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(Re)Constructing the Past: Abandonment and Renewal in the Ancient World
Call for Papers: DEADLINE EXTENDED! Deadline for abstract submission extended to Friday, December 14, 2012!
Modern conceptions of the ancient world are often dominated by images of destruction and abandonment, concretized in the ruins of ancient structures or fragments of lost texts. But ruin in the ancient world is almost always accompanied by eventual renewal, a regeneration or remembrance of the thing lost, abandoned, or destroyed.
The 2013 interdisciplinary conference in Classical Studies is open to graduate students studying the history, literature, art, and archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean and will focus on cycles of desertion, ruin, and rebuilding in the ancient world. We invite papers on the abandonment of cities, buildings, and regions, the abandonment of literary genres and styles, the abandonment of ideas and religious practices and beliefs, and the modern abandonment of interpretative theories, as well as the memory of and responses to such abandonment. We welcome papers addressing how and why deserted objects and ideas are reconstructed, as well as the effects of rebuilding on individuals, society, material culture, and literature. Potential topics also include the historical and literary trope of moral or artistic decline, the literary topos of abandoned women, themes of regret and nostalgia, and the subject of exile. Submissions dealing with issues of reception and adaptation, including the reuse and reappropriation of abandoned buildings, objects, texts, laws, or ideas are also encouraged.
Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words by December 14, 2012 via email as a PDF attachment to email@example.com. In your email please include the presenter's name, institution, email address, phone number, and any A/V needs. Please omit identifying information from the actual abstract document. Accepted presenters will be notified in early January 2013. Food and lodging will be provided for presenters.