CALL.25.08.2017: [CA 2018] Ecology, Environment and Empire - Leicester (England)
Classical Association Annual Conference in Leicester, 6-9 April 2018.
We live in an age where the relationships between the environment and nations has never been more important. Nations change one another's ecosystems through the alteration or destruction of habitats, and the introduction of new species. Response to these changes varies from active adoption, ambivalence or viewing it as an attack on their identity. Yet this is not a uniquely modern concern. Although the link between material culture, sociocultural change and imperialism in the ancient world is a well established one, considerably less attention has been paid to the links between imperialism and the natural environment. However, just as much change happened in the natural environment as the human one, if not more. For instance: a diverse range of flora was introduced to provinces upon annexation, including both food crops, ornamental plants and even trees, subsequently altering the natural landscape. New species and varieties of animals were also introduced. It is likely that the ways in which people engaged with these new species or environments changed or affirmed their own identity; by choosing to adopt new plants and animals, rejecting them or considering them to be an imposition, they demonstrate their affiliation to new identities, old ones, or a discrepant one.
FECHA LÍMITE/DEADLINE/SCADENZA: 25/08/2017
FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 06-07-08-09/04/2018
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: University of Leicester (England)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Lauren Bellis, University of Leicester
INFO: web - lb342@leicester.ac.uk
CALL:
Thus far, scholarship has identified environmental change, but its full significance in relation to sociocultural change and identity has been understudied. Nor has the capacity of plants and animals as agents, with the ability to influence aspects of human life and self in their own right, been explored fully - despite the attribution of this quality to inanimate objects. With speakers from diverse perspectives, this panel will drive a new direction with a series of papers that will explore the relationships conquered peoples had with the life around them in the ancient world, and what this means for wider social and cultural change.
Please email any abstracts (of no more than 300 words) and/or queries to lb342@leicester.ac.uk by the 25th of August.