powell (Classical Press of Wales).

‘Addressing Dress: Anthropology and Sociology of Clothing in the Ancient World’ – Chairs: Glenys Davies, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Ursula Rothe (Edinburgh).

‘The Presocratics’ – Chair: Simon Trépanier (Edinburgh), in association with the International Association of Presocratic Studies.

SUGGESTIONS for papers and panels. The above panels are at various stages of completeness, but all panel chairs would be happy to receive offers of relevant papers from home or abroad. Chairs’ e-mail addresses are listed below. The Conference Organiser would also be glad to receive suggestions for additional panels.

The venue of the Conference is Pollock Halls, an elegant campus of the University of Edinburgh in a pleasant setting, close to but sheltered from the city centre. The dates of the conference have been chosen in part because they immediately precede the Edinburgh Festival.

Conference members may be able to stay on, if they wish, into the Festival period – using the campus’ inexpensive accommodation.

———
The Celtic Conference meets every two years, and rotates between Ireland and Scotland, Brittany and Wales. It promotes collective work from scholars world-wide, in a friendly and constructive atmosphere. Many of its panels come to publication as books.

The languages of the Conference are English and French.

Chairs’ e-mail addresses:
eb221 AT st-andrews.ac.uk (Emma Buckley) ;
kai.brodersen AT uni-erfurt.de;
powellanton AT btopenworld.com;
G.M.Davies AT ed.ac.uk (Glenys Davies);
lljones AT staffmail.ed.ac.uk (Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones);
ursula.rothe AT ed.ac.uk;
Simon.Trepanier AT ed.ac.uk
———
Founder and Organiser: Anton Powell powellanton AT btopenworld.com
Organiser in Edinburgh: Richard Rawles Richard.Rawles AT ed.ac.uk