We are pleased to share the call for papers for the panel “Epigraphy and Mobility: Understanding Patterns of Identity and Migration through Inscriptions in Ancient Societies” at the 16th Celtic Conference in Classics, 15-18 July 2025, University of Coimbra.
The epigraphic medium represents a source of direct information on issues of mobility and migration in the ancient world. Inscriptions are indeed a well attested mode of communication through a wide geographical and chronologic range, providing us with a privileged viewpoint on the interaction between different writing cultures. The issues of mobility that will be explored in the proposed panel entail the circulation of individual, or groups of individuals, and of material and immaterial goods either within the same community, or across different communities and countries, for economic, social, cultural, gendered, political and religious reasons. In this scenario, private and public inscriptions, both in prose and in verses, provide a window into modes of representation and self-representation of the actors involved in dynamics of connection and transition in antiquity.
This panel welcomes attempts to investigate these dynamics in inscriptions from the Greek and Roman worlds, including provinces and colonies, in the Near East and in traditionally marginalized geographical contexts. Phenomena of mobility that shed light on cultural contacts between Greek – Roman communities and indigenous cultures will be also addressed and examined. Ethnographic and gender perspectives are among the possible angles through which inscriptions can inform our understanding of ancient processes of integration, mobility and exchange. Possible approaches to the themes of the panel include new methodologies (e.g., cognitive humanities, data mining, geospatial technologies, including GIS applications and web mapping, social network analysis) alongside more traditional historical, prosopographical and textual analysis approaches.
An extended version of this CfP, with illustrations of the possible ways in which contributors can interpret the interrelation between epigraphic texts and issues of mobility, identity and migration in antiquity, is available here:
Scholars at every career stage are invited to submit proposals for papers of 30 minutes in length, followed by discussion. Please send a title and an abstract of 300 words, along with a brief scholarly biography, to Federica Scicolone ([email protected]) and Roberto Melfi ([email protected]) by Thursday, 20 February 2025. To submit your abstract, please use the template available here: https://www.uc.pt/cech/16-ccc/calls/call-for-papers/.
Please note that the 2025 CCC is conceived as an in-person event. The conference does not cover travel/accommodation costs.
For further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
