Colloquium: Politics of Knowledge and Disciplinary Challenges in Ancient Mediterranean Studies

Thursday, October 24, 2024 - Saturday, October 26, 2024

This colloquium will explore the varied epistemologies and tangible practices across the ancient Mediterranean world, as well as their suppression within ancient political contexts and modern disciplinary practices. The participants, professors in Classics and Biblical Studies, will scrutinize assertions of power and expressions of resistance, as well as the hegemonic processes, ancient and modern, of silencing and appropriating those expressions.  

Tat siong Benny Liew, Class of 1956 Professor in New Testament Studies, organized this workshop-style colloquium. Unless otherwise noted, all events are open to the public.

VIEW THE SCHEDULE BELOW: 

3:45 - 4:15 PM: Opening reception

Colloquium Keynote - All the World鈥檚 Pasts: The Case for a New Field

Thursday, October 24, 2024
4:30 p.m., Rehm Library, Smith Hall

Joy Connolly

As ancient texts, artifacts, and images circulate on the internet, there is a need to ask new questions and sharpen needed skills. Joy Connolly, President of the American Council of Learned Societies and renowned Classics scholar, will argue that creating a new field of global ancient studies is the most effective way forward to study the world鈥檚 premodern cultures. This new field would focus on improving mutual understanding between peoples, interpreting evidence using various disciplines, and studying the full plurality of human activity, including under-studied periods and regions.
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6 - 7:30 PM: Dinner (By Registration)

Unless otherwise noted, all talks will take place in Rehm Library. 

9 - 10:30 AM: Session One

Cosmesis and Fragmentation in the Book of Judith and Scholarly Praxis,鈥 co-authored by Mahri Leonard-Fleckman and Dominic Machado
Presider: Ellen Perry
Response: Mary Ebbott

11 AM - 12:30 PM: Session Two

鈥淲riting on the Walls: Paratexts and Structures in Octavia Butler鈥檚 Parable Novels,鈥 co-authored by Katherine Lu Hsu and Brian Sowers (Brooklyn College)
Presider: Tim Joseph
Response: Madadh Richey (Brandeis University)

12:30 - 2:30 PM: Lunch (By Registration)

2:30 - 4 PM: Session Three

鈥淔uturity in the Face of Fragility: Ecological and Temporal Politics in Three Texts,鈥 co-authored by Tim Joseph and Tat-siong Benny Liew
Presider: Mahri Leonard-Fleckman
Response: Ellen Perry

5 - 5:30 PM: Reception

5:30 - 7 PM: Dinner (By Registration) 

Unless otherwise noted, all talks will take place in Rehm Library. 

9 - 10:30 AM: Session Four

鈥淒iasporic Acts: Pentecostal Languaging and the Rejection of Racial Capitalism,鈥 by Dan-El Padilla Peralta (Princeton University)
Presider: Katherine Lu Hsu
Response: Yii-Jan Lin (Yale University) 

11 AM - 12:30 PM: Session Five

鈥溾業t鈥檚 Almost As If We鈥檙e Only Allowed to Tell One Story鈥: Using The Book of Clarence to Re-Think Disciplinary Conventions and Boundaries in New Testament Studies and Classics,鈥 co-authored by Denise E. McCoskey (Miami University) and Denise K. Buell (Williams College)
Presider: Dominic Machado
Response: Thomas Martin

12:30 - 2:30 PM: Lunch (By Registration)

2:30 - 4 PM: Session Six

鈥淭he Reverence of Pleasure: Erotic Odes across Ancient Mediterranean Religions,鈥 by Vanessa Stovall (Independent Scholar)
Presider: Mary Ebbott
Response: Maia Kotrosits (Harvard University)

4 - 4:15 PM: Break

4:15 - 5 PM: Closing Conversations

5 - 5:30 PM: Closing Reception

5:30 - 7 PM: Dinner (By Registration)