Call for Papers: 2023 Graduate Student Conference

December 1, 2022

Abundance and Scarcity
in the Ancient Mediterranean World

April 21–22, 2023

Call for Papers

The graduate students of the Department of the Classics at Harvard University are pleased to announce the return of our biennial Graduate Student Conference, for which the theme this year will be "Abundance and Scarcity in the Ancient Mediterranean World." The conference will take place in person on April 21–22, 2023 in Cambridge, MA. Eric Cline, Professor of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and of Anthropology at George Washington University, will deliver the keynote address.

In selecting our theme, we aspired to represent our commitment to a vision of the ancient Mediterranean in its full spatial extent and temporal richness—from the Iron Age to the Byzantine Period—and encompassing a range of methodological perspectives drawn from the various disciplines constituting Classics and Ancient Studies. We envision our conference to be a platform for current graduate students to at once present their current work and be exposed to methodologies and issues outside their fields of specialty. Therefore, we welcome contributions that engage with the themes of the conference to show how the same issues can be proficiently studied from a variety of meaningful approaches.
 
Topic areas might include, but are not limited to: 

  • Literary form and discourse (e.g., rhetorical style, topoi, aesthetics, translation)
  • Impact and relevance to issues of social hierarchy and political legitimacy 
  • Pictorial art: spatial depth, relief sculpture, horror vacui, etc.
  • Resource management, regional interdependence, and cultural exchange
  • Fabrication of origin myths (e.g., prehistoric migrations, genealogies)
  • Growth and decline of political and cultural systems
  • Influence on agricultural practices, technologies, and systems of land tenure
  • Philosophy and ethics (e.g., moderation, luxury, poverty)
  • Methodological or metadisciplinary reflections (e.g., fragmentary evidence) 

The keynote address will be delivered on the evening of Friday, April 21st, while all the graduate papers will be delivered over the course of the next day, Saturday, April 22nd. Each speaker will have 30 minutes at their disposal: 20 minutes of presentation followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Presentations will take place in person, and we are pleased to be able to cover the cost of accommodation for all speakers, but participants are responsible for their own travel expenses. A Zoom option may be available for those who wish to attend remotely (details will be provided closer to the date).
 
Those interested in delivering a paper should submit an abstract to the Organizing Committee using this Google Form by January 23, 2023 (deadline extended). Candidates will be asked to provide their name, affiliation, and year of study. The abstracts should be max. 500 words in length and include a title. Students should expect a notification regarding our selection by February 1st, 2023. Please contact us at harvardgradconf@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.

We look forward to seeing you in April!
 
With all best wishes,
The Organizing Committee
Greta Galeotti, PhD candidate in Classical Philology
Phoebe Lakin, PhD candidate in Classical Philology
Emily Mitchell, PhD candidate in Classical Philology
Connor North, PhD candidate in Ancient History
Sammi Richter, PhD candidate in Classical Archaeology