The XXVI Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity “Immigration, Emigration and Exile: Encounters in Late Antiquity (ca. 150-700 CE)” will take place in the Lammi biological station, on 8.-9.11.2019.

The 26th multidisciplinary Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity will be organized on 8.-9. November 2019. The symposium will bring together scholars and postgraduate students with an interest in Late Antiquity from a variety of universities and disciplines (including, but not limited to classics, history, archaeology, legal history and Roman law, theology, religious studies, art history). The title for this year’s symposium is Immigration, Emigration and Exile: Encounters in Late Antiquity (ca. 150-700 CE). The theme of forced and voluntary mobility in Late Antiquity will be approached from a wide perspective. However, the symposium seeks especially to trace the encounters between individuals and peoples, both in terms of everyday interaction, and in terms of cultural discourses of inclusion, exclusion, coexistence and mutual recognition.

The three invited speakers are:

Julia Hillner: Convicts, Patrons and Collateral Damage: Women and Exile in Late Antiquity

Geoff Nathan: “Vastantur pauperes, viduae gemunt, orphani proculcantur”: The Refugee and the Displaced Community in Late Roman Gaul

Arietta Papaconstantinou: The Languages of Emigrants: Power, Subversion, Resilience

The symposium will be divided into thematic sessions broadly structured around archaeological, literary, and historical frames of inquiry. We welcome papers discussing our themes from any viewpoints, but encourage especially the following themes:

  1. Refugees in Late Antiquity
  2. Exile and nostalgia, exile and enculturation
  3. Othering and the recognition of others within local contexts
  4. Shared cultural and linguistic diversity
  5. Immigration and emotions
  6. Intersectionality in emigration/immigration

A short abstract of 250–300 words should be sent by 20th of May 2019 to Dr Ville Vuolanto: [email protected]. Applicants will be informed before June 20th whether they have been accepted. We will reserved 20 minutes for each presentation, plus 10 minutes for discussion. Registration for the symposium starts on August 12th and closes on 1st October 2019.

The symposium will be organized at the zoological research station of the University of Helsinki at Lammi, in the middle of the Finnish agricultural landscape (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/research-stations/lammi). The symposium will have a participation fee (20€ from students, 60€ from others), which will include accommodation at the symposium venue (one night in a shared room) and meals for two days. We offer transportation from Helsinki to Lammi and the return journey by a coach.

The symposium is organized by a multidisciplinary organizing committee: Raimo Hakola (University of Helsinki, Biblical Studies); Antti Lampinen (Finnish Insitute at Athens, History), Kaius Tuori (University of Helsinki, Legal History and Roman law); Marja Vierros (University of Helsinki, Classics); Ville Vuolanto (Tampere University, History). The meeting is funded by the following research projects all based in the University of Helsinki: Law, Governance and Space: Questioning the Foundations of the Republican Tradition (European Research Council); Digital Grammar of Greek Documentary Papyri (European Research Council); Reason and Religious Recognition (The Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence).