The Conference on Methodologies in Ancient Material Culture will be hosted at the University of Winnipeg, in Canada, on October 2-4, 2015.
In recent decades there has been a dramatic shift in studies of ancient material culture away from the long-established avenues of scholarship that prioritised the identification of objects by renowned ancient artists towards a contextualised assessment of the ancient record. The function of antiquities, their context and their interpretation as part of a wider assemblage of material is now a focus of attention.
This conference will explore the different aspects of these issues, and the confirmed keynote speaker will be Elizabeth Marlowe, author of Shaky Ground: Context, Connoisseurship and the History of Roman Art (London, 2013).
University of Winnipeg is also pleased to be hosting the conference in conjunction with the Winnipeg Art Gallery, where the new exhibition Olympus: the Greco-Roman Collections of Berlin, will be open (April 15 2015- March 31 2016). Conference participants will enjoy free entry to the exhibition.
The Organizing Committee invites proposals for 20-minute papers on new methodological approaches to material and visual culture from the Bronze Age to late antiquity.
Submissions may include, but are not limited to, the reassessment of traditional approaches, new theoretical models, the use of field-work technology and interdisciplinary applications. We encourage proposals from both established and newer scholars, as well as senior graduate students.
Abstracts of 350-500 words, together with relevant bibliography, should be submitted by March 31st, 2015. All submissions should be sent to Allison Surtees at [email protected].
Further inquiries can be sent to the conference organisers: Allison Surtees (University of Winnipeg – [email protected]) or Kate Cooper (Royal Ontario Museum/ University of Toronto – [email protected])
