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FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES



INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE CONFERENCE

The Society of Biblical Literature will hold its international conference in Auckland this year, 6-11 July, at the University of Auckland (Engineering Building). Many of the regional associations of biblical studies, theology, religious history and studies in religion will hold their annual meetings as part of this conference. There will, therefore, be a broad range of papers across many disciplines which may be of interest to both staff and students in a number of departments.

Initial information about this conference can be found on the Society's website: http://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/default.aspx. A list of participating organizations and a link to download registration details are available at: http://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Internationalmeeting.aspx. You can find the facility to search the programme for the listings of papers for each of the days of the conference and the range of disciplines at: http://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramBook.aspx?MeetingId=13.

If you wish to make any further inquiries about the conference, please contact Professor Elaine Wainwright em.wainwright@auckland.ac.nz.

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LIES: THE DISCOURSE OF DESPOTISM AND DECEIT IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

http://www.historical-studies.unimelb.edu.au/events/privatepubliclies.html

The University of Melbourne, 7-10 July 2008

Central themes are the deep fascination which ancient writers and societies had for how private actions by powerful individuals could step over boundaries and affect public responsibilities, and how these individuals used deceit to disguise the real facts of private and public reality.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS: THE NATURAL WORLD

The fifteenth International Medieval Congress will take place in Leeds from 7-10 July 2008. Details and call for Papers at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2008_call.html.

THE HUMAN BODY IN NATURAL HISTORY 1000-1500

International Medieval Congress Leeds 2008: Natural History, 7-10 July 2008

The purpose of this session, sponsored by the Medieval Research Centre (University of Leicester, UK), is to explore the relationships between the human body and its natural and cultural dimensions.  Models of human anatomy and physiology formed the interpretative means of understanding natural, social and cultural phenomena. In turn, these influenced the ways in which medieval society perceived the body in its various forms and at various stages in the life course by employing metaphors and analogies drawn from the natural world.  The human body stood therefore at the centre of a complex associative network, informed by medicine, natural philosophy, alchemy and religion amongst others.  So, for example, metaphors of birth and corruption were employed in alchemical descriptions, while some natural philosophers were concerned with stretching the natural limits of 'youth'.  Physiognomy, relatively understudied as a subject, provided a physical framework for the explanation of character and behaviour.

Details from Danielle Westerhof: dhw4@le.ac.uk.

CATHEDRAL, COURT, CITY AND CLOISTER

A symposium on Spanish Liturgical Manuscripts at the University of Sydney and their International Contexts at the Fisher Library, University of Sydney, 9-11 July 2008.

Between 2002 and 2006 the University of Sydney acquired a number of manuscripts of liturgical chant of probable Spanish origin and Use. These books are as follows: one book of fragments (15thc and earlier); six books of sixteenth-century material for the Mass and Office, one containing a thirteenth-century bifolium fragment as part of its binding; and three eighteenth-century monastic antiphonals. Central to this collection is a group of five sixteenth-century manuscripts that may belong to the complex of sources at Salamanca cathedral recently discovered and studied by James Boyce. The latest acquisition is a beautifully illuminated and decorated Processional.

This Symposium brings together an international interdisciplinary group of scholars (musicologists, art historians and liturgists) who have a special expertise in the contents and decorative agendas of such manuscripts. It is envisaged that the invited scholars will present, each from the perspective of their own research, material for the cathedral, the court, the city or the cloister, and will have as their aim the exploration of issues raised by the Sydney sources, within broader contexts generated by their own related research from the wider European tradition.

The Symposium will take place over three days, with some public sessions given over to formal papers, and others in which members of the core group of invited scholars participate in working sessions on matters specifically related to the Sydney manuscripts. In addition, as the library intends to digitize the Sydney manuscripts, making them available to the international scholarly world, the Library Team will present an open session on the Collection, Preservation, and Digitization of these manuscripts.

The Library will host a reception for participants, and the Symposium will include an Exhibition of Manuscripts, and a short concert of music related to the papers. This concert has been sponsored by the Instituto Cervantes and will take place at Christ Church St Laurence on Thursday July 10 at 6.30 pm.

The University will not charge a fee for this Symposium, but as places are limited it is necessary to register to attend.

Full details, a list of speakers and the registration form are available at http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/rare/cathedral/.

FROM HOLY WAR TO PEACEFUL CO-HABITATION: DIVERSITY OF CRUSADING AND THE MILITARY ORDERS

Course Dates: July 14-25, 2008
Location: Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary. Detailed course description: http://www.sun.ceu.hu/holy-war.

Faculty: Jozsef Laszlovszky, Central European University, Budapest; Taef Kamal el-Azhari, Helwan University, Egypt; Michel Balard, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France; Jochen Burgtorf, California State University, Fullerton; Ronnie Ellenblum, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; John France, University of Wales, Swansea, UK; Nikolas Jaspert, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany; Hugh Kennedy, St. Andrews University, UK; Janus Moller Jensen, University of Southern, Denmark; Alan V. Murray, Leeds University, UK; John Pryor, University of Sydney, Australia

Target group: advanced graduate students, junior or post-doctoral researchers and teachers. Language of instruction: English. Tuition fee: EUR 500, financial aid is available.

Online application: http://www.sun.ceu.hu/apply (attachments to be sent via regular mail).
For course related enquiries: ceusun.crusade@gmail.com

For further information queries can be directed to the SUN office by email (summeru@ceu.hu), via skype (ceu-sun) or telephone (00-36-1-327-3811).

SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE HUMANITIES

Humanities Conference 08 will be held at Fatih University, Istanbul from 15-18 July 2008.  Full details at http://h08.cgpublisher.com/.

2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE SCIENCE OF COMPUTUS

http://www.foundationsirishculture.ie/

18-20 July 2008 at the Moore Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway.

Further information from Professor Daibhi O Croinin, Department of History, NUI, Galway, Ireland: daibhi.ocroinin@nuigalway.ie or download the flyer.

THE TECHNOLOGIES OF MEMORY: LATIN LITERATURE AND THE PRESERVATION OF THE PAST

The 2008 Pacific Rim Latin Literature Seminar will be held at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada from Tuesday to Friday August 26-29 2008.

The creation of literature is governed by forms and by media and this inevitably shapes the nature of the work created. Literature is constantly created, revised, quoted, adapted, interpreted and lost: all of these processes are governed by literary technologies. From the length of a line of verse to the size of a papyrus roll to the use of slaves to read texts aloud, specific technologies associated with literacy shape perceptions of Roman literary identity and affect the interpretation of individual works. Possible areas of investigation include the following:

• the role of libraries in the Roman world
• para-literary documents, created as a byproduct of other literary endeavours
• the transmission of authors through the manuscript tradition, the printing press, and the internet
• bilingualism and Roman literature
• the relationship of books to larger works (as in epic), and other aspects of poetic structure
• epigraphic verse, and other forms of public writing and material culture
• the circulation of ancient literary texts
• the influence of the codex
• 'reading' in all its forms in antiquity
• the reception of Latin literature in later centuries

As is usual for the PacRim Latin Seminar, there will be plentiful entertainment beyond the conference papers, including a performance of Hosidius Geta’s Medea and a conference dinner. Details on accommodation will follow later.

Details from:
C. W. Marshall
Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z1
E-mail (preferred): toph@interchange.ubc.ca

MEDIEVAL RECEPTION OF ROMAN LAW

Call for Papers: Projet Volterra II: Law and the End of Empire. Workshop on the afterlife of Roman law 2
Monday-Tuesday 15-16 September 2008, History Department, University College, London.

Projet Volterra II, an AHRC-funded project based in the History Department of UCL, is examining the post-imperial afterlife of Roman law (initially to the Carolingian period). Over the two days of 15 to 16 September 2008, we are hosting a small colloquium-cum-workshop, organised loosely around the themes 'Authorities and Subjects' and 'Manuals and Jurisprudence'. For an introduction to the project and its aims, see http://ww.ucl.ac.uk/history/volterra/pv2.htm.

Confirmed speakers include Professors Michael Crawford, Gero Dolezalek, Wolfgang Kaiser, Dario Mantovani and Drs Simon Corcoran, Magnus Ryan, and Benet Salway but we welcome offers of other papers. Preference will be given to those related to our themes but contributions outside the themes but still relating to the survival/reception of Roman law in the early medieval period are also most welcome.

The colloquium is supported by the AHRC and we will be able to contribute towards speakers' travel and accommodation expenses.

Those interested in offering a paper should contact Dr Benet Salway ( r.salway@ucl.ac.uk) by Friday 1 August 2008.

MAPPING THE MEDIEVAL ANCHORHOLD: DIALOGUE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

Third international conference for the International Anchoritic Society, Hiroshima Shudo University, Hiroshima, Japan, 15-17 September 2008.

Keynote speakers: Prof Yoko Wada, Kansai University and Dr Bella Millett, University of Southampton.

Abstracts (max 500 words) for twenty-minute papers welcome. Topics can cover any aspect of medieval solitary reclusion in the east and west. Deadline for abstracts is flexible - please contact the conference convenors. Conference convenors are Liz Herbert McAvoy (University of Wales, Swansea), Naoe Kukita Yoshikawa (Shizuoka University) and Fumiko Yoshikawa (Hiroshima Shudo University).

Please note that conference costs have been kept low in order to attract as many international speakers as possible. For conference web site see http://comm.shudo-u.ac.jp/~ias3/Welcome.html. For International Anchoritic Society web site see > http://www.swan.ac.uk/english/gender/IAS%20home.htm.

 

REFASHIONING THE CLASSICS: MODERN FABRICATIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

A Conference presented by the Classical Studies Program of Monash University, in partnership with the Monash Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies and the Australasian Classical Studies Reception Network. Monash University, Melbourne, Caulfield Campus, 20-21 September 2008.

Keynote Speaker, Professor Simon Goldhill (University of Cambridge)

This international, multidisciplinary conference will explore the modern representation and reception of the Classical world in contemporary culture and scholarship.

Selected conference proceedings will be published. Details are to follow.

Conference convenors:

Dr Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Monash University

Paul Monaghan, University of Melbourne

All enquiries to jane.griffiths@arts.monash.edu.au.

MONSTERS AND THE MONSTROUS: MYTHS AND METAPHORS OF ENDURING EVIL

6th Global Conference, 22-25 September 2008, Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ati/Monsters/M6/cfp.html

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to investigate and explore the enduring influence and imagery of monsters and the monstrous on human culture throughout history. In particular, the project will have a dual focus with the intention of examining specific 'monsters' as well as assessing the role, function and consequences of persons, actions or events identified as 'monstrous'. The history and contemporary cultural influences of monsters and monstrous metaphors will also be examined.

Perspectives are sought from those engaged in the fields of literature, media studies, cultural studies, history, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, health and theology. Ideas are welcomed from those involved in academic study, fictional explorations and applied areas (e.g. youth work, criminology and medicine).

Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops will be related to the following themes:

Stephen Morris, smmorris58@yahoo.com

Project Co-Leader
Independent Scholar
New York, USA
USA

The conference is part of the 'At the Interface' series of programmes organised by ID.Net. The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers will be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.

AUSTRALIAN EARLY MEDIEVAL ASSOCIATION FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE - WELCOMING THE STRANGER IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~medieval/

AEMA's fifth annual conference will be held from 1-3 October 2008 at the Sebel Conference Suites, Charlotte Street, Brisbane, hosted by the Australian Catholic University.

The period from late antiquity to the early middle ages was one of great social movement, of both individuals and people groups.  How did people respond to demands made upon them for hospitality and charity by pilgrims, casualties of war, refugees, orphans, widows, those of other religions, the sick, the poor, itinerant monks and nuns, travelling traders and others?

Invited speakers:
Dr Anna Silvas, University of New England
Dr Wendy Mayer, Washington DC

Papers are now invited on a broad range of topics related to the theme of 'Welcoming the Stranger', tapping various sources, including literature, archaeology, epigraphy and the arts.  A title and a 250 word abstract should be sent by 31 July 2008 to the Conference Convenors.  Please include affiliation and contact details with your abstract.

Presenters will be invited to publish their papers in the refereed Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association.

Download the call for papers.

Conference convenors:

Dr Bronwen Neil b.neil@mcauley.acu.edu.au
Dr Geoffrey Dunn g.dunn@mcauley.acu.edu.au

Centre for Early Christian Studies
Australian Catholic University
PO Box 456
Virginia
Queensland 4014

TIME, SPACES, PEOPLE, PLACES

2-4 October 2008
University of Queensland

CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstract submissions are invited for consideration by the convenors of the second Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Hellenic Or Roman Antiquities (AMPHORA) conference, hosted again this year by the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at the University of Queensland, Australia. AMPHORA provides an opportunity for Honours and Postgraduate Students of Australia and New Zealand to present their current research in a sociable and receptive forum of their peers.

The theme of this year’s conference is 'Time, Spaces, People, Places' and has been designed specifically to accommodate the full spectrum of Postgraduate research topics including, but not limited to, the fields of Ancient Greek and/or Roman history, literature, society, philosophy, religion, art, archaeology and culture.

Abstract Submissions: Please submit an abstract of not more than 250 words, with three keywords referring to your paper's topic and a very brief biography to the AMPHORA Conference committee by Thursday 31 July 2008. Email amphora@uq.edu.au

Presentations: Papers of 20 min. duration followed by 10 min. discussion time at the conclusion of each session.

Conference events: Official reception evening and Keynote Address on Thursday 2 October; Conference Sessions Friday 3–Saturday 4 October; optional conference dinner on Friday evening.

Registration: Early registration fee before 31 July 2008 is $AU 65; undergraduate fee is $AU 65; standard fee is $AU 80. Registration may be completed at online:
https://www.uq.edu.au/secure/events/hprc2008/form/autoprivacy.html?form_id=3&event_id=3

For further information, please contact:
Daniel Press, Suzanne Kortlucke and Jessica Pryde.
Email: amphora@uq.edu.au
Website: http://www.amphora2008.blogspot.com/

THE ANGEL AND THE MUSE: INSPIRATION, REVELATION, PROPHECY

Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies (PMR) at Villanova University invites participation in its 33rd International PMR Conference, 10-12 October 2008. As always, the PMR makes an OPEN CALL to scholars, institutions and societies to propose Papers, Panels, or Sponsored Sessions in all areas and topics in late antiquity/patristics, Byzantine Studies, Medieval Studies, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies and Renaissance and Reformation Studies. The PMR committee this year makes a special invitation to scholars from all disciplines in these fields to address the plenary theme: The Angel and the Muse: Inspiration, Revelation, Prophecy

Featured speakers:
Peter S. Hawkins, Religion and Literature, Yale Divinity School, author of Dante's Testaments
Michael Sells, Islamic Studies, University of Chicago Divinity School, author of Approaching the Qur'an

The Angel. The Muse. The Prophet. The texts and artifacts of the ancient, medieval and renaissance worlds of the Mediterranean were filled with figures of inspiration and knowledge, beauty and wonder, freedom and creativity. What is the relationship between the angel and muse, between scripture and poetry, between spirit and insight? Who is a prophet? And who is a poet? The 'conference within the conference' at PMR 2008 this year will reflect on these questions and more, from the variety of disciplines in Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, Byzantine, Islamic and Jewish Studies.

For more information visit http://www.villanova.edu/artsci/augustinianinstitute/conferences/pmr/

THE THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL BYZANTINE STUDIES CONFERENCE: CALL FOR PAPERS

http://www.bsana.net

The Thirty-Fourth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference (BSC) will be held at Rutgers University 16-19 October 2008. The conference is the annual forum for the presentation and discussion of papers on every aspect of Byzantine studies and is open to all, regardless of nationality or academic status. It is also the occasion of the annual meeting of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America (BSANA).

THE DEVIL IN SOCIETY IN THE PRE-MODERN WORLD

17 and 18 October 2008, Toronto, Ontario

An international, interdisciplinary conference hosted by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College in the University of Toronto

Keynote speakers include Richard Kieckhefer and Audrey L. Meaney.

This multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine the broad trajectory of devil beliefs in the period prior to 1650 in order to help explain what might be termed the general diabolisation of European thought as it is refracted through society and culture arguably from the middle of the fifteenth century. By surveying the variety in form and function of diabolical and demonic discourses and their social expression both at a series of particular historical moments, and over the longue durée, the conference aims to advance our understanding of the changing role of the devil in popular and elite culture and aetiology from late antiquity to its height in the early modern period.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

Antichrist and the End of the World
Clerical and popular demonism
Constructions of the Sabbat
Demonic magic
Demonic possession
Demonologists
Demonology and witchcraft
Demons and heresy
Demons and sceptics
Demons in literature and on the stage
Devil in art
Devil in folklore
Demons in hagiography and /exempla/
Demonisation of the 'Other'
Exorcism, lay and clerical
Incubi and succubi
Mysticism and diabology
New World demons
Protestant vs. Catholic demons
Women as healers, mystics, and witches

Details from Richard Raiswell (Univ. of Prince Edward Island) and Peter Dendle (Penn State Univ.) at devilconf@ma.psu.edu.

MEDIEVAL SEAS

A weekend conference to be held at Rye College, East Sussex, 18-19 October 2008. The conference will cover matters relating to 'Medieval Seas' broadly defined, covering the period c.500-c.1500, including shipping and shipbuilding; material remains/maritime archaeology; navigation; cartography and world view; society at sea and ashore; trade; war at sea; artistic and literary expressions of the sea and maritime affairs; maritime law. Details at http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=161508.

9TH UNISA CLASSICS COLLOQUIUM

University of South Africa, Pretoria, October 23-25, 2008

THEME: Greeks, Romans, Africans

Contributions are invited on topics related to the reciprocal relationship between Africa and the cultures of Greece and Rome. Papers dealing with ancient authors writing about Africa or with an African connection, historical and archaeological issues, as well as the reception of the classical world in Africa are welcomed.  While the colloquium focuses on classical material, we encourage proposals from related fields and of an interdisciplinary nature.

Papers are limited to 45 minutes. Please submit abstracts of appr. 200 words via e-mail attachment to bosmapr@unisa.ac.za by 1 September 2008. The body of your email should include your name, institution, department, e-mail address and the title of your paper. If necessary, submissions may also be sent via post to the following address:

Department of Classics and World Languages
University of South Africa
PO Box 392
0003 UNISA
Republic of South Africa

Further enquiries relating to the colloquium should be directed to Philip Bosman at the e-mail and postal addresses given above.

XVII FINNISH SYMPOSIUM ON LATE ANTIQUITY

Tvärminne, Finland, 21-22 November 2008

The aim of the symposium is to bring together students and scholars with an interest in Late Antiquity from a variety of universities and disciplines. Chronologically, we understand Late Antiquity broadly as the passage from the Hellenistic world to the Early Middle ages. Geographically, the focus of the symposium is on the Mediterranean world. This year, many papers will focus on questions of identity, but suggestions for papers dealing with other topics will also be considered. Our main aim is to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue between philology, archaeology, history, theology and other disciplines that deal with Late Antiquity.

The symposium will be organized in the premises of a zoological research station operated by the University of Helsinki at a beautiful location at Tvärminne on the southern coast of Finland (http://luoto.tvarminne.helsinki.fi/english). Its organizers are the Department of Classical Philology of the University of Helsinki together with an interdisciplinary organizing committee (see below).

This year's symposium features three specially invited speakers:

- Prof. Benjamin Isaac (Tel Aviv) (title of the presentation will be confirmed later)
- Dr. Isabella Sandwell (Bristol): Emperor Julian on religious identity
- Prof. François Villeneuve (Paris): What happened to the Nabataeans in Late Antiquity? Disappearence or survival?

There is space for a maximum of 6 more papers. If you wish to deliver a paper, please send a short abstract by August 15 to Dr. Maijastina Kahlos (maijastina.kahlos@helsinki.fi). Applicants will be informed by early September whether they have been accepted. We have reserved 40 minutes for each presentation, including the discussion following the paper. Therefore, we recommend limiting the papers to 20 minutes at most. For each paper, we aim at finding a commentator for a first response of about 5 minutes.

All participants will get free transportation from Helsinki to Tvärminne and back, as well as free accommodation and meals at Tvärminne. However, we are not able to cover the costs for travelling to Helsinki first.

The Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity is organized annually since 1992. It started as a Finnish-language seminar for postgraduate students. However, over the years, more and more papers were presented by established scholars. Moreover, in many years, a few well-known scholars were invited from abroad, and the language of the symposium was changed to English, thus making it more and more international. This year, for the first time, we do not only have a few specially invited guests from abroad, but we invite suggestions for papers from anyone who is interested. In keeping with the symposium’s traditions, we encourage not only senior, but also junior scholars and postgraduate students to participate.

The organizing committee:
- Maijastina Kahlos, PhD (Department of Classical Philology, University of Helsinki; research fellow of the Academy of Finland)
- Ville Vuolanto, Phil. Lic. (Department of History, University of Tampere)
- Matias Buchholz, MA (Department of Classical Philology, University of Helsinki)

CALL FOR PAPERS: ANZAMEMS

2-6 December 2008

http://www.anzamems2008.utas.edu.au/

Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Inc.) 7th Biennial International Conference, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Keynote speakers:

Open theme. Twenty-minute papers on all aspects of medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies welcome. Proposals for panels of 3 papers are also welcome. Deadline for abstracts (maximum 300 words) is 1 September 2008. Please send abstracts to anzamems2008@utas.edu.au or to one of the convenors.

Conference convenors:
Elizabeth Freeman Elizabeth.Freeman@utas.edu.au
Jenna Mead Jenna.Mead@utas.edu.au

CHURCH AND STATE FROM OLD TO NEW WORLDS

A Workshop sponsored by the Religious History Society in association with the Research Group on Religion and Intellectual Traditions and the Institute for the Advanced Study of Humanity at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Thursday 11-Saturday 13 December 2008.

The Religious History Society in association with the Research Group for Religion and Intellectual Traditions (which is part of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Humanity at the University of Newcastle, NSW) will be sponsoring a workshop on Church and State from Old to New Worlds. The workshop convenors are Hilary Carey (Hilary.Carey@newcastle.edu.au) and John Gascoigne (j.gascoigne@unsw.edu.au).

This workshop brings together national and international scholars to consider one of the central issues in western historiography - the relationship between church and state. This classic theme has never really gone away but is emerging to engage scholars in new ways in the wake of the colonial and postcolonial critique of the long history of the west and its imperial expansion from early modern times to the present. Within the West changing conceptions of the state, of marriage and family life, and the aftermath of 9/11 with an increase in Western-Islamic tension and the renewal of 'evangelical atheism' have all recently served to bring the issue into renewed focus.

The workshop will open on the evening of Thursday 11 December with a keynote address from Frank Lambert (Purdue) on Church and State in the US. This will be followed by a reception sponsored by the Network for Early European Research (NEER).

Friday 12 December will be devoted to papers on the European background and will include a keynote address by Jay Brown (Edinburgh) on modern Scotland and England together with the following speakers: Claire Walker (Adelaide): Early Modern England, David Cahill (UNSW): Early Modern Spain and Spanish America, David Garrioch (Monash):  Old Regime France, Jennifer Ridden (Latrobe): Modern Ireland and Judith Keene (Sydney): Modern Spain. In the evening there will be a workshop dinner.

Saturday 13 December will focus on Church-State relations in colonial and post-colonial perspectives with papers by Rowan Strong (Murdoch) on Western Australia, Hilary Carey (Newcastle) on Colonial Missions, John Stenhouse (Otago, NZ) on New Zealand, Bruce Kaye (UNSW) on the Anglican Church in Australia, John Murphy (Melbourne) on the Australian churches and welfare and Troy Duncan (Newcastle) on Bishop Batty of Newcastle.

Could those interesting in attending contact Troy Duncan (Troy.Duncan@newcastle.edu.au). Registration (which will cover the Thursday pm reception and lunches and teas on the Friday and Saturday) will be $100 with an additional $50 for those wishing to attend the dinner on the Friday evening.

EMOTIONS, STATUS AND POWER

8-9 December 2008, The University of Adelaide

On the occasion of the approaching retirement of Dr. Ron Newbold, senior lecturer and long time staff member, the colleagues at the University of Adelaide are organising a conference/colloquium dedicated to the celebration of his long and fruitful career.

The conference/colloquium will focus on emotions, status and power in antiquity. All papers dealing with the topics of emotions, status and power in literature, history and archaeology are welcome. Papers on late antiquity (c. 300-700 CE) and authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus, Nonnus and Gregory of Tours are especially encouraged as these represent a significant focus of Dr. Newbold's research (his most recent research can be reached on http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/humanities/people/classics/rnewbold.html with further links). Selected papers from the conference will be published in the planned proceedings.

150-200 word abstracts are accepted until 15 October 2008.

Keynote speaker will be Prof. Thomas S. Burns of Emory University (USA).

Contact details: Dr. Danijel Dzino  danijel.dzino@adelaide.edu.au

THE THIRD SOPHISTIC: NEW APPROACHES TO RHETORIC IN LATE ANTIQUITY

Society for Late Antiquity panel at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association to be held in Philadelphia, 8-11 January 2009.

Sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity. Organized by Paul Kimball, Bilkent University.

It is a well-known paradox of Greco-Roman culture that well after the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the state under Constantine the art of rhetoric successfully maintained its privileged place in the articulation of political, pedagogical, religious, philosophical and literary power. Late antiquity witnessed a remarkable surge in rhetorical output in both Greek (Libanius, Himerius, Themistius, Julian, Procopius of Gaza, Choricius) and Latin (the Panegyrici Latini, Symmachus, Ausonius, Marius Victorinus). Moreover, under the new establishment the rapprochement between traditional 'pagan' rhetoric and Judaeo-Christian modes of expression already evident in Christian apologetic writings of the second and third centuries gained momentum, culminating in the fourth- and fifth-century 'Golden Age' of Christian rhetoric as represented by the works of Eusebius of Caesarea, the Cappadocian Fathers and John Chrysostom (in Greek) and Lactantius, Ambrose and Augustine (in Latin). Before the end of the sixth century the corpus of Hermogenes would achieve canonical status and in 426 CE Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana fused once and for all Cicero's rhetorical theory with the Christian project of evangelism and exegesis.

In light of the wealth of available source material and its parallels to the much more extensively studied Second Sophistic, European scholarship over the past two decades has increasingly come to identify this period as the 'Third Sophistic'. While this formulation stresses synchronic linkages at the expense of diachronic perspectives, it is nonetheless worthwhile to examine this phase in the cultural history of the late empire as a unity.

For a PDF copy of the APA Annual Meeting program guide: http://www.apaclassics.org/Newsletter/2006newsletter/1006programinsert.pdf

For general information on the APA Annual Meeting: http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/annualmeeting.html

For information regarding membership: https://www.press.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/associations/apa_membership.cgi

Dr. Paul E. Kimballpkimball@bilkent.edu.tr
Program in Cultures, Civilizations, and Ideas Bilkent University 06800 Bilkent Ankara, TURKEY
office: (+90) 312 290 1034
fax: (+90) 312 266 4606

LUSUS ET LUDIBRIA: LATE LATIN LAUGHTER

http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/annualmeeting.html

The Medieval Latin Studies Group, an affiliated group of the American Philological Association, will be sponsoring the panel 'Lusus et Ludibria: Late Latin Laughter' at the 8-11 January 2009 APA meeting in Philadelphia. Below is a description of the panel.

A recent efflorescence of works explores emotion, gesture, and performance. But what of an elusive phenomenon that betrays emotion, that must be performed, but which falls into no easy category? Fundamentally involuntary and unpredictable, laughter may challenge or confirm the possibilities of communication. It is heard in the triumph of the tyrant and the resistance of the martyr. Restrained hilaritas is saintly; rampant risus is devilish. What people may laugh at, and why, offers a vivid and unconventional glimpse of an age or a moment. We welcome submissions for this panel across a wide textual and methodological range, engaging genres that provoke laughter, laughter textually embedded, typologies of laughter, and more theoretical discussions of the conceptual parameters that laughter proposes and undermines.

AUSTRALASIAN SOCIETY FOR CLASSICAL STUDIES 30TH CONFERENCE

Offers of papers are invited for the 30th conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies, to be held at Sancta Sophia College, University of Sydney, from 3-6 February 2009. Offers should in the first instance be e-mailed to patricia.watson@usyd.edu.au.

Convenors: Assoc. Prof. Lindsay Watson and Dr Pat Watson

Further details, call for papers, registration procedure, accommodation etc. will be available in due course on the ASCS website (http://www.ascs.org.au).

THE EIGHTH BIENNIAL SHIFTING FRONTIERS IN LATE ANTIQUITY CONFERENCE: SHIFTING CULTURAL FRONTIERS IN LATE ANTIQUITY

Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 2-5 April, 2009

The Society for Late Antiquity announces that the Eighth Biennial Conference on Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity will be held at Indiana University and will explore the theme 'Shifting Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity' [ca. 200-700 AD].  The confirmed plenary speakers will be Professors Jas Elsner (Corpus Christi, Oxford) and Seth Schwartz (Jewish Theological Seminary).

Beneath the familiar political and religious narrative of late antiquity lies a cultural history both more complicated and more fascinating.  Late antiquity was a time of intense cultural negotiation in which new religious communities and new populations sifted through existing modes of cultural expression, adopting many elements for themselves and turning others aside.  This conference seeks to understand how cultural transformation occurred amidst the political and religious disruption that can seem characteristic of late antiquity.  To this end, we seek contributions that explore three distinct areas of late antique cultural history: 1) the interaction of 'high' and 'low' culture, 2) the impact of changing and collapsing political centers on their peripheries, and 3) the emergence of hybrid literary, artistic and religious modes of expression.  Possible contributions to these areas may highlight the permeable division between elite and vernacular culture, the ease with which cultural memes were transmitted across geographic and linguistic boundaries, the adaptability of established cultures to new political and social realities and the degree to which newcomers were integrated into existing cultural communities. 

As in the past, the conference will provide an interdisciplinary forum for ancient historians, philologists, Orientalists, art historians, archeologists and specialists in the early Christian, Jewish and Muslim worlds to discuss a wide range of European, Middle-Eastern and African evidence for cultural transformation in late antiquity.  Proposals should be clearly related to the conference theme.  They should state both the problem being discussed and the nature of the new insights or conclusions that will be presented.

Abstracts of not more than 500 words for 20-minute presentations may be submitted via e-mail to Prof. Edward Watts, shifting.frontiers.8@gmail.com (Department of History, Indiana University, Ballantine Hall, Rm. 828, 1020 East Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405-7103, USA). The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 October, 2008.  The submission of an abstract carries with it a commitment to attend the conference should the abstract be accepted. 

44TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES

The 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies takes place May 7-10, 2009 at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Details at http://www.wmich.edu/~medinst/congress/.

PLINY THE YOUNGER IN LATE ANTIQUITY CONFERENCE

The School of Classics at St. Andrews University and the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at Liverpool University are pleased to announce a one-day conference on 'Pliny the Younger in Late Antiquity' to be held at St Andrews on Saturday 16 May 2009. The conference will explore various aspects of Pliny's reception, reputation and influence in the third, fourth and fifth centuries, particularly, although not exclusively, in oratory and letter-writing. Confirmed speakers are Professor Bruce Gibson (Liverpool), Professor Roy Gibson (Manchester), Professor John Henderson (Cambridge), Dr Gavin Kelly (Edinburgh) and Dr Roger Rees (St Andrews). details from Bruce Gibson (bjgibson@liverpool.ac.uk) or Roger Rees (rdr1@st-andrews.ac.uk).

WHAT'S RELIGIOUS ABOUT ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN RELIGIONS?

Inaugural Meeting of the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religion, June 28 2009, Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, Italy

At the inaugural meeting of the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions, we plan to begin our discussions by considering the ways in which the conceptual category 'religion' is applicable to the study of ancient cultures. Sacrifice, prayer, pilgrimage, private and public devotion, beliefs about gods and goddesses - all of these practices and ideas seem to fall safely enough within the category of 'religion'. A question worth thinking about, however, is whether the boundaries of this modern category - and indeed the category itself - match up with any patterns of practice or belief held by the people we hope to understand. In other words, what did it mean to be 'religious' in the ancient world? Perhaps behaviors that we might now call 'religious' are better understood as falling within the realm of political acts, or as practices that delineate certain tribal or familial identities. Matching up ancient and modern ideas about this cluster of ideas and practices promises to reveal significant mismatches in our conceptual lexica where religion ancient and modern is concerned. We hope that it will also give rise to useful reflections about this inter-disciplinary project that we have initiated: what different methodological presuppositions do students of ancient Mediterranean cultures bring to the study of religious phenomena and what do we stand to learn from each other? Proposals addressing this topic and formed with reference to Mediterranean societies up through the Late Antique period are welcome.

Abstracts of 500 words should be sent to Barbette Spaeth (bsspae@wm.edu) by September 1 2008 with the conference slate to be decided by September 30. Please provide abstracts within the email itself, or as attachments in MS Word format (.doc or .docx). Participants should aim for papers of approximately 30 minutes in length. While the conference will be conducted chiefly in English, the committee will also consider papers (and abstracts) presented in Italian.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL CONGRESS: HERESY AND ORTHODOXY

The sixteenth International Medieval Congress will take place in Leeds from 13-16 July 2009. Session proposals due by 1 October 2008; paper proposals by 1 September 2008. Details and call for papers at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2009_call.html.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR NEO-LATIN STUDIES

The Fourteenth International Congress of the International Association For Neo-Latin Studies (IANLS) will take place 2-8 August 2009 in Uppsala, Sweden. Scholars giving papers or organizing sessions must be paid-up members of the IANLS. For further details, please see the First Circular for the Triennium 2006-2009, which may now be downloaded from the web site of the IANLS at http://www.ianls.org/1_circular_uppsala.pdf.

14TH INTERNATIONAL SAGA CONFERENCE, UPPSALA

9-15 August 2009

Details at http://www.saga.nordiska.uu.se/. Abstracts of proposed papers must be submitted no later than 1 August 2008 to be considered.

RELIGION, SOCIETY AND PARTICIPATION: PASSAGES FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE MIDDLE AGES IV

August 20-22 2009, University of Tampere, Finland

Organized by Trivium Centre for Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Department of History and Philosophy, University of Tampere in collaboration with the Finnish Historical Society and the Classical Association of Finland.

Abstract deadline: October 1 2008

The fourth international Passages conference focuses on religion in its social context. Religion is seen as an active, ongoing process involving society and community. We welcome papers which focus on different religious acts and actors - communities, families or individuals - and with sensitive approach to social differences: gender, age and status. Important themes in the conference are the differences and similarities between elite culture and popular religion in Classical and Medieval society. The conference aims at broad coverage not only chronologically but also geographically and disciplinary (all branches of Classical and Medieval Studies). We strongly encourage contributions from a comparative and/or interdisciplinary perspective.

The conference will concentrate on:

* Religious rituals in everyday life
* Writing and reading religion vs. oral religious culture
* Devotional groups and their functions in society
* Official and nonofficial religious practices and practitioners
* Gendered participation
* Forms of devoted life: e.g. living as devoted child/man/ woman/couple
* Sacrifice and self sacrifice

A one-page abstract (setting out thesis and conclusions and containing name, academic affiliation, postal address, e-mail) should be submitted, preferably by email-attachment, to the conference secretary, passages@uta.fi, or to the address below. The deadline for abstracts is October 1 2008. Decisions on the acceptance of papers will be made in December 2008. Presentation of conference papers is preferably in English, although papers in other major scientific languages are accepted if provided with English summary or translation. Registration fee for all those attending or participating: 60 € (post-graduate students: 30 €). For further information, please contact passages@uta.fi or visit http://www.uta.fi/trivium/ (see there also for information on previous Passages conferences).

On behalf of the Organizing Committee: Prof. Christian Krötzl & Assoc.Prof. Katariina Mustakallio, Department of History and Philosophy, FIN - 33014 University of Tampere, Finland.

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