CALL. 20.07.2015: Individual and Community in Urban Upheavals: Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor -

FECHA LÍMITE/DEADLINE/SCADENZA: 20/07/2015

FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 20-21/11/2015

LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago (Chicago, USA)

ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Kate Laurel Agnew (klagnew@uchicago.edu) and Paul Vădan (vadan@uchicago.edu)

INFO: urbanupheavalsconf@gmail.com

CALL:

Contributions are invited for a two-day conference exploring the responses of both individuals and larger social formations to drastic changes in their urban communities, to be held at the University of Chicago on the 20th - 21st of November, 2015. The deadline for submissions is July 20, 2015. With this meeting, we hope to hold a focused discussion centered on two specific questions: how do individuals and their social formations dynamically interact with urban communities in periods of drastic change? What do the particular instances of Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor offer to broader theoretical approaches to ancient urban communities and their individual inhabitants? These questions address the particular issues at stake in periods of expansion, unusual threat, or imminent destruction of cities. Times of jarring change are particularly well-documented in the populous communities of Asia Minor during the upheavals of the Hellenistic kingdoms and the advent of Roman rule. Cities came under threat of destruction by Galatian invaders or rebellions against Roman incursion, were encouraged or forced to combine through synoecism, and expanded into some of the largest urban centers of the ancient world. In all of these situations, both individuals and social communities were forced to respond to the potential outcomes of drastic change. We believe that a close examination of various cases and situations in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor will reveal new insights into the experiences of individuals, methods of community decision-making, and the subjective and intersubjective worlds of ancient cities at their various sites of intersection. Confirmed speakers include Ryan Boehm (Tulane), Alain Bresson (Chicago), and Tim Whitmarsh (Cambridge). We welcome abstracts for 30-minute papers exploring responses to urban instability in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, and are equally interested in papers that take more traditional historical or literary approaches and those that utilize the methodologies and theoretical tools of other disciplines. The conference will be opened and closed by panel discussions among the participants and each paper will be followed by substantial time for discussion; papers should ideally be envisioned not only as studies of particular cases in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, but as contributions to a broader conversation on ancient urban society and its subjectivities. Please email an abstract of no more than 300 words to urbanupheavalsconf@gmail.com by 5pm US CST on Monday, July 20; any questions about the conference or abstracts should be addressed to Kate Laurel Agnew (klagnew@uchicago.edu) and Paul Vădan (vadan@uchicago.edu). Partial bursaries will be made available to participants. This conference has been made possible partly through the generosity of the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago.