See below for the call for papers for a conference on network approaches to ancient religion, sponsored by The Connected Past and the
Call For Papers
The Connected Past: Religious Networks in Antiquity
Conference Oct. 4th-6th 2024, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canada
Optional network science workshop Oct. 2nd-3rd 2024
Network approaches are used by archaeologists and historians as tools to model relational ties between individuals and groups in the past as key predictors of historical outcomes. The growing uptake of these approaches comes in an era recently dubbed the “Third Science Revolution” (Kristiansen 2014), where the advancement of Big Data and computational techniques have revolutionized the types and amounts of information at our fingertips and our means of analyzing and visualizing its patterns. This workshop and conference aim to build bridges between often divergent disciplinary skillsets: the quantitative and computational side of network analysis and the qualitative questions and explanations that undergird network theory alongside historical and archaeological work.
A special area of focus for the conference will be the application of network perspectives to the emergence and spread of religious beliefs and practices, positioning these phenomena as deeply intertwined with the human and material connections that comprised the ancient world. Religion has often been regarded as both an intensely local and intensely transcultural force for ancient communities. Now, at the digital frontiers of the twenty-first century, the resurgent interests in large-scale questions on human development have opened up new opportunities to study religion from relational and quantitative perspectives combined with deep qualitative and historical approaches developed in the humanities.
See longer CFP here, including suggested themes.
Specifics:
Please submit abstracts of 300-400 words to connectedpast2024@
Conference registration will open in May, with more detailed information on the workshop that will precede the conference. We endeavour to provide fair and accessible registration fees. Registration costs will range from $50-100 CAD (concessionary, regular).
Optional workshop on network science to take place prior to the conference on UBC Vancouver Campus, Oct. 2nd-3rd 2024. Schedule and registration TBA. Workshop seats will be limited.
This workshop and conference is sponsored by The Connected Past, The
