News Archive

13th - 26th June 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: SEMINAR SERIES

We are pleased to announce the final event in our seminar series for this present term. It will take place tomorrow (Tuesday 14th June 2022) from 16:30 to 18:00 (UK Time). The speakers will be Aleksandra Wenta (Florence) and Francesco Barchi (Munich). The session will be on the topic of 'Religion through Cultural Boundaries' (Iran/India/China). The event will take place in hybrid form, with Zoom participants complementing an on-site presence at the Dickson Poon Building (China Centre, Oxford), Lucina Ho Seminar Room.

To view the abstracts please see our website (https://www.earlytextcultures.org/events/current-events/research-seminar-tt-22/religion-through-cultural-boundaries)

UPCOMING EVENTS

Conversations in Egyptology (Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Tel Aviv University/Haifa University)

Of Eternity, Everlastingness and Stars: A Quest for Time and Space in Ancient Egypt

Lecture taking place online via Zoom on Thursday June 16th at 18:00 Jerusalem Time (16:00 UK Time). Dr. Alicia Maravelia (Hellenic Institute of Egyptology and People's University of Athens) will be speaking on 'Of Eternity, Everlastingness and Stars: A Quest for Time and Space in Ancient Egypt'. The event is part of a monthly series jointly organised by Egyptologists teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and Haifa University. The session will take place in English. The seminar is free of charge and all attendees are welcomed (specialists, students, amateurs, and anyone interested in Egyptology).

In order to receive the link for the event please contact Prof. Arlette David (arlette.david@mail.huji.ac.il)

Zodiac: Ancient Astral Science in Transformation (Freie Universität Berlin)

Imagining the Sky: The Zodiac and Related Astral Imagery in the Ancient World

The workshop 'Imagining the Sky: The Zodiac and Related Astral Imagery in the Ancient World' will take place in person at the Institute for the History of Knowledge of the Ancient World, Freie Universität Berlin, Fabeckstraße 23–25, 14195 Berlin. The workshop will be held by the project Zodiac: Ancient Astral Science in Transformation (ERC). It will take place from Wednesday 21st - Friday 23rd September 2022. The event is convened by Mathieu Ossendrijver and Andreas Winkler.  

Abstract: In the wake of the introduction of the zodiac, images played an important role in representing astral knowledge and disseminating it across the ancient world. However, ancient astral science and its cross-cultural transmission are still studied primarily on the basis of texts, with relatively little attention to images. For instance, even several well-known and strikingly similar zodiac-related images from Uruk (Babylonia) and Dendera (Egypt) have not been systematically investigated as evidence for the cross-cultural transmission of astral science. Secondly, the interactions between image and text, which have become a central topic in research on ancient mathematics, have not yet been adequately addressed in research on ancient astral science. This workshop brings together historians of science, Egyptologists, Assyriologists, classical philologists, papyrologists, archaeologists, and art historians. It focuses on the zodiac and related astral imagery (constellations, planets, moon, sun, melothesia, etc.) and diagrams from Babylonia, Egypt, and the Greco-Roman world, but it also engages with imagery from other regions, communities and periods. The objectives of the workshop are to share examples of zodiac-related imagery from different regions, communities and periods, to discuss the evidence in an interdisciplinary setting, to begin a dialogue with new approaches and tools from art history, image theory and digital humanities, and to exchange ideas about the following questions:

• What theoretically informed methods and approaches can be proposed for studying ancient astral imagery?

• What are the relations between the images and the material aspects of their carriers?

• Who produced the images and how were they produced?

• What knowledge and which practices are reflected in the images and what are their meanings, functions, and contexts?

• How to analyse and characterize the interactions among image, text, tables, and other media?

• How to analyse the cross-cultural transmission of astral imagery, and what can be said about the available examples?

Since places may be limited, if you are interested in attending please RSVP before Thursday 1st September by writing to zodiac@geschkult.fu-berlin.de. If you have any questions, please write to andreas.winkler@fu-berlin.de. For more information about the project see https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/en/e/zodiac.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Euripides' Plays (Leiden)

Staging Emotions: Affect and emotional expressions in Euripides

Conference taking place from Monday 19th - Tuesday 20th December 2022 at in person at Leiden University. It will also be possible to follow it online. The keynote speaker is Douglas Cairns (University of Edinburgh).

Abstract: Over the course of the last decade, scholars have displayed an increasing interest in the study of emotions, taking their cue from recent developments in other fields (neuroscience, psychology, cognitive studies, linguistics etc.). The communicative and social aspects in the display of emotions and affects seem particularly pertinent in theatre studies, where an even more complex nexus of interaction is at play: playwrights, actors, dramatis personae as well as spectators are all involved in the creation and reception of emotions on a reciprocal level. The conceptualisation and the expression of abstract emotional states onstage are accomplished not only by means of the dramatist’s stylistics and use of music and dance, but also through the exploitation of masks, stage-props, and theatrical costumes.

This conference aims to explore such topics in Euripides’ plays – whose comparatively wide corpus offers many different examples – with an awareness of the complex and transforming historical and cultural context he lived in. In particular, we are interested in engaging a range of scholarly methodologies and setting up a platform in order to exchange different perspectives and produce new answers or new questions. Interdisciplinary approaches are therefore strongly encouraged: how can the study of emotions help us in Euripides’ textual criticism? How can it improve our understanding of the anthropology of his tragic world? What are the strategies employed by the dramatist in order to represent affect and, in turn, produce an emotional reaction from the part of the audience? Do tragic emotions pertain to the individual (dramatic figure) or are they culturally constructed? How was the socio-cultural milieu, in which the plays were first staged, reflected and how did this context, in turn, shape their emotional impact?

Participants are invited to consider topics including, but not limited to:

●      Emotions and Euripidean dramaturgy: characters, plots, scenic movements, textual criticism, interpretation, genre matters

●      Emotions and the reconstruction of Euripides’ fragmentary plays

●      Memory and embodied cognition in the display of Euripidean emotions

●      New Materialisms and affect in Euripides

●      Style, language, and metrics in the representation and expression of emotions in Euripides

●      Iconographic representation of Euripidean emotions

●      Reception and rework of Euripidean display of emotions in later works

Abstracts are invited from Postgraduate students (MPhil, PhD), Postdoctoral and Early Career Researchers, as well as scholars in the areas of Classics, History, and Archaeology. To apply please send your applicant name & short bio (maximum 100 words), title & abstract (maximum 250 words) and selective bibliography to euripidesandemotions@gmail.com before Monday 12th September 2022. 

Each paper should not exceed 30 minutes and will be followed by a 15-minute discussion. The language of the conference will be English. The conference is co-funded by the University of Edinburgh and Leiden University.  The organisation will cover costs for lunches and coffee breaks. Unfortunately, funding will not be available for travel and accommodation.

SUMMER EVENT

Japanese Traditional Performing Arts (Kyoto Art Center)

Traditional Theater Training (T.T.T.)

Following a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Traditional Theater Training (T.T.T.) will be returning this year. T.T.T. was founded 38 years ago in 1984 by Jonah Salz and Shigeyama Akira. Aimed at artists, academics, and students, the three-week intensive training programme introduces Japan's traditional performing arts. The Kyoto Art Center has redesigned the programme to offer two or three arts each year in rotation, such as nō, kyōgen, kabuki, bunraku, Nihon buyō, and rakugo. This year nō and rakugo will be offered. There is also an optional kotsuzumi (nō shoulder drum) workshop. 

The programme runs in person in Kyoto, Japan from Sunday 24th July - Friday 12th August 2022. Applications are welcomed until Monday 20th June, with applicants being notified of results shortly after submission. Starting this year, T.T.T. scholarships (tuition exemption) will be offered to participants with specific plans to create artistic work(s) or carry out academic research based on their T.T.T. training (one scholarship per course). The Kyoto Art Center can also help with letters of support for those looking to secure outside funding, or otherwise need an organisational reference for visa paperwork.

Fluency in Japanese is not required for most arts, though lessons are typically given in the language with staff on hand to help as needed. In 2022, nō will be offered to all language speakers while rakugo will be offered to advanced Japanese speakers only. This year's nō instructors will be long-term instructors Katayama Shingo, Tamoi Hiromichi, and Ōe Nobuyuki (Kanze School); and for the first time, rakugo led by Katsura Kichibō (Kamigata rakugo, Beichō School) with assistants. The final recital will be held in Japan's oldest family nō theater, with participants professionally costumed.

For application forms and more information, please visit the Kyoto Art Center website at https://www.kac.or.jp/eng/program/4227. Alternatively, you may contact the Kyoto Art Center in Japanese or English at t.t.t@kac.or.jp or +81 (0)75-213-1000. You can also visit the T.T.T. Facebook page.

30th May – 12th June 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: READING GROUP

We are pleased to announce that the third event in this term's reading group series will be taking place tomorrow (Tuesday 31st May 2022) from 16:30 - 17:30 (UK Time). The speaker will be Bogdan Draghici (Oxford), who will be speaking on 'All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full: Medieval Orthodoxies in contact'. The event will take place in hybrid form, with Zoom participants complementing the on-site presence at the Dickson Poon Building (China Centre, Oxford), Lucina Ho Seminar Room.

Abstract:  In 1171, “the eloquent doctor and the star of his generation”, Dionysius Bar Ṣalībī laid down his pen for the last time. One of the last Syriac representatives of the late antique Greek intellectual tradition – seemingly untouched by the discourse methods of Islamic philosophy and theology – Bar Ṣalībī produced an impressive corpus ranging from poetry to philosophical commentaries and theological treatises. During a period of increased cultural interactions with numerous neighbouring cultures, in an area of intense trade, Bar Ṣalībī develops a conservative, defensive, and inward-looking narrative.

Touching upon the topic of the importance of later polemical and heresiological treatises, my paper focuses on the unedited and untranslated treatise Against the Chalcedonians. Whilst this polemical text contains a wealth of information on matters Christological, liturgical, and socio-historical, I will primarily focus on Bar Ṣalībī’s development of a religious ethnology which aims to legitimize his own ethno-religious community against the Greek Chalcedonians and in relation to the image of a unified Miaphysite oikumene. In so doing, I will bring into discussion the author’s aims, relevance, and some methodological aspects primarily relating to New Philology.

For more information on this reading group series please see our website (https://www.earlytextcultures.org/events/current-events/reading-group-tt22).

UPCOMING EVENTS

Forgotten Christianities (Oxford)

Forgotten Christianities: An Early Career Research Seminar

A seminar series exploring critical theories of identity formation, communal memory, and intellectual exchange. Taking place weekly starting on the Monday 6th June until Monday 27th June 2022. The sessions are from 17:00 - 18:30 (UK Time) and will take place online via Zoom.

Abstract: For the purposes of this project, ‘Forgotten Christianities’ are defined as those Christian linguistic and ethnic self-defined groups which traditionally have been overlooked by mainstream academia including Georgian, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopic, Coptic, and Arabic Christianity. The “Forgotten Christianities” seminars will explore critical theories of identity formation, communal memory, and intellectual exchange in the history of the Eastern and Oriental Churches.

Each session will bring together doctoral students and ERCs from various fields such as history, archaeology, theology, and the social sciences. Spanning Late Antiquity, the early Islamic era, and the Middle Ages, they will provide a diachronic and kaleidoscopic view of these historical communities and their self-representation. Participants are invited to engage critically with a range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies, such as postcolonial studies, memory studies, the history of ideas, and the development of cultural, religious, and social identity. Through exploring Christianities outside of Western Europe, the seminars aim to contribute to the paradigm shift which decentralises academic interest from a Eurocentric perspective, while showcasing the interconnectedness of societies.

Event conveners: Bogdan Draghici (DPhil in Oriental Studies - Syriac, Wolfson College), Alexis Gorby (DPhil in Classical Archaeology, St John’s College), Dan Gallaher (DPhil in History - Armenian/Byzantine Studies, Balliol College). 

This seminar series is funded by the Ancient World Research Cluster at Wolfson College, Oxford and supported by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).

To register please visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/forgotten-christianities-2022-registration-347331266167.

Please contact forgottenchristianities@gmail.com with any queries. Proposals by current DPhils and ERCs for future sessions are welcome.

Buddhist Studies (Cambridge)

Cambridge Graduate Student Conference. Journeys: Spiritual and Physical Experiences in East Asian Buddhism

The conference will take place from Monday 13th - Tuesday 14th June 2022. The event will take place in person in Room 8&9, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. No hybrid attendance will be possible. 

The speakers on Monday 13th June (13:00 - 17:00 UK Time) will be Jacob Fisher (Oxford), Haruka Saito (SOAS), Daphne So (Cambridge) and Yizhuo Li (Cambridge). The speakers on Tuesday 14th June (10:00 - 17:00 UK Time) will be Yanfei Zhao (SOAS), Yanxi Luo (Edinburgh), Flavia Fang (Cambridge), Rusha Jin (Edinburgh), Xinyang Liu (Cambridge) and Julie Chan (Oxford).

The event is organised by Junfu Wong (jw2034@cam.ac.uk) and Yizhuo Li (yl752@cam.ac.uk). For further information about the conference please contact Dr Noga Ganany at ng462@cam.ac.uk.

Chinese Philosophy (Oxford)

Fathoming the Changes Between Heaven and Earth: Reconsidering the Status of the Book of Changes in Wang Bi’s Philosophy 

Talk by Raphaël Van Daele (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Academic Visitor at University of Oxford. Taking place on Thursday 2nd June 2022 at 17:00 (UK Time). It is a hybrid event, taking place in person at China Centre, Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre (lower ground floor), University of Oxford. To attend online via Zoom please register here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T0RG1BYLSPOYQ_-zPlvwmg. 

Abstract: The present talk addresses the status of Wang Bi 王弼 (226‒249)’s Commentary on the Book of Changes (Zhouyi Zhu 周易注) in the overall framework of his thought. Apart from a few exceptions, Wang Bi’s thought has been approached through his Commentary on the Laozi (Laozi Zhu 老子注). In this perspective, the two commentaries are either read as sharing the same philosophical approach and as pertaining to the same theoretical endeavour (this is notably R. Wagner’s approach), or studied apart from each other. In this latter approach, the tone of the Commentary on the Changes, which display a much lesser focus on metaphysical speculations than the Commentary on the Laozi, is interpreted as a sign that the inquiry of this work is almost exclusively turned toward human affairs and political philosophy.  This talk demonstrates that another reading is possible. To nuance the idea that Wang Bi’s view on the Changes ultimately focuses on political philosophy, it will be reminded that since the early Yi-tradition, the Changes has been conceived as an all-encompassing book, capable of comprehending the whole cosmos. The speaker will then address the issue of the relationship of Wang Bi’s two commentaries. By doing so, he intends to show how the two works might be related, although their scopes remain distinct. Finally, he will question Wang Bi’s interpretation of the two first hexagrams and stress how his reading establishes the Changes as a book concerned with what is between Heaven and Earth.

Organised by Professor Denise van der Kamp (Oxford), Dr Yi Lu (Oxford), Dr Coraline Jortay (Oxford), Dr Chigusa Yamaura (Oxford) and Dr Giulia Falato (Oxford).

Please email information@chinese.ox.ac.uk with any queries. 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Stranger Kings in Antiquity (Exeter)

The event will be hosted by the University of Exeter's Centre for Hellenistric and Romano-Greek Culture and Society, currently directed by Dr. Emma Nicholson. The conference will be held in a hybrid format from Thursday 3rd - Friday 4th November 2022. The deadline for applications is Monday 1st August 2022. 

Abstract: Kings, in various guises, were the dominant political force throughout antiquity. Recently, the social anthropologists Graeber and Sahlins (On Kings, Chicago: 2017) argued that, in its rawest form, kingship is a human manifestation of divine power. As a conduit for divine authority, the king is inherently different from his subjects, a ‘stranger’ whose difference and ‘otherness’ underpins his own power. Kings have also often been ‘strangers’ in the literal sense of being dynasts from the outside, or alternatively locals who have made themselves ‘strangers’ by assuming the identities of kings from elsewhere. The notion of the ‘stranger-king’ has much to offer as a reflective tool for considering kingship as a phenomenon across the diverse societies of antiquity. Kings were constantly viewed as different and exceptional, most notably through their own links with divinity: Persian kings were representatives of Ahura-Mazda, Alexander was remembered on divine terms and Roman emperors were, among many other things, pontifex maximus and deified upon death. Even in the Christian period, Theodosius II could claim that his personal connection to God provided for the wellbeing of the Roman world. The ‘stranger-king’ as a concept offers a wide range of applications and is an excellent theoretical framework for investigating kingship throughout antiquity and more broadly.  

The conference organisers are seeking to cover a broad chronological swathe of the ancient world, from the Archaic period to Late Antiquity, in order to encourage interdisciplinary engagement and draw broader conclusions on the subject. As such, there will be five panels of two to three participants, with each panel being anchored in a specific period:

• Beyond Greece and Rome  

• Archaic Greece

• Hellenistic Greece

• Early Imperial Rome

• The Later Roman Empire

Submissions are welcomed that are chronologically rooted in any of the five panels whilst simultaneously engaging with the concepts of the ‘stranger king’ and ‘stranger kingship’. For example, papers might address (though not be limited to) any of the following aspects:

• The imposition of rule by foreigners and/or invaders  

• Origin myths and stories used to present a ruling dynasty as ‘other’ or exceptional

• Ceremonial differentiation between ruler and ruled

• A ruler’s religious role and its impact in facilitating ‘otherness’  

• The fostering of personality cults by rulers to highlight their exceptionalism

• Any other context-specific methods of creating ‘otherness’ employed by rulers to secure their power  

• Any problems that ‘otherness’ might bring to a ruler’s relationship with their subjects  

Confirmed speakers include Dr. Borja Antela-Bernardez (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Dr. Meaghan McEvoy (Australian National University) and Prof. Lynette Mitchell (University of Exeter).

Speakers should aim to produce papers lasting approximately 30 minutes, after which there will be 15 minutes of time allocated for questions and discussion.

Submissions from both postgraduate students and early career researchers are welcomed. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words, accompanied by an academic bio of no more than 100 words. Submissions should be emailed to either ja616@exeter.ac.uk or jg439@exeter.ac.uk. Any questions regarding the conference can also be sent to either of those addresses.

17th - 29th May 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: RESEARCH SEMINAR

We are pleased to present a new research seminar series in Trinity Term (May and June 2022) on the topic of 'Textual Cultures in Contact'. Through sessions comprising paired papers, this seminar series will enable participants and attendees alike to gain fresh perspectives on the nature of 'contact' among textual cultures, and on the affordances and limitations of their fields' methods and approaches to this topic. 

The seminars will be held in a hybrid form, with Zoom connecting complementing on-site presence at the Dickson Poon Building (China Centre, Oxford), Lucina Ho Seminar Room, on Tuesdays at 16:30-18:00 (BST). Auditors are most welcome to attend in person. Zoom links will be provided on each session's day to those who sign up here.

The first session took place today, and the recording may be requested on demand by emailing earlytextcultures.ox@gmail.com. The second session will take place next week on Tuesday 24 May and will be on the topic of 'Scribes as Cultural Vehicles' (Near East/China/Silk Road). Ludovica Bertolini (Prague) will be presenting on 'A preliminary reflection on the use of Sumerian literature in scribal education at Ugarit'; Christopher Foster (SOAS) & Tomas Larsen Høisæter (Western Norway) will be presenting on 'Writing Between Empires: Script Use in the Tarim Basin along the Southern Silk Road'. 

The full programme and abstracts for the research seminar series can be found on our website.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Classics and Queer Studies (Ghent)

Did they know? A conversation about queer, ancient and modern

The GIKS (Ghent Institute of Classical Studies' is holding a roundtable entitled 'Did they know? A conversation about queer, ancient and modern' on Wednesday 18 May at 19:00-21:00 (CEST). The roundtable will take place online via Zoom.

Speakers include Oliver Baldwin (Reading), David Halperin (Michigan), Cléo Carastro (EHESS, Paris), Ky Merkley (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Giulia Sissa (UCLA).

To register and for more information about the event please visit the event website. Please contact giks@ugent.be or Piril.UsMacLennan@UGwnt.be. with any questions.

Premodern China (Oxford) 

Understanding Authenticity in China's Cultural Heritage Seminar Series and the Oxford China Centre Conversation 

Lecture taking place both online via Zoom and in-person on Thursday 19 May at 17:00 (BST).

China Centre, Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre (lower ground floor) and Zoom webinar (to attend the talk online, via Zoom, please register here).  

Prof. Xiaofei Tian, Prof. Antje Richter and Dr Christopher Foster will present on "How to understand sincerity and authenticity in premodern Chinese literature, intellectual history and manuscript culture?”.  Prof. Robert Chard will serve as the chair.

Abstract: Authenticity and sincerity are complex questions with many ramifications depending on the matter in question, be that literary representation, intellectual history, manuscript culture and so on. How, during the Han, did conditions arise for anxieties over textual ‘inauthenticity’ and, in parallel, a space to interrogate authorial ‘sincerity’? Are authenticity and sincerity requisite principles for literary creation? Does authenticity in literature mean quite the same thing as ‘truth’? How is sincerity achieved through formulaic expressions? What are the differences between sincerity and authenticity? Do understandings of authenticity and sincerity evolve over different time periods? Please join us as we engage in a conversation with three scholars of premodern Chinese literature and culture ‒ Xiaofei Tian, Antje Richter and Christopher Foster ‒ to explore how to gauge authenticity and sincerity in premodern Chinese traditions, and how this can contribute to our understanding of those two critical concepts.  

Academic Life (Methods in Sinology)

Meeting taking place on Thursday 19 May at 19:00 (CEST). It will be held online via Zoom. More information can be found here. 

Please register to receive the Zoom link.

Ancient World (Uppsala)

TextWorlds: Digital Perspectives on the Composition and Distribution of Written Corpora from the Ancient World

Conference taking place, in-person and remotely, on Thursday 16 June at 09:00-17:00 (CEST). 

This conference aims to explore comparative perspectives on the scale and distribution of written corpora from the ancient world. Contributing projects and researchers traverse a timeframe of some five millennia of human history, offering expert, data-driven insights on written corpora from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas, and introducing databases representing close to half a million individual records. The conference is organised by TextWorlds: Global Mapping of Texts from the Pre-Modern World, a two-year research network initiative at Uppsala University funded by the Uppsala University Center for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) for 2020-2021. Bringing together a diverse and interdisciplinary group of researchers with a shared interest in text, writing, and language from all corners of the globe, the network proceeds from a basic curiosity as to the distribution and composition of text corpora in the pre-modern world, that is, from the emergence of writing c. 3400 BCE and up until the rise of the printing press c. 1500 CE. 

More information may be found on the conference website. 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Religion in South Asia (Cambridge)

Postgraduate Symposium on Religion in South Asia

Event taking place in Cambridge on 1 October 2022.

The symposium seeks to bring students together in a creative and collaborative way to discuss the variegated expressions of religiosity across South Asia, and to explore the dynamic intersections of religious discourse, creative arts, social location, ritual expression, and embodied practice. Participants may be affiliated to any faculty or department, and their research may span any time period.

Please submit abstracts of 150-200 words, by no later than 1 June 2022, using this submission portal. Any queries about the submission process should be directed to the organising committee at southasiasymposium2022@gmail.com.

2nd - 15th May 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: READING GROUP

Early Text Cultures at Oxford is proud to present its second reading group series which will take place in Trinity Term (May-June 2022). The four sessions of the series, which is conceived as an informal occasion to discuss issues of cross-disciplinary relevance based on a specific text, collection, or text typology, will be held in a hybrid form, with Zoom participants complementing the on-site presence at the Dickson Poon Building (China Centre, Oxford), Lucina Ho Seminar Room (first floor on the right).

Auditors are most welcome to attend in person, while those who are interested in joining online can subscribe here.

The first session will take place tomorrow on Tuesday 3rd May from 16:30 - 17:30 (UK time). Victoria Downey (Durham) will present on "Vergilium cecinisse loquar pia munera Christi: Virgil, Proba, and Early Christian Scripture Beyond the Bible". The abstract for the session can be found here. More details about the reading group and our related seminar series on "Textual Cultures in Contact" can be found on our website.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Rakugo (Cambridge)

Rakugo: now and then 今ここにある落語, a virtual roundtable

A roundtable on the art of rakugo, featuring celebrated rakugo master Tatekawa Shinoharu 立川志の春 in dialogue with professor Satō Yukiko (Tokyo) and Sarah Stark (Ghent). The facilitators will be Professor Barak Kushner and Dr Laura Moretti (Cambridge). The roundtable will take place from 15.00 - 16:30 (UK Time) on Tuesday 3rd May 2022.

Abstract: With roots in early modern Japan and yet very much alive and ever-changing, rakugo is a type of performance that defies any easy description. Sitting on his zabuton cushion, one performer creates through words a world populated by different characters; a world filled with humour, suspense, tragedy, horror, and much more. Akin to storytelling, but equally different, rakugo shares aspects with stand-up comedy, but is no stand-up comedy. It is a living art that needs to be fully comprehended. Join us to discover rakugo's complex and multifaceted world!

As part of Shinoharu's one-week rakugo residency for students at the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) this roundtable discusses the creative process behind the creation of shinsaku rakugo, it tackles issues of diversity in performing rakugo, and reflects on the universality of this art.

Taking place online via Zoom. Please register here. The roundtable will be conducted mainly in English, with some parts in Japanese.

For any inquiry please contact Dr Laura Moretti (lm571@cam.ac.uk).

Sanskrit Traditions (Oxford)

The 38th Annual Sanskrit Traditions Symposium

Abstract: The Sanskrit Traditions Symposium is a forum for the discussion of the Sanskrit traditions of South Asia, and the texts and cultures that have risen out of them. It brings together established and rising academics for the focused examination of research pertaining to various aspects of South Asia’s rich Sanskrit religious and intellectual culture. It thereby seeks to sustain and build upon the long history of scholarship in this important area of study.

The symposium is run by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. The event will take place online on Friday 27th May 2022. For further information on the programme please see the event's website.

Please register for the event here.

Multilingualism in ancient Italy (Leeds)

Online Research Seminar Series

The final Classics at Leeds research seminar of the year will take place on Tuesday 3rd May 2022 from 17:00 - 18:30 (UK Time). The seminar will take place online via Teams.

Dr Katherine McDonald (Durham) will be speaking on "Spies, tricks and disguises: looking back at multilingualism in ancient Italy".

Abstract: The Roman world was highly multilingual. Latin speakers were constantly in contact with speakers of other languages, from Etruscan, Faliscan, Umbrian and Oscan in Italy, to the Greek spoken around the coasts of the Mediterranean, to the wealth of languages they found in the empire and beyond.

This paper looks at presentations of Rome's linguistic past in Livy and other historians. From the perspective of the first century AD, when bilingualism was increasingly associated with immigration, slavery and the expanding empire, contact between Latin, Etruscan and Oscan became overlaid with different values: bilingualism itself had become a sign of possible duplicity. Etruscan was a 'dead' language associated with regal and fortune-telling powers about which the Romans felt ambivalent. The Oscan speakers of Italy's past were associated with betrayal, particularly the 'bilingual Bruttians', for their involvement in Hannibal's attack on Rome. But these languages and their speakers were also part of how Romans narrated their past and understood the history of their own language.

To receive the online event invitation please contact o.d.hodkinson@leeds.ac.uk.

Bronze Age Afghanistan (Institute of Archaeology of Afghanistan)

ARWA lectures Iran & Afghanistan 2022

Abdul Hafiz Latify (Institute of Archaeology of Afghanistan) will be speaking on "Afghanistan during the Bronze Age and the Lapis Lazuli Trade" as part of ARWA's (The International Association for Archaeological Research in Western & Central Asia) 2022 series of lectures on Iran & Afghanistan.

The lecture will take place online via Zoom. It will take place on Wednesday 4th May 2022 at 16:00 (Central Eastern Time)/18:30 (Iran Standard Time). The meeting can be joined here.

SUMMER SCHOOL

Summer School in Oriental Languages (Lausanne)

The University of Lausanne will be holding a ten-day intensive introduction to a variety of Middle Eastern and related languages of choice. This summer programme will take place from Thursday 7th - Saturday 16th July 2022. The programme will take place in person at Venice International University, Venice, Italy.

The course will be held in French and is open to all. Languages offered include Akkadian, Ancient Ethiopian, Arabic, Coptic, Phoenician and Ugaritic. A full list of languages offered and more information about the course fees are visible here.

18th April - 1st May 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES SEMINAR SERIES: TEXTUAL CULTURES IN CONTACT

We would like to thank all speakers and attendees for making our workshop on Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures a success. We will shortly be kicking off next term with a new set of talks on Textual Cultures in Contact. Please keep an eye out for further emails from us as we will be providing updates on this seminar series shortly.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Classics (Soeterbeeck)

480 BCE: Reconsidering the Chronological Anchor of Archaic and Classical Greece

International conference taking place on 23rd–26th June 2022 at the Conference Center Soeterbeeck, Ravenstein (The Netherlands)

For the history of Greece, one of the main ‘anchor’ dates is 480 BCE. In that year, the Persian armies led by king Xerxes occupied large parts of Greece. For the history of Greece, both before and after the Persian wars, the watershed of 480 has developed as one of the main anchors on which the interconnected fabric of relative dates seems to depend. The solidity of this framework is the topic of this conference. The conference brings together specialists in subdisciplines of Greek history and archaeology to share, debate, and test shifting views on the significance of 480 on the chronology of Greek history of the Archaic and Classical periods.

The organisers welcome participants to the conference on location, subject to availability. A fee of € 25 per day (€ 10 for students) to cover coffee, tea, and lunch applies. Optionally: an additional € 50 per day (€ 30 for students) for participation in the communal drinks and dinner.

If you would like to attend the conference, please contact the organisers at 480conference@gmail.com indicating your desired days of attendance and whether you would like to join the communal dinners. There are a few rooms available to stay overnight at the conference centre (€ 62.60 per night). Please indicate if you are interested in this option.

Further information can be found on the dedicated website. The website includes a link to the provisional program.

Early Manuscript Traditions (CSMC)

Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique of Multilingual Manuscript Traditions (Part 2)

Lecture Series (hybrid format)

Convenors: Caroline Macé and Eva Wilden

Multilingualism is an important feature in manuscript cultures and deserves to be studied as such. It may take different forms: influence of several languages in the process of creation of literary or documentary works or in the process of copying; translation, adaptation and reception of works in other cultures than their original one; migration of writers and manuscripts; oppression or suppression of languages and their resilience in manuscript cultures, etc. In this lecture series we will examine the specific problems posed by multilingual manuscript or epigraphic traditions, for which an adequate methodology needs to be designed.

The first session will take place on 19th April 2022, 6:00-8:00 pm (CEST), in person (Warburgstraße 26, 20354 Hamburg, 0001) and online. Harunaga Isaacson (CSMC) will present on ‘Editing the Esoteric: Challenges and Solutions in the Critical Edition of Indian Tantric Scriptures’. Sign up link and full programme can be found here

Classics (Birmingham)

Birmingham Research Seminars 2021-22, Spring semester

The Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology (CAHA) and the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies (CBOMGS) at the University of Birmingham will resume their spring research seminar series after the Easter break. All seminars will take place on zoom, and each seminar has an individual registration link. Please register with the email address that you intend to log in on the day of the seminar.

The first session will take place on 27th April, 4:00-5:30 pm (UK time). Kleanthis Mantzouranis (Edinburgh) will present on ‘Aristotle on philotimia’. Please find the registration link here. For queries please contact Dr Theodora Hadjimichael (t.hadjimichael@bham.ac.uk) or Dr Daniel Reynolds (d.k.reynolds@bham.ac.uk).

Graeco-Roman Antiquity (CSMC)

A Tale of Searching, Finding and Keeping: Archives in the Graeco-Roman World

Workshop taking place on 29th April 2022, 2:00-6:00 pm CEST, in person (Warburgstraße 26, 20354 Hamburg) and online. Sign up link can be found here.

The archiving and, thus, safekeeping of important documents was a crucial part of the administrative processes in the Greco-Roman world. To a substantial extent, this task was performed by state-run archives, working at the service of both society and individual. When researching into the various states, empires and societies of Classical antiquity, one discovers a variety of different archival systems, each adapted to the respective needs at hand. Over the past decades, modern research on ancient archives has seen significant progress due to in-depth studies into various geographical and chronological settings. In Egypt, where actual archives and their documents are preserved, the publication and analyses of large amounts of primary texts has substantially furthered our understanding of the functioning of both public and private archives. In regions and cities with less fortunate climatic conditions and, therefore, a less favourable material basis—most importantly Athens and Rome—the reconstructive work falls back on more indirect sources (literary and epigraphical) that nevertheless deliver invaluable hints at the underlying processes of archiving and safekeeping. By gathering specialists on archives from Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Asia Minor, the workshop attempts at exploring both similarities and differences in the archival practices of Greco-Roman antiquity.

Please find the full programme here.

CALL FOR PAPERS

East Asia (Taiwan-Hamburg)

Call for Papers (doctoral students): International Conference ‘Standardisation of Written Artefacts in East Asia'

17th–19th August 2022, Hamburg (Germany)

Deadline: 15th May 2022

A sequel to the 2021 conference ‘Variants/Variance – Text, Form and Material’ at National Taiwan University, which centred around aspects of variance in written artefacts, ‘Standardisation of Written Artefacts in East Asia’ shifts the perspective to the ‘other side of the coin’ and investigates pre-modern practices of regulation, unification, and standardisation in the production of written artefacts.

Understanding ‘standard’ broadly as an explicit or implicit (e.g., legal vs. customary) rule that governs the creation of written artefacts, the conference aims at approaching the topic diachronically – from the ancient to the modern period – and across East Asian cultures, focusing on artefacts bearing Chinese writing. Shedding light on the various forms and functions of standards as well as the socio-political, economic, cultural, and other settings that give rise to (or impede) them, we seek to unravel the complex dynamics in the creation and evolution of standards. Among the questions we propose to address are: How did standards come into existence and what were the practical needs behind them? Did they embrace and institutionalise former habitual practices, or were they purposefully modelled against them by an authority? Who were the agents in the formulation of standards, and how were they implemented, enforced and maintained? What new developments in writing techniques and practices did they trigger? What differences can we note between privately and officially produced artefacts? The contributions will explore a wide range of written artefacts, ranging from documents on bamboo or wood, to inscriptions on stone or bronze to manuscripts on paper, and address these and other questions pertaining to the standardisation of written artefacts in East Asia.

The conference is co-organised by the Department of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University and the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at the University of Hamburg. It will take place on 17th-19th August 2022 in Hamburg, with an optional excursion to the Turfan Studies project in Berlin on 16th August 2022. Conference languages will be English and Chinese.

To complement papers by senior scholars, we invite proposals for individual papers by doctoral students addressing any of the topics outlined above. To apply, please submit your paper proposal (up to 500 words) and a short bio (up to 150 words) in English to both thies.staack@uni-hamburg.de and ondrej.skrabal@uni-hamburg.de by 15th May 2022. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 31st May. The accommodation and travel costs will be defrayed by the CSMC.

SUMMER SCHOOL

Assyriology (Uppsala)

Digital Applications in Assyriology Nordic Summer School

Summer School taking place  on 1st-5th August 2022 at Uppsala University (Sweden). Jointly organised by the project Geomapping Landscapes of Writing (GLoW) and the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires (ANEE).

The five-day programme focuses specifically on real-world cases from the field of Assyriology and related fields presented by researchers actively engaged with ongoing and digitally oriented research projects at the organising institutions and elsewhere. Next to a solid working knowledge of digital applications and their use in the field of Assyriology, the summer school will give participating students an opportunity to meet and join in training with students from other Scandinavian countries, as well as a diverse range of scholars from universities in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and beyond. The Summer School aims to provide students in Assyriology with a working knowledge of core digital applications for the creation, curation, analysis and visualisation of digital data.

More information about eligibility and programme can be found here. Applications should be submitted as a single .pdf-document by email to rune.rattenborg@lingfil.uu.se no later than 1st May 2022 at 12:00 CEST. Questions and inquiries should be directed to Rune Rattenborg (rune.rattenborg@lingfil.uu.se) or Seraina Nett (seraina.nett@lingfil.uu.se).

4th - 17th April 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

 EARLY TEXT CULTURES REMINDERS

Gender Identities Final Workshop

Our workshop on ‘Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures’ will take place on Friday 8th April 2022 at 2:00-4:30 pm (UK Time). The event will include talks on women and gender in texts from late antique Greece and Gaul, Late Imperial China, and 16th century Japan. More information about the talks can be found on our website. To attend please fill in the form here. 

Call for Papers: Textual Cultures in Contact

Only one week left to submit an abstract for our Trinity Term 2022 seminar on ‘Textual Cultures in Contact’.  Through sessions comprising paired papers, this seminar series will enable participants and attendees alike to gain fresh perspectives on the nature of  ‘contact’ among textual cultures, and on the affordances and limitations of their fields’ methods and approaches to the topic.  For further information about submissions please see our website.

If you would like to present a 20-minute paper at one of the seminars, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words to earlytextcultures.ox@gmail.com by Monday 11th April. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Medieval Georgia (Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures - CSMC)

Informal Talk (In person) 

When: Thursday 7th April 2022 at 4:00 pm (CEST)  

Where: Warburgstraße 26, 20354 Hamburg

Maia Matchavariani (CSMC)

Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts: History of a Collection of Manuscripts and of a Scholarly Tradition

Established in 1958, NCM is one of the biggest repositories of medieval manuscripts in Georgia. It currently keeps around 10,000 Georgian manuscripts (from the 5th to the 19th century) and more than 8,000 manuscripts and historical documents in other languages, 35,000 Georgian historical documents (from the 11th to the 19th century), a papyrus collection comprising of 150 pieces (from the 3rd century BCE to the 7th century CE), early printed books (from 1629 to 1818), and more than 200 personal archives of Georgian prominent public figures of the last two centuries. 

This lecture will provide a picture of the history of this institution and its scholarly heritage. First, the most important manuscripts of all periods kept at NCM will be presented. Then the main scholarly works produced by scholars of NCM over some 60 years will be highlighted.

Classics (Shanghai Normal University)

Guangqi Classics Lecture and Seminar Series Season VIII

Sheila H. Murnaghan (University of Pennsylvania) will deliver a talk titled ‘Boastful Ajax: Verbal Transgression and Heroic Identity in Homer and Sophocles 夸口的阿亚克斯：荷马与索福克勒斯作品中的言语越界与英雄身份’. The event will take place online on 13th April 2022 at 7:00 pm (Beijing Time); it will be chaired by Shangjun Li 李尚君 (Shanghai Normal University 上海师范大学) and moderated by Chun Liu 刘淳 (Peking University 北京大学).

Please email guangqizhongxin@shnu.edu.cn or liujinyu@shnu.edu.cn to receive the link for the event. The work language is English. In the Q&A session, however, both English and Chinese will be used. Questions asked in Chinese will be translated into English. You may visit the Guangqi Lecture and Seminar Series website for information about past events.

Assyriology (Center for Middle Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley)

Knowledge in Mesopotamia and Beyond: A Tribute to Prof. Francesca Rochberg

Panel discussion taking place on 11th April 2022, 10:00 am-4:00 pm (PDT), in person at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (University of California, Berkeley 340 Stephens Hall) and online (Zoom). More information and sign up link can be found here.

Agenda:

10:00 Opening

10:15 Niek Veldhuis (UC Berkeley): Paradigm Shifts in Mesopotamian Lexicography

11:00 Jay Crisotomo (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor): The Heavenly Writing: Considering the Languages of Babylonian Astronomy

11:45 Gil Breger (UC Berkeley): About Time: Reconsidering the Role of the ziqpu-starts in MUL.APIN

12:30 Lunch

2:00 Gina Konstantopoulos (UCLA): Emotion and the Uncanny in Mesopotamia

2:45 Asad Ahmed (UC Berkeley): The Classification of Knowledge in Late Postclassical Muslim South Asia

3:00 Eduardo Escobar (University of Bologna): Embracing Uncertainty: From a Ballerina in Bloomsbury to the Babylonian Mode of Thought

3:45 Maria Mavroudi (UC Berkeley): Nineteenth- and twentieth-century attitudes toward the ancient world expressed in Arabic: North Africa, Egypt, the Levant, and Iraq

4:30 Francesca Rochberg (UC Berkeley)

5:00 Reception

Assyriology (CSMC) 

Digital Lunch Seminar Series

The Digital Lunch Seminars Series covers a broad spectrum of topics in the research of written artefacts. At CSMC and the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’, this research brings together over 40 disciplines from the humanities, natural sciences and computer science. The seminars are presented by pairs of researchers, each with their own methods and research questions about the objects they are dealing with. The seminars provide in-depth scientific knowledge on the respective topics and address all researchers within and outside the respective field of expertise.

After a short introduction to the topic by the chairperson, there will be two lectures of 20 minutes each. At the end of each session there will be time for discussion, questions and answers. If you are unable to attend one of the events, it is possible to obtain a video of the lecture from the respective speakers. 

The first session will take place on 11th April 2022, 12:00-1:00 pm (CEST). Cécile Michel (Assyriology) and Christian Schroer (Physics) will present on 'Clay Tablets - What is Hidden in Clay Envelopes'. The abstract and sign up link can be found here. 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Dead Sea Scrolls (Agder) 

The Dead Sea Scrolls as a Scholarly Phenomenon: A meta-critical analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls research

Conference taking place in person on 12th-14th December 2022 at the University of Agder, Norway.

2022 marks the 75th anniversary since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The study of the scrolls has come a long way. It is therefore a suitable moment to reflect together on the past 75 years of scholarship and ask not only what we have learned about the Scrolls, but also what we have learned and can learn about Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship, and where Dead Sea Scrolls research should go from here. What methodologies do we lean on when we conduct our research and why? What are the products of our scholarly habits? How have our methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and practices shaped our field and our understanding of the Scrolls? This conference seeks to provide a forum for critical engagement with the prevailing methods and practices in Dead Sea Scrolls research, and space to consider how alternative approaches might help reshape and renew our understanding of the Scrolls.

We welcome abstracts that engage with (but are not limited to) the following themes:

- Prevailing theories, methods, or schools of thinking in Dead Sea Scrolls studies

- Editorial practices and decision-making in Dead Sea Scrolls publications and general Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship 

- The history of nomenclature for the Dead Sea Scrolls

- Disciplinary boundaries and intersections and their influence on Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship

- Previously under-utilised approaches and how they may contribute to the field and to our understanding of the Scrolls

Abstracts of no more than 300 words and a working title should be sent to DSSphenomenon@gmail.com by 31st May 2022. The organisers also welcome proposals for other kinds of presentations, workshop sessions and/or innovative discussion spaces.

21st March - 3rd April 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: SEMINAR SERIES, READING GROUP AND WORKSHOP

ETC is very thankful to all who presented at and attended our sessions this past term (our seminar series on "Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures" and our reading group series). Please contact us (earlytextcultures.ox@gmail.com) if interested in watching any of the past recorded sessions.

We will conclude our series on "Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures" with a workshop on Friday 8th April 2022 from 14:00 - 16:30 (UK Time). To attend please fill in the form here. More information about the talks can be found on our website at https://www.earlytextcultures.org/events/current-events/final-workshop-on-gender-identities.

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: TEXTUAL CULTURES IN CONTACT SEMINAR

We invite papers for our Trinity Term 2022 seminar on ‘Textual Cultures in Contact’, which will bring together scholars whose research focus is the interactions between pre-modern textual cultures.  Through sessions comprising paired papers, this seminar series will enable participants and attendees alike to gain fresh perspectives on the nature of ‘contact’ among textual cultures, and on the affordances and limitations of their fields’ methods and approaches to the topic.   

If you would like to present a 20-minute paper at one of the seminars, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words to earlytextcultures.ox@gmail.com by Monday 11 April.

For further information about submissions please see https://www.earlytextcultures.org/events/upcoming-events.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (Oxford)

CMTC Festival: Trinity Term 2022

In celebration of the first three years of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC) and the launch of the centre’s open-access journal with its inaugural issue, Monumentalization, there will be a CMTC festival in Trinity Term 2022. Public events include the formal launch of the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures, and ‘Unravelling Manuscript Cultures’, at once a public reading of extracts of premodern poetry in translation accompanied by live music and a display of select manuscripts from different regions and times. Both events will be in a hybrid format.

The Launch of the Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures will take place on Wednesday 11th May from 17:15 - 19:00 (UK Time). It will take place in the Memorial Room, The Queen's College, Oxford. The programme is as follows:

- welcome drinks and music

- Claire Craig, Provost of The Queen's College: welcome address

- Dirk Meyer, Director of CMTC: brief report

- Adam Schwartz, Director of Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology (JAS)

- Yegot Grebnev, Production editor of MTC

- drinks and music

The event "Unravelling Manuscript Cultures" will take place on Thursday 12th May from 16:30 - 19:00 (UK Time). It will also take place in the Memorial Room, The Queen's College, Oxford. There will also be a public display of select manuscripts (curated by Matthew Shaw, Queen's) in the Magrath Room, The Queen's College, Oxford. The programme is as follows:

- welcome drinks and music

- Selena Wisnom (Leicester): Erra and Ishum lamenting the destruction of Babylon

- Tara Hathaway (Queen's): Readings of Rāmāyaṇa

- Adam Schwartz JAS (Hong Kong) and Dirk Meyer (Queen's): Songs of the States: Shi from the Anhui University manuscripts

- Henrike Lähnemann (St Edmund Hall): Latin and Low German Easter prayer book of the Cistercian nuns of Medingen Abbey

- (Short play:) The of Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, by Tony Harrison

- drinks and music

To sign up for the events, please use this link https://forms.gle/FUm3HxpZ4husYMLL7.

Bronze Age Civilizations (Beijing Normal)

Research Centre for History & Culture: Online Conference

Conference taking place online from Friday 25th - Saturday 26th March 2022.

Abstract: The phrase ‘Bronze Age’ is often seen as ushering in an era of 'social complexity' in world history. The aim of the conference is to encourage dialogue on the topic of Bronze Age civilizations from Asia, Africa, and Europe, discussing common issues of emergence, transformation, and evolution of Bronze Age cultures. It also aims to problematize the term ‘Bronze Age’ in light of recent discoveries and theoretical approaches in the scholarship, including but not limited to archaeological, anthropological, and textual approaches.

For a full schedule and to register interest please see the official website of the event. Please register for the event before Wednesday 23rd March.

War and Religion in Medieval Europe and Japan (USC-Dornsife)

Holy War symposium

Taking place in a hybrid format on Tuesday 22nd March 2022. Taking place at 10:00 - 12:30 and 14:00 - 16:00 (Pacific Daylight Time, GMT-7). To attend in-person (at Social Sciences Building SOS 250, University of Southern California-Dornsife) please RSVP at cpw@usc.edu. To attend on Zoom please register here.

Abstract: The Center for the Premodern World and the Project for Premodern Japan Studies are delighted to welcome to campus Professor Philippe Buc of Leiden University to discuss his latest research — a comparative analysis of the cultures of religion and violence in premodern Europe and Japan. Professor Buc is well known for his work on topics as varied as biblical exegesis, the history of anthropological thought, and the cultures of religious violence in the West, from Antiquity to the present. Building on the last project, he is seeking to draw together two cultures, premodern Europe and Japan, to see what each can reveal about the other. Our one-day symposium will consider his recent work and draw into the conversation Thomas Conlan, Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University and Dan Sherer, Professor of East Asian Studies at Hebrew University (both of whom will be participating remotely), as well as Joan Piggot, Gordon L. MacDonald Chair in History and Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Cultures at USC-Dornsife.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Anchoring Innovation (Leiden)

Anchoring the Invention of Writing in Ancient Societies: A Global Comparative Approach

Papers sought for a conference taking place from Thursday 15th - Saturday 17th December 2022. The conference will be held in person in Leiden but also online for those unable to travel to The Netherlands. For more information please see https://anchoringinnovation.nl/events/anchoring-innovation-in-ancient-cultures-conference-day-1.

Abstract: Central to this conference will be the anchoring of one of the biggest innovations in human history, which was invented multiple times: writing. This topic will be explored from various perspectives, including the technology and materiality of writing, as well as its uses, functions and social status. How was the groundbreaking technology of writing effectively implemented in illiterate societies? In what ways was the introduction of writing combined with non-literate administrative, juridical and social practices? Or, in the case of literate societies, how was a new script (notably the alphabet) integrated with pre-existing writing systems? How were revolutions in writing techniques and materials secured into existing scribal conventions and practices? How was this new communicative practice represented? In what ways was literacy incorporated into oral tradition, performance (poetry, oratory) and memorization? Who had access to reading and writing competencies, and hence to knowledge?

The above questions touch upon multiple disciplines (philology, archaeology, epigraphy, ancient history, philosophy, sociology) and are pertinent to ancient literate cultures and societies worldwide. The conference aims to bring together specialists from all relevant disciplines and regions to explore the various ways in which writing was ‘anchored’ in ancient societies. What kind of similarities and differences can be detected, and are these differences real or only perceived because of the disparity in sources? The comparative and interdisciplinary scope of the conference will enable us to combine and compare data from different regions and disciplines, thus deepening our understanding of how writing came to be one of the most effective and long-lasting innovations of all times.

Those interested in presenting a paper are requested to submit an abstract of c. 300-500 words with a select bibliography, as an email attachment (Word or PDF), no later than Sunday 15th May 2022 to both organizers. Selected papers will be considered for publication.

Please submit abstracts to both Dr. Willemijn Waal (w.waal@hum.leidenuniv.nl) and Prof. Ineke Sluiter (i.sluiter@hum.ledidenuniv.nl).

7th - 20th March 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: SEMINAR SERIES AND READING GROUP

ETC is thankful to all who have attended our events this term so far (our seminar series on "Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures" and our reading group series).

Our next session for the seminar series will be on the topic of Gender and Religion (Chinese popular religion; Early Buddhism and Neopythagoreanism). The speakers will be Zhujun Ma (Colorado Boulder) and Brinda Sarma (Ashoka). The session will be chaired by Maddalena Poli (UPenn). It will take place on Thursday 17th March from 16:30 - 18:00 (UK Time). Please sign up for the seminar here.

The next reading group event will be led by Flaminia Pischedda (Oxford) on the topic of "The Xici Zhuan 繫辭傳 (Part A): Textual Structure and Readership". The talk will take place on Thursday 10th March from 16:30 - 17:30 (UK Time). For online access please sign up here.

For more information on both of these currently ongoing events please see our website.

THIS FORTNIGHT’S EVENTS

Philiminality (Oxford)

In Search of Zera Yacob: call for registration

Registration is now open for the three-day conference "In Search of Zera Yacob". The conference will take place from Friday 29 April - Sunday 1 May 2022 at the Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre in Worcester College, University of Oxford in hybrid format. Please sign up here.

The speakers will be: Dr Teshome Abera (Addis Ababa Science and Technology University), Prof. Peter Adamson (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich/King's College London), Prof. Wendy Belcher (Princeton University), Mr Eyasu Berento (Kotebe Metropolitan University), Dr Chike Jeffers (Dalhousie University), Dr Ralph Lee (School of Oriental and African Studies), Prof. John Marenbon (University of Cambridge), Mr Binyam Mekonnen (Addis Ababa University), Dr Fasil Merawi (Addis Ababa University), Prof. Justin E. H. Smith (University of Paris 7 - Denis Diderot), Prof. Neelam Srivastava (Newcastle University) and Dr Anaïs Wion (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique).

Five researcher selected through CfP will also be giving papers: Mr Brooh Asmare (Mekelle University), Dr Anke Graness (University of Hildesheim), Mr Mauricio Lapchik Minski (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) and Mr Henry Straughan & Mr Michael O'Connor (University of Oxford, joint paper).

Abstracts can be found here.

The conference will be live-streamed from Worcester College; Zoom details for online attendance will be sent to registrees in late April. Health and safety advice means that we are currently unable to guarantee that in-person attendance will be possible for non-speakers, but there will be an opportunity to meet the speakers  at an in-person end-of-conference event in Oxford on Sunday 1 May 2022.

The conference is organised with the generous support of the Royal Institute of Philosophy; the Mind Association; the Aristotelian Society; the British Society for the History of Philosophy; and the Hinton Clarendon Fellowship, Worcester College.

Biodiversity in the Ancient Near East (CNR and Palermo)

Anticipated environments and/as sociocultural resources in Greco-Roman antiquity

Talk by Christopher Schliephake (Augsburg). Taking place via Zoom on Thursday 17th March 2022 from 15:00 - 16:00 (Central European Time)

Abstract: Concerned by the looming environmental and climate crisis, anxious about the state of the planet's water resources, the extinction of plant and animal species, the quality of the atmosphere, the chemical pollution of the soil and the seas, almost all the world's governments promise in their political agenda to try to remedy the environmental and climate damage caused by human beings, now considered as a geological force. Such issues may interest Ancient Near Eastern scholars, who, stimulated by the theoretical-methodological approaches of the so-called Environmental Humanities, study the ways of the inter-specific collaboration not only between humans and the more studied non-human animals but also with plants and trees, which have not been the subject of such detailed studies. The aim of this cycle of seminars promoted by the Institute of Heritage Science (CNR) and the University of Palermo is twofold: 1) to study the biodiversity of the ancient Near East and to discuss how human communities have thought about their relationships with the environment they are part of, influencing it and being conditioned by it (connectivity ontology); 2) to encourage/stimulate the creation of/to start a new research group will try to use a transdisciplinary approach, attempting to overcome the traditional dichotomy between the disciplines of 'nature' and those of 'culture'. It involves the collaboration of scholars from various fields: from archaeology to art history, from philology to history, from cultural anthropology to the history of religions, including archaeozoology, paleobotany, and paleoecology.

The event is organised by Silvana di Paolo (silvana.dipaolo@cnr.it) and Gioele Zisa (gioele.zisa@unipa.it).

To participate in the online seminar please contact the organisers for a Zoom link.

Classics (St Andrews)

Philosophy and religion in ancient Greece and the Islamic world

This one day workshop will take place in a hybrid format on Monday 25th April 2022. The event will be held in person (at School III, St Salvator's Quad, University of St Andrews) and online via MS Teams.

The event is organised by Olaf Almqvist (oha1@st-andrews.ac.uk) and Alex Long (agl10@st-andrews.ac.uk).

Please view the programme here https://events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/philosophy-and-religion-in-ancient-greece-and-the-islamic-world/.

To register please email classcon@st-andrews.ac.uk by the end of March, indicating whether you will attend in-person or online.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Cambridge Graduate Student Conference on East Asian Studies (Cambridge)

Journeys: Spiritual and Physical Experiences in East Asian Buddhism

The conference will take place from Saturday 11 June - 2022. The conference be in person in Cambridge. Due to the support of the Tzu Chi Foundation, travel costs and one-night accomodation at Cambridge will kindly be provided.

The abstract (250-300 words) should be submitted by Thursday 31st March 2022 via email to Yizhuo Li (yl752@cam.ac.uk) and Junfu Wong (jw2034@cam.ac.uk). Please include the following information in your proposal: author(s), affiliation, email address, title, keywords (up to three). The final decision will be made by Saturday 30th April 2022.

Abstract: In Buddhism, the notion of journey holds a special meaning, as it is used allegorically to refer to the path  towards nirvana, charting a passage from the world of suffering and illusion to an ideal blissful land. Buddhist  teachings provide believers with the spiritual vehicle to embark on this journey that can either be pursued  virtually inside one’s mind or in the physical world through one’s body. Since early times, many devoted  believers embarked on their pilgrimage to remote regions searching for true dharma or the truth within. These  physical journeys are recorded in hagiographies, records on pilgrimages by Buddhist monks, travel notes and  fictional stories, and depicted visually in art and historical artefacts. At the same time, the journey could also  be taken spiritually, through contemplative practices or other forms of imaginary travelling.

This conference invites graduate students based in the UK to submit proposals exploring the notion of journey.  Topics include but are not limited to:

• Meditative journey and visionary experiences in contemplation

• Pilgrimage, miracles, and ascetic experiences,

• Popular narratives, including supernatural stories and laymen accounts

• Representations of journeys in art

• The circulation of religious texts or Buddhist stories

• Gender issues regarding Buddhist journeys

• Journey of religious objects and scriptures

Submissions on topics relevant to Buddhism and/or other faiths in East Asia are also welcomed.

Definition and Redefinition of Celtic Identities in the Ancient World: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Edinburgh and Florence)

The international conference will take place in-person on two dates. It will take place in Florence on Monday 5th September 2022 and in Edinburgh on Friday 16th September 2022. However, potential hybrid and online only arrangements are being considered in light of the evershifting Covid-19 situation.

The conference is designed to bring together scholars of the Classical world and/or of the Celts, in the fields of ancient history, philology, archaeology, linguistics, and beyond, in order to gather as many perspectives as possible on the question of "Celtic identity". It is open to postgraduates and researchers at all levels of their careers and aims to open new channels of communication among fields.

Abstract: Knowledge of the so-called "Celts", of their language, and of their socio-political organisation before the Middle Ages is often partial and heavily reliant on sources later and/or non-Celtic. In particular, the influence of a Greco-Roman perspective on our interpretation of Western and Northern European peoples is substantial and potentially misleading of a true understanding of the ethnography, ethnonymy, and cultural complexity of the Celts. The very concept of "Celtic" has been explored by scholars from many research fields but still requires investigation. Furthermore, not only the tribal organisation of the "Celts" and the migratory character of their history, but also the role played by sources in their definition, invite us to a multifaceted discourse. There is thus the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Celtic "identity", or rather of Celtic "identities", to make research efforts converge.

For more information (e.g. key-note speakers and more detailed information about the abstracts sought) please see https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2022/02/02/definition-and-redefinition-of-celtic-identities-in-the-ancient-world/.

Please submit abstracts for papers (max 250 words) on the question of "identity" to andrea.pierozzi@unifi.it if you wish to participate in the Florence session. If you wish to take part in the Edinburgh session, please email G.Pasquariello@sms.ed.ac.uk. Please attach a short biography stating your name, affiliation and contact address. The deadline to submit the abstract is Monday 21st March 2022. The outcomes of selection will likely be communicated in the first week of April. For any other inquiries, please send an email to the organisers.

The Digital Orientalist's Virtual Conference 2022: Infrastructures

The deadline for abstracts (250 words) is Sunday 1st May 2022. They can be submitted here. If selected, drafts of a paper should be submitted (no more than 5 double spaced pages, or in PowerPoint format) by Saturday 11th June 2022.

The conference shall take place on Saturday 25th June 2022. It shall take place on Zoom and is dedicated to the discussion of digital research methods.

Abstract: This year the focus of the virtual conference will be "Infrastructures" in the context of digital humanities in the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Papers are invited to discuss how digital humanities research and data are organised, stored and shared; what are the considerations behind starting and coordinating DH projects; and what could institutions do to accommodate such projects.

Questions can be forwarded to the Digital Orientalist's conference organisers either through email (digitalorientalist@gmail.com) or DM on Twitter (@DigiOrientalist).

For more information please see https://digitalorientalist.com/2022/03/04/call-for-papers-the-digital-orientalists-virtual-conference-2022/

21 February - 6 March 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: SEMINAR SERIES AND READING GROUP

ETC is thankful to all who have attended our events this term so far (our seminar series on "Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures" and our reading group series).

Our next session for the seminar series will be on the topic of Women's Communities (Sufism of Kashmir; Nüguo Queendoms). The speakers will be Fayaz Ahmad (Kashmir) and Frederique Darragon (Sichuan). The session will be chaired by Flaminia Pischedda (Oxford). It will take place on Thursday 24th February from 16:30 - 18:00 (UK Time). Please sign up for the seminar here.

The next reading group event will be led by Nora Schmid (Oxford) on the topic of "Legal Paraenesis in Muḥammad's Farewell Sermon". The talk will take place on Thursday 3rd March from 16:30 - 17:30 (UK Time). For online access please sign up here.

For more information on both of these currently ongoing events please see our website.

THIS FORTNIGHT’S EVENTS

Manuscript and Text Cultures (Oxford)

Between Comedy and Tragedy. Armand Schwerner’s Tablets in the archives

The speaker will be Sean Gurd (Classics, UT Austin). Chris Metcalf (Classics, Queen's) shall chair the session.

Abstract: Beginning in the early 1960s the American poet Armand Schwerner began producing translations of what he called “Sumero-Akkadian Tablets,” complete with introductions and commentary by a “Scholar-Translator.” These Tablets, which Schwerner would continue to produce until his death in 1999, purported to excavate the deepest and earliest strata of human culture, conjuring with the emergence of the self, the discovery of the difference between self and world, and the invention of language and writing. In his final Tablets, Schwerner used newly-available personal computers and font software to render what the Scholar-Translator describes as the earliest writing system in the history of humanity. These translations had no originals. Nor did the “Scholar-Translator” who so assiduously presented and commented on them exist: he, too, was entirely a fiction. But the Tablets were not a hoax or a forgery. Rather, the Tablets used philological practice as a stage for the exploration of themes such as the nature of the self and its relation to the world.

The Tablets pose compelling questions for those involved in the study of historical languages and texts. Since the work takes the form of a scholarly translation or previously unedited texts, it plays with transmuted versions of techniques long associated with more institutionally acceptable forms of philology. My aim in this project is to elicit from the Tablets a renewed sense of what philology could be, taking the risk that redemptive possibilities may be present in even the strangest, most ludic spaces. Mirroring the Tablets’ fictional mise-en-scène, my work has focused on the traces of Schwerner’s life and work as these are preserved in his personal papers, archived at the University of California, San Diego.

The session is taking place on Zoom on Wednesday 23rd February at 17:15 - 18:45 (UK Time). Please sign up here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScAuN_h4etQOhtylocXqkhhvQKYJsF3f3grXH36SH_nK8nMdw/viewform. The Zoom link will be sent to attendees the day before the talk.

Philology in Our Time (Academia Sinica)

Revisiting the History of Daoism through Early Chinese Scriptures (shu 書）

Talk by Yegor Grebnev (Beijing Normal). The discussant will be Mark Csikszentmihalyi (California, Berkeley).

Abstract: This talk focuses on the previously ignored connection between the Warring States scriptures (shu 書) and Daoism, particularly the esoteric textual traditions commonly identified with “religious Daoism”. Although Daoism is still commonly described as a tradition of detached philosophical speculation (as a philosophy) and innocent otherworldly fantasies (as a religion), the groundbreaking works of Anna Seidel have highlighted its political dimension reflected in the continuing preoccupation with royal legitimacy. However, Seidel shared the conventional opinion that the history of Daoism as a religious tradition only begins in the Eastern Han, and the sources examined by her belong to the medieval period. In this talk, I shall demonstrate that Seidel’s observations can be extended to the Western Han and the Warring States periods, and the precursors of Daoist esoteric textual traditions can be identified in the scriptural (shu) texts, preserved today in such collections as the Shang shu 尚書 and the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書.

The event will take place online via Zoom on Friday 25th February from 21:00 - 22:30 (Taipei Time, UTC+8). Please register here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTzGs70VRLktaT2CEGxt4fgITcx4c-43-eabROleJWmq2vwA/viewform.

COURSES

Dream Lab 2022 (Pennsylvania)

East Asian Studies and Digital Humanities

An introductory course to the use of digital humanities tailored towards East Asian studies, covering topics such as corpus presentation and text analysis, OCR, IIF, network analysis and digital resources relevant to materials in East Asian languages. The course will take place from Monday 13th - Thursday 16th June 2022.

Please register here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiFErLTjuGm_IwlYUEqSIY58LCGvQPJC2PDygLncPl2NzuOg/viewform before Monday 14th March at 20:00 (EST)

More information about the event can be found here https://web.sas.upenn.edu/dream-lab/east-asian-studies-and-digital-humanities-2022/.

CALL FOR PAPERS

American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) Annual Meeting

Archaeology of Jordan

Abstracts are welcomed for the ASOR Standing Session "Archaeology of Jordan" at the Annual Meeting. There will be both in-person and online components. The online component will take place from Wednesday 19th - Sunday 23rd October 2022. The in-person component will take place from Wednesday 16th - Saturday 19th November 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The chairs will be Marta D'Andrea (Sapienza University of Rome) and M. Barbara Reeves (Queen's). This session is open to research from any period relating to the Archaeology of Jordan.

The deadline for the submissions of abstracts is Tuesday 15th March 2022. Abstracts (max 250 words) must be submitted electronically through ASOR’s Abstracts Online Management System through the links available on the page of the ASOR Meeting call for papers

(https://www.asor.org/am/2022/call-for-papers-2022) and selecting "Archaeology of Jordan” in the session field. Please find general instructions on individual abstract submission and guidelines on the content and format of abstracts at the link provided above.

For any further questions on the session please email the chairs, Marta D'Andrea (marta.dandrea@uniroma1.it) and M. Barbara Reeves (reevesb@queensu.ca)

Save Ancient Studies Alliance

SASA second annual public virtual conference: Opening the Ancient World

The conference will take place from Sunday 14th - Monday 15th August 2022. Papers are welcomed addressing the question of "Who Has the Power? Leaders and Leadership in the Ancient World".

The conference aims to give a platform for scholars who normally do not have an opportunity to present and engage with scholarship such as:

- those who completed a PhD and are now professionals in other fields

- those who left PhD programs, or have had to take time out of their studies

- contingent faculty

- academics from marginalized groups

- clergy members

- teachers, professors, and staff from K-12 schools, community colleges, and public

humanities institutions

- cultural resource management professionals

- independent scholars

More details about the conference can be found here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KBq9hHUYtsgprhdvz30Pc5FJ3o3qfbcI/view.

The deadline for abstracts is Saturday 30th April 2022. Abstracts should be submitted via the following online form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbQeh1_3bz1qZX7zhSlClaSIfqoN8Pv8f6XBTlUYEonVA-yg/viewform.  For more information, please contact conference@saveancientstudies.org.

7 –21 February 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES: SEMINAR SERIES AND READING GROUP

ETC is thankful to all who have attended our events this term so far (our seminar series on "Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures" and our reading group series).

Our next session for the seminar series will be on the topic of Gender and Justice (Hellenistic Greece; Late Imperial China). The speakers will be Elisa Daga (Pisa and Siena) and Mengdie Zhao (Harvard). The session will be chaired by Mary Hitchman (Oxford). It will take place on Thursday 10th February from 16:30 - 18:00 (UK Time). Please sign up for the seminar here.

The next reading group event will be led by Adam Hexley (Cambridge) on the topic of "Hypermetric Lines in Beowulf". The talk will take place on Friday 18th February from 16:30 - 17:30 (UK Time). For online access please sign up here.

For more information on both of these currently ongoing events please see our website.

THIS FORTNIGHT'S EVENTS

Manuscript and Text Cultures (Oxford)

Postgraduate lunchtime colloquium

Eleanor Baker (St John's College, Oxford) will be speaking on "Lydgate's Defamiliarizing Material Texts". Thomas Laver (St John's College, Cambridge) will be speaking on "Commercially active monasticism in the papyrus archives from Byzantine Aphrodito".

The colloquium is taking place on Zoom on Tuesday 8th February at 12:30 - 14:00 (UK Time). Please sign up here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScliGXA45MNWRnls4Toeywy0Tlu9jeP0Qa6-o6VaeF_XwWB2w/viewform. The Zoom link will be sent to attendees the day before the talk.

Ryukyuan Archaeology (Kyushu)

Archaeology re-writes the history of the Ryukyu Islands

Talk by Mark Hudson (Max Planck Institute). This event is part of the “Reiterations of the Past” project, made possible by a Kyushu University Progress 100 Strategic Partnership grant.

Abstract:  Across the world, most small islands were first settled by humans after the adoption of agriculture. The Ryukyu islands stretching between Kyushu and Taiwan were one exception, with a long settlement by hunter-gatherers first beginning around 30,000 years ago and continuing thereafter, at least in intermittent stages. The adoption of farming in the Ryukyus only occurred around AD 1000, making it one of the last places in temperate or sub-tropical Eurasia to adopt farming. Since the first written documents produced in the Ryukyus only date to the sixteenth century, archaeology plays an important role in understanding the history of the Islands and new discoveries in recent years have revolutionised the field. This talk will discuss new findings and research from the Palaeolithic to the nineteenth century, based in part on the speaker’s own fieldwork.

Taking place on Zoom on Thursday 10th February at 18:00 (Japan Standard Time). Please register here https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsf-igrTgvHdf1bJM8mhY8uWgBYccZ5TjD.

Jewish Studies (UCL)

Rabbinic Rabies and Rabid Rabbis – the ‘Mad Dog’ in Talmudic Texts

Talk by Lennart Lehmhaus (Institute for Jewish Studies, Tübingen). Taking place on Wednesday 9th February from 18:00 - 19:00 (UK Time).

Abstract:

This lecture will discuss some significant passages from the early (Mishnah/Tosefta) and late (Palestinian/Babylonian Talmud) rabbinic traditions of late antiquity that deal with so-called “mad dogs” (kelev shote). The texts introduce different classifications or taxonomies of this condition and elaborate on theoretical and practical knowledge about appropriate cures and remedies. These therapeutic advices, embedded in a religious-normative discourse, contain unexpected and sometimes puzzling details and terminology. Moreover, they display conceptual structures and literary techniques that point to a certain familiarity with technical or epistemic genres (e.g. recipes, diagnosis, incantations), while deploying also traditional rabbinic discursive forms.

The regionally diverse Talmudic texts from Palestine and Babylonia seem to reflect different assumptions and medical approaches of their surrounding cultures. The analysis will shed some light on possible interactions with and transfers of medical and cultural concepts from ancient Graeco-Roman, Byzantine-Christian, Mesopotamian, and Persian-Zoroastrian traditions. Moreover, the discussion will provide some keys to the specific ways in which the rabbis adopted, integrated and authorized such knowledge.

The talk will take place online. To register and for further information please see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rabbinic-rabies-and-rabid-rabbis-the-mad-dog-in-talmudic-texts-tickets-239446389597.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Perspectives of Classical Archaeology International Postgraduate Conference 2022 (Charles University, Prague)

Border Zones- Meeting Places in the Ancient World

The conference will take place from Monday 11th - Tuesday 12th April 2022. It is traditionally aimed at postgraduate and doctoral students. The conference will take place in person at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

Keynote lectures will be given by Prof. Dr. Naoíse Mac Sweeney (Universität Wien) and Dr. Francesco Iacono (Università di Bologna). The conference is organised by Peter Pavúk, Marek Verčík, Elena Paralovo, Arianna Zapelloni Pavia, Zuzana Kroutilová Jamrichová and Jozef Souček.

Abstracts (in English) of 150 - 300 words should be sent before Monday 28th February 2022 to pecla.conference@ff.cuni.cz. Please send further enquiries to this same email address before the deadline.

For more information please see https://ukar.ff.cuni.cz/cs/2022/01/18/pecla-2022-border-zones-meeting-places-in-the-ancient-world/.

Sinology- Algorithms, Prognostics, and Statistics (Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Biographies of Numbers

The deadline for call for papers for this previously advertised conference has been extended to Monday 28th February 2022. Abstracts on premodern China are welcomed. The conference will take place from Thursday 7th - Saturday 9th July 2022.

For more information please see https://www.sin-aps.fau.de/files/2021/12/call-for-papers-final.pdf.

24 January–7 February 2022

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES SEMINAR SERIES:

GENDER IDENTITIES IN EARLY AND PREMODERN TEXT CULTURES 

ETC is pleased to present the following seminar series in Hilary Term (February and March 2022), which will be on Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures. The seminar will be held in a hybrid form, with Zoom connection complementing a limited on-site presence at the Dickson Poon Building (China Centre, Oxford), Lucina Ho Seminar Room, on Thursdays 16:30–18:00 UK Time. Auditors are most welcome to attend in person. Zoom links will be provided on the day of each session to those who sign up.

The first session will take place in week three on Thursday 3rd February. The session will be on 'Sexuality and Gendered Hierarchy: Old Babylonian Sumerian Poetry; Ming-Qing Literature'. The speakers will be Christie Carr (Oxford) and Julie Chan (Oxford), with Tasha Downs (Edinburgh) as the chair.

EARLY TEXT CULTURES READING GROUP 

In addition to the research seminar, ETC is proud to launch a reading group series that will take place in Hilary Term (February and March 2022). The four sessions of the series will be held in a hybrid form as well, with Zoom participants complementing the on-site presence at the Dickson Poon Building (China Centre, Oxford), Ho Tim or Lucina Ho Seminar Room, at 16:30-17:30 UK Time. Auditors are most welcome to attend in person. Those who are interested to join online can subscribe here.

The first session will take place in week three on Wednesday 2nd February. Dr Laura Massetti (Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies/University of Oxford) will present on 'The Sun, the Wheel, a Wife and Her Chariot: On the Gender Differentiation of the IE Sun-deity in Vedic, Baltic and Greek'. Please see the full programme and abstracts for the reading group here.

THIS FORTNIGHT’S EVENTS

Classical and Byzantine Studies (Oxford):

Numismatic Lectures

Series of talks held by the Oxford University Numismatic Society. This term's talks will be held both in person in Basement Room 42 at the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies and online over MS Teams.

Dr. Daniel Wolf shall be presenting the first session on the topic of 'Mass Numismatics'. This session will be online over MS Teams.  It will take place on Tuesday 8th February at 17.00 UK Time.

To register for this talk and others in the series, please email the secretary of the Oxford University Numismatic Society at daniel.etches@new.ox.ac.uk.

Premodern Japanese Religion Workshop:

Provincial Developments in the History of Shugendō: Part 1 Dewa

A two day workshop from Saturday 29th (00.00 to 02.15 UK Time) - Sunday 30th January (00.00 to 02.30 UK Time). The main language of the workshop will be Japanese, however informal English translations of the presentations will be provided alongside impromptu translation in the Q&A portions. The workshop will be held online via Zoom.

Please register interest by 23.00 UK Time on Wednesday 26th January, using the following Google form: https://forms.gle/tos5d8uGkt4S52hV6. The Zoom link will be sent out the day before the workshop.

If you have any questions, please contact Akiko Walley (awalley@uoregon.edu).

Manuscript Cultures (Hamburg):

Permanent Seminar on forms of manuscripts and their description: rolled-up manuscripts

Nachiket Chanchani (Ann Arbor) will be speaking on 'Astrological and genealogical scrolls of western India'. Anna Boroffka (Hamburg) will be speaking on 'Mexican amatl paper and parchment scrolls'.

The session will take place online on Monday 14th February from 14.30 - 16.00 Central European time.

For registration link please see: https://www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/written-artefacts/working-groups/permanent-seminar/semiar-series2.html. For more information, please contact Christina Kaminski.

Language of Papyri (Ghent):

New Light from the East. Linguistic Perspectives on Non-Literary Papyri and Related Sources

The conference will be held from Wednesday 2nd - Friday 4th February. The conference will begin on Wednesday at 9.00 Central European Time.

For a list of abstracts for the event please see: https://www.newlightfromtheeast.ugent.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Book-of-Abstracts-1.pdf

Registration information for the event can be found on this page: https://www.newlightfromtheeast.ugent.be/registration/

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Center for Ancient Studies at the University of Pennsylvania:

13th annual Graduate Student Conference, ‘Borders and Boundaries in the Ancient World’

The conference will be held in person at the University of Pennsylvania from Friday 29th - Saturday 30th April 2022. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Solange Ashby (UCLA).

Please send abstracts of up to 250 words for a 20 minute presentation in PDF format to cas.upenn@gmail.com no later than Friday 18th February 2022. Please include your name and institutional affiliation in the body text of your email. Notifications will be given to all applicants in early March.

For further details about the call for papers please see: https://www.facebook.com/CASPenn/

Mid Sweden University and Södertörn University:

Sino-Indo-Hellenica 2022

Proposals for papers are invited for an online conference taking place on Tuesday 24th - Wednesday 25th May 2022.

The conference shall explore the development of political thought and philosophy in the ancient world from a global point of view. It aims to bring together an international group of scholars working in the fields of Sino-Hellenic, Indo-Hellenic and/or Sino-Indian Studies. Presentations on a wide range of subjects relating to the origins and early development of political thought, theory and philosophy are welcome. The papers should explore their subjects from a cross-cultural and comparative perspective.

All scholars who are interested in the topic of the conference are encouraged to apply. Please submit abstracts of no more than 400 words by Thursday 31st March 2022 to Otto Linderborg (otto.linderborg@miun.se) or to Charlotta Weigelt (charlotta.weigelt@sh.se)

The speakers will be given the opportunity to publish revised versions of their papers, either in a special issue of the journal Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia or as part of a book in the series ‘Ancient Languages and Civilizations’, published by Brill.

Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of Canada:

Classical Association of Canada Women's Network - 'In Women's Words: Retelling Ancient Narratives'

For this panel, submissions are welcome on how women's retellings in modern media use ancient narratives to examine and expand the ancient and modern experiences of all those who identify as women.

All scholars and graduate students who are interested in the topic are warmly encouraged to apply. The Women's Network is a group of scholars and students who are interested in the advancement of scholarship on ancient gender, and support women's academic careers in Classical Studies. Membership in the CAC is required for participation. Graduate students should send a note of support from their supervisor along with their abstract.

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words with relevant bibliography by Monday 7th February 2022 to Chelsea Gardner, Women's Network Secretary <chelsea.gardner@acadiau.ca> and to the conference email address <cac2022@groups.uwo.ca>. Please indicate in your email if you would like to have your abstract considered for the regular sessions, if it is not included in the Women's Network panel.

Please see https://www.uwo.ca/classics/news/conferences/cac2022.html for more information.

10–24 January 2022

Happy New Year to all. We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. It is also now possible to view this current edition and past newsletters here.

EARLY TEXT CULTURES SEMINAR SERIES:

GENDER IDENTITIES IN EARLY AND PREMODERN TEXT CULTURES

We would like to thank all speakers, chairs and attendees for making our series of seminars and stand-alone conference on Scribal Identity and Agency a success. We will shortly be kicking off the year with our next set of talks on Gender Identities in Early and Premodern Text Cultures. Please keep a look out for further emails from us as we will be providing updates on this seminar series shortly.

THIS WEEK’S EVENTS

Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (Oxford):

CMTC ‘work in progress’ lunchtime colloquium

Yegor Grebnev (BNU-HKBU United International College) will be speaking on "Classification of Texts in Manuscript Culture. Examples from early China". Vishal Sharma (Oxford) will be speaking on "What Is the True Story? Reading practices for reconciling diversity in the Sanskrit epic tradition".

Taking place on Zoom on Tuesday 25th January at 12.30 – 14.00 (UK Time).

Please register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfKZ8KGagwiCWL42W6LIgzrFZUi5pWZh_9txzJGhIFwZCI09Q/viewform

Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique of Multilingual Manuscript Traditions (Hamburg):

Lexicographic manuscripts and practices in Middle Ages: From Greek to Latin and vice versa

Multilingualism is an important feature in manuscript cultures and deserves to be studied as such. It may take different forms: influence of several languages in the process of creation of literary or documentary works or in the process of copying; translation, adaptation and reception of works in other cultures than their original one; migration of writers and manuscripts; oppression or suppression of languages and their resilience in manuscript cultures, etc. In this lecture series we will examine the specific problems posed by multilingual manuscript or epigraphic traditions, for which an adequate methodology needs to be designed.

Talk by Dr Stefano Valente. Taking place at Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Warburgstraße 26, 20354 Hamburg on Tuesday 11 January 2022 from 18:15 to 19:45 (Central European Time).

To register, please contact merryl.rebello@uni-hamburg.de

History of Art & Archaeology (SOAS):

The Ramayaṇa Imagined on the 9th Century Kamakṣamma Temple at Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu: A Visual Translation

Talk by Dr Laxshimi Greaves (Research Associate, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff). Taking place in a hybrid format on Wednesday 12th January from 18:00 - 20:00 (UK time). Please contact Dr Mehreen Chida-Razvi at indianartcircle.london@gmail.com for more information.

Archaeology and History of the Roman World (Newcastle):

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: New Views & Reflections on Hadrian's Wall Conference

As part of the celebrations of the 1900th anniversary of the construction of Hadrian’s Wall, the Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project (WallCAP) is hosting a conference that celebrates the scholarship of Hadrian’s Wall and how it connects to the archaeology and history of the Roman world more generally.

Taking place in the Armstrong Building, University of Newcastle from Friday 28th- Sunday 30th January 2022. For information on itineraries/registration please see https://wallcap.ncl.ac.uk/mirrormirroronthewallconference/

Greek Tragedy (Oxford):

Seminar Series on Interpolation in Greek Tragedy

Weekly series running from Thursday 20th January – Thursday 10th March at 17.15 – 18.45 (UK Time). The seminars are organised by Almut Fries and Gabriele Rota. Sessions take place online via Zoom. For more information and to register please visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfLFb9WkrFGUXfAZwomho-_qtqoARrWoEVNAb6zgEa-251lWQ/viewform

CALLS FOR PAPERS

Premodern Otherness (Aarhus):

Otherness: Essays & Studies special issue on 'Premodern Otherness: Encounters with and Expressions of the Other in Classical Antiquity, Medieval, and Early Modern Periods'

Otherness: Essays and Studies publishes research articles from and across different scholarly disciplines that critically examine the concepts of Otherness and alterity. We particularly appreciate dynamic cross-disciplinary study.

This special issue will focus on representations and ideas of Otherness in classical antiquity, medieval, and early modern periods. Confrontations with and distinctive conceptualizations of Otherness were also present in the premodern era. The papers in this issue will focus on the different ways in which Otherness was expressed in thought, representations, and processes during this period. This can include but is not limited to, philosophical or literary works, material culture, historiography, treatises, etc.

The deadline for submission is Tuesday 1st February 2022. Submissions should be submitted to guest editor Bregje Hoed at Otherness.research@gmail.com

For more information please see https://otherness.dk/journal/call-for-papers

Sinology- Algorithms, Prognostics, and Statistics (Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Biographies of Numbers

Abstract: We invite proposals for a conference which will explore the life of numerically framed knowledge from a global historical perspective on quantification. It is based on the assumption that numbers have their own biographies and are not simply the objective reflection of reality but socially, politically, culturally, and historically constructed knowledge and at the same time powerful agents which represent, transform, and recreate individual lives, social worlds, political spheres, nature, or other entities. Following the global trajectory of a single number from its production and global dissemination to the divergent narratives surrounding its numerical value, we aim to analyze the stabilizing and destabilizing impact of numbers on individual and collective practices and imaginaries. We will limit ourselves to “scientific numbers”, i.e. those that are grounded on quantitative knowledge and method, yet our notion of “number” is also to be understood more broadly, including indicators, formulas, and statistics as well. 

Abstracts on premodern China are welcomed. For more information please see https://www.sin-aps.fau.de/files/2021/12/call-for-papers-final.pdf

The conference will take place from Thursday 7- Saturday 9 July 2022. The deadline for abstracts is Monday 31 January 2022.

6–20 December 2021

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

EARLY TEXT CULTURES CONFERENCE: SCRIBAL IDENTITY AND AGENCY

We are pleased to announce an online conference to conclude our research seminar series on Scribal Identity and Agency. The conference will take place from Thursday 16th December 2021 (16.00-18.45) -  Friday 17th December 2021 (16.45-19.30). Times provided are in UK Time. It will include talks on the Late Bronze Age city of Ugarit, ancient Rome, medieval Christianity and Islam, and monastic communities in early modern Ethiopia and Tibet.

Speakers: Dr Philip Boyes (Cambridge), Dr Benjamin Hartmann (Zurich), Prof Elaine Treharne (Stanford), Dr Vevian Zaki (Oxford), Prof Brenton Sullivan (Colgate), Dr Denis Nosnitsin (Hamburg)

For registration links and full programme, please visit our website.

THIS WEEK’S EVENTS

Greco-Roman Theatre (Hamburg):

The Greco-Roman Theatre as Inscribed Space: Online Workshop

Abstract: Theatres in the ancient Greek polis were multifunctional buildings used for public assemblies deciding on the political fate of the city as well as for religious festivities, contests, and spectacles. The renovation that many Greek theatres underwent in imperial times shows their ongoing importance throughout the centuries for inhabitants and foreigners alike. Thus, the inscriptions at the theatre had a large potential and heterogeneous audience. They represent agents of different social statuses, extremely powerful as well as uncelebrated, groups as well as single persons. Moreover, they reflect a wide range of social practices beyond attending theatrical performances. Therefore, we assume a close relationship between the physical space of the theatre, the agents acting there, and their inscriptions. The workshop explores this relationship using the example of various Greco-Roman theatres.

Online on Thursday 9th December 2021 - Friday 10th December 2021.

For registration link and times, please email christina.kaminski@uni-hamburg.de

Sino-Hellenic Philosophy (Bern):

Sino-Hellenic Environmental Philosophy: A Comparative Perspective on Environmental Thought in Early China and Graeco-Roman Antiquity

Organised at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Bern, Switzerland

Via Zoom on Thursday 9th December - Sunday 12th December

Please register here: https://unibe-ch.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Evce2qrTkoG9dr_znBgHJ1_jKJgKSQMLWZ 

Classics (Edinburgh):

Figures of empire: Images of Aethiopian boys and the sexual economy of imperial slavery

Talk by Prof Sinclair Bell (Northern Illinois University). Via Microsoft Teams on Wednesday 8th December 17.00 (UK Time). Please contact Dr Benjamin Harriman (Benjamin.Harriman@ed.ac.uk) for access.

East Asian histories (Pennsylvania):

University of Pennsylvania 2022 East Asian Studies Graduate Conference (Innovation, Fabrication, Conversation: Responding to the Past(s) of East Asian Cultures)

Abstract: As the cultural and discursive landscape of and about East Asia shifts in the 21st century, memories, legacies, and ideas of the past have become sites of layered, competing claims. The variety of interpretations and interventions demonstrate how narratives of the ‘past’ are not past but continue to develop and shape contemporary politics and culture in East Asia. Given the salience of the past to current issues in the field, we are organizing our conference around the following question: how have ‘pasts’ been constructed and understood in and about East Asia?

Papers from graduate students are welcomed that examine the processes and effects of present interventions into narratives of the past. How is 'the past' activated, understood, theorized, and responded to? What kinds of cultural media (images, texts, musical compositions, etc.), symbols, bodies of knowledge are (re)adapted, (re)translated, and (re)circulated? Which individuals, places, and processes are canonized; which are not? How has this shaped our academic field, and transnational conversations beyond it?

Examples of acceptable topics include, but are not limited to, 1) debates about historical canon (e.g. textbooks) 2) representations of the past in popular media and how commodification of the past influence popular understandings 3) efforts by institutions or movements to redefine, restore, or repress certain histories, and the purported reasons and effects 4) how the built environment is shaped to conserve, complicate, or erase narratives of the past 5) the processes of creating literary, cultural, and artistic archives and canons 6) shifting conceptualizations of peoplehood/personhood, and their relation to citizenship and belonging 7) legacies of colonialism and imperialism, and efforts to redress or resist recognizing past atrocities 8) the effects of digitization, digital technologies, and social media on access, and contributions to, narratives of the past 9) how the field of East Asian studies has itself been shaped by historical and transhistorical forces.

Papers are welcomed from graduate students of any discipline, so long as they address the theme and are relevant to East Asian studies broadly speaking.

Please email abstract proposals of no more than 300 words to ealcgradcon@gmail.com. The deadline for submission is Tuesday 21st December 2021.

The conference will be held in person in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday 16th April 2022.  

22 November –5 December 2021

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

THIS FORTNIGHT’S EVENTS

Greek, Hebrew and Mesopotamian literature (Oxford):

Comparative Philology: Talking across Cultures (The Hebrew Bible Old Testament Online Seminar) 

Special in-person session with Paul Collins (Oriel): Exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum

In person on Monday 29th November at 14:30 – 16:30 UK Time.

Eventbrite registration:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/comparative-philology-talking-across-cultures-tickets-170457773790

Classics (UCL):

The ERC Project FFRAnt (The Fragments of the Roman Republican Antiquarians): 'The etymology of the Roman antiquarians: theory and methods' by Dr Federica Lazzerini

Abstract: It is now recognised that ancient Roman antiquarians frequently resorted to etymology as a research tool. While these scholars did not typically participate in the philosophical debates on the origin of names and their relation to things, it can be inferred that they assumed that Latin names had been assigned to things by the Romans’ ancestors and reflected the beliefs that they had held about those things. Such ideas underpin the etymologies of the Stoics, who were notoriously fond of this practice, but they were first theorised by Plato in the Cratylus. The etymologies given by Plato, the Stoics, and the Roman antiquarians all reveal a similar method—or rather, lack thereof: words are treated like strings of letters that can be manipulated with little or no constraints. This is interesting because, in late Republican Rome, superior etymological methods were available which had been developed in other traditions, yet it was the Platonic-Stoic approach that became canonical in antiquarian studies. In this paper, I make some considerations about the common ground shared by antiquarianism and Stoic philosophy and reflect on what that indicates of the motivations and biases underlying the investment of certain scholars in Roman antiquities.

In a hybrid format on Tuesday 23rd November at 16:30 – 18:00 UK Time. At University College London, History Department.

To receive the zoom link please email frrant@ucl.ac.uk

Classics (Rome):

American Academy in Rome: Classical Summer School 2022

The 2022 Classical Summer School is a five-week programme that is designed to provide qualified graduate students, middle school, high school, and post-secondary teachers with a well-founded understanding of the growth and development of the city of Rome through a careful study of material remains and literary sources. Exceptional undergraduate applicants will be considered in rare circumstances. 

School director: Sanjaya Thakur (associate professor and chair of the Department of Classics at Colorado College)

In person (Rome) from Monday 20th June to Friday 22nd July 2022.

The deadline to apply is Wednesday 15th December 2021. Scholarships are available. Applicants will be notified of acceptance into the programme by the end of January 2022; AAR scholarships will be awarded by the end of March 2022.

For more information and to apply, please visit: https://www.aarome.org/apply/academic-programs/2022-classical-summer-school.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology

The organisers of the 10th annual Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology warmly invite all UK, European and overseas students whose research relates to the ancient world (including Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology as well as Anatolian Studies, Biblical Studies, Classics, and Egyptology) to join them in Oxford (or online) for a two-day conference at Wolfson College on 1-2 April 2022 on the theme: Liminality and Hybridity in the Ancient Near East and Beyond. The deadline for abstracts is 28th January 2022.

For more information, and to keep up to date with the OPCA, please see their website: https://oxfordassyriology.wordpress.com/, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/opcassyriology/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/opcassyriology.

https://oxfordassyriology.wordpress.com/, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/opcassyriology/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/opcassyriology. 

4th Symposium on West African Languages (SyWAL2022)- Uniformity, Variability, Diversity

SyWAL2022 targets all aspects of studies on African languages spoken in West Africa and West African languages used elsewhere. Papers are welcomed discussing the topics related (but not limited) to the following research areas: descriptive linguistics of individual languages, typology and comparative linguistics, sociolinguistics, contact phenomena, cultural linguistics, computational linguistics, gestures and sign languages, discursive variants and language registers. The symposium will take place on the premises of the University of Naples "L'Orientale" from Wednesday 21st September to Friday 23rd September 2022. The working language of the Symposium is English.

Organisers: Gian Claudio Batic (Naples: L'Orientale) and Valentina Schiattarella (Hamburg)

Scientific Committee: Sergio Baldi (Naples: L'Orientale), Gian Claudio Batic (Naples: L'Orientale), Abdourahmane Diallo (Goethe University Frankfurt), Nina Pawlak (Warsaw), Anne Storch (Cologne), Georg Ziegelmeyer (Vienna).

Important dates:

Call for Panels: Thursday 4th November 2021

Deadline for Panel Proposals: Saturday 15th January 2022

Call for Papers: Tuesday 1st March 2022

Deadline for Abstract Submissions: Sunday 15th May 2022

Notification of acceptance: Wednesday 15th June 2022

Please contact sywal2022@unior.it for more information

8 – 21 November 2021

We are pleased to announce another edition of our bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers. 

THIS WEEK’S EVENTS

Greek, Hebrew and Mesopotamian literature (Oxford):

Comparative Philology: Talking across Cultures (The Hebrew Bible Old Testament Online Seminar) 

Convenors: Paul Collins (Oriel College, Oxford), Bruno Currie (Oriel College, Oxford), Hindy Najman (Oriel College, Oxford).

Via Zoom on Monday 8th October at 14:30 – 16:30 UK Time.

Prof. Eckart Frahm (Yale)  

‘Investigating the First Murder: The Mesopotamian Background of the Cain and Abel Story’

Respondents: Daniel Fleming (New York University) and Constanze Güthenke (Corpus Christi, Cambridge)

Eventbrite registration:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/comparative-philology-talking-across-cultures-tickets-170457773790

Greek, Jewish and Christian Mediterranean Reading practices (Oxford):

Reading In and Out of Order in the Roman Mediterranean: A Workshop with Prof. C. Michael Chin (California) and Prof. Anne Marie Luijendijk (Princeton) 

Via Zoom on Thursday 11th November at 16:30 – 18.30 UK Time. 

Please email jeremiahcoogan@theology.ox.ac.uk to register and receive Zoom information.

Ancient Philosophy (Oxford):

Ancient Women Philosophers: Key Findings and Methodological Considerations by Katharine O'Reilly (X University) and Caterina Pellò

In this talk, Katharine O'Reilly and Caterina Pellò will discuss their exciting forthcoming book, Ancient Women Philosophers: Recovered Ideas and New Perspectives.The talk is jointly organized by Philiminality Oxford and the Oxford Philosophy Faculty’s Women’s Student Representative, Lara Scheibli.

Via Zoom on Thursday 2nd December at 12.00 - 13.30 UK Time.

Please register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEwcfEJIBcX7JdG_EHqVmdv-YC3hj77mLkyi1IQ85kdaYvFw/viewform

Manuscript Cultures (Hamburg):

Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique of Multilingual Manuscript Traditions

Convenors: Caroline Macé (Hamburg) and Eva Wilden (Hamburg)

Via Zoom on Tuesday 16th December at 18.15 - 19.45 Central European Time .  

Please register here: https://www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/en/register-seminar3

Texts within the Material World: Assemblages, Contexts, Networks in Ancient Societies from Africa to Asia

Organised by: Marilina Betrò, Jesper Eidem, Michael Friedrich, Cécile Michel, Gianluca Miniaci (Università di Pisa, Universität Hamburg, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures)

Via Microsoft Teams on Wednesday 1st December - Friday 3rd December

Please register here: https://bit.ly/3lJexRY

Sino-Hellenic Philosophy (Bern):

Sino-Hellenic Environmental Philosophy: A Comparative Perspective on Environmental Thought in Early China and Graeco-Roman Antiquity

Organised at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Bern, Switzerland

Via Zoom on Thursday 9th December - Sunday 12th December

Please register here: https://unibe-ch.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Evce2qrTkoG9dr_znBgHJ1_jKJgKSQMLWZ

25 October - 7 November 2021

We are pleased to announce a new bi-monthly newsletter highlighting events that might be of interest to our subscribers.

THIS WEEK’S EVENTS

Greek, Hebrew and Mesopotamian literature (Oxford):

Comparative Philology: Talking across Cultures (The Hebrew Bible Old Testament Online Seminar) 

Convenors: Paul Collins (Oriel College, Oxford), Bruno Currie (Oriel College, Oxford), Hindy Najman (Oriel College, Oxford).

Via Zoom on Monday 25th October at 14:30 – 16:30 UK Time.

Prof. Martin Worthington (Trinity College, Dublin)  

‘Mesopotamian Orality and Performance’

Respondents: Judith Newman (University of Toronto) and Bruno Currie (Oriel College, Oxford)

Eventbrite registration:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/comparative-philology-talking-across-cultures-tickets-170457773790

Greek medicine (Birmingham-Oxford):

Prof. Claire Bubb (ISAW)

‘Editorial Power: Galen and his Manipulated Canon’ 

Via Zoom on Wednesday 27th October at 16:00 – 17.30 UK Time. 

Eventbrite registration:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/editorial-power-galen-and-his-manipulated-canon-tickets-169671615369

Greek, Jewish and Christian Mediterranean Reading practices (Oxford):

Reading In and Out of Order in the Roman Mediterranean: A Workshop with Prof. C. Michael Chin (California) and Prof. Anne Marie Luijendijk (Princeton) 

Via Zoom on Thursday 11th November at 16:30 – 18.30 UK Time. 

Please email jeremiahcoogan@theology.ox.ac.uk to register and receive Zoom information.

We advertise events that match the interdisciplinary interests of our research collective. Please contact us if you are interested in including any events in our newsletter.