CRASIS Annual Meeting: Hellenism. Interaction, Translation & Culture Transfer - 11-12/02/2016, G

The CRASIS Annual Meeting & Masterclass is a two-day event, set up as an informal meeting place for students at PhD or Research Master level, postdocs and senior staff to promote the discussion and exchange of ideas beyond disciplinary boundaries. A keynote speaker is invited to give a masterclass for (Research) MA and PhD students on the first day of the meeting, and to hold the CRASIS Keynote Lecture at the conference for advanced researchers on the second day.

The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting and Master Class will be, Hellenism: Interaction, Translation and Culture Transfer. We in the modern world are used to thinking of the globe as a fairly small place, one that is getting smaller all the time with instant access to information and almost unlimited possibilities for continuous contact with other people. Increased exposure to other people and places also brings with it exposure to different cultures. Although in some regions of the world, imperial domination may have ceased, the cultures of those former imperial nations continue to serve colonialist and imperialist agendas. Whether we see t-shirts for sale with the Coca-Cola logo and slogan in Thai or we watch wars waged to establish “democratic” political institutions (and all their attendant institutions) in places where they have never flourished, most people in the world have interacted in a variety of ways with what is often dubbed “Western” culture, often articulated through English, the language of the dominant culture. Yet cultures are not monoliths, nor are they stable entities unaffected by the people who practice and enact them. Not only does the receiving culture undergo change: the dominant culture is also affected. Indeed all culture is dynamic and local.

The ancient Mediterranean, in some ways like the modern world, became a fairly small place after Alexander’s conquests and into the Roman period. People in the Near East, Central Asia, and Africa came into close contact with Hellenistic – and later Roman – culture in the form of the Greek and Latin languages, education, and social and political institutions. Increased mobility and intensified trade routes facilitated the movement of people and goods between distant communities. Numerous peoples lived under the rule of Hellenistic kings and queens, particularly the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in the Near East, and later the Roman empire dominated the entire Mediterranean basin. In scholarly analyses of the dominance of Hellenistic and Roman cultures in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, the tensions between indigenous cultures and those cultures are magnified. Yet, we find that in those areas dominated by Hellenistic, and later Roman, rule a more nuanced and complex set of interactions takes place. The same breadth of intellectual resources that are necessary for understanding these intersections in the modern world must be applied to the ancient world as well.

These interactions raise critical questions. Did the intersection of Hellenistic and Roman cultures with indigenous cultures create social tension? If so, how was that tension resolved (or not) and what strategies were employed? What kinds of accommodations or translations were made in the process? How did indigenous populations fare under foreign Hellenistic and Roman rule? Who prospered and who did not? How did such cultural contact affect issues such as ethnic or religious identity during the Hellenistic and Roman periods? What cultural symbols—literary and material—reflected and constructed those identities? We welcome papers exploring these questions with textual, visual, and material sources. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Translation: How did language function as a cultural marker or as a transmitter of culture? What role did language play in the larger arena of cultural contact?

· Material Culture: How do the material sources help us to understand cultural contact and interactions? How did material cultural symbols and markers work to create and reinforce local or new identities?

· Identity: What aspects of identity became significant markers of similarity or difference, of being an insider or outsider?

· Literature: How did literature become a vehicle for cultural expression, change and transmission?

· Theory: What theoretical models and approaches help to illuminate how we ought to think of culture and the way that cultural contact and transmission worked in the Hellenistic world? What models help us to arrive at a more nuanced view of identity formation and valorization in the ancient world?

FECHA/DATE/DATA: 11-12/02/2016

LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: University of Groningen (Groningen, Netherlands)

ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE:

INFO: web - crasis.aws@rug.nl

INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE: antes / before / prima: 04/02/2016

Visitante, incluye comida / Attendance, including lunch (regular) / partezipante, compreso il pranzo: € 10

Estudiante, incluye comida / Students, including lunch / studente, compreso il pranzo: € 7,50

Cena de la conferencia (extra) / Conference dinner (extra fee) / cena del convegno: € 20

PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA: disponible en PDF / available in PDf / disponibile in PDF