Call for Papers for the panel “Scribal Cultures of the Ancient World” at the Society for Classical Studies meeting to be held on January 7-10 2026 in San Francisco, organized by Michael A. Freeman (Texas Tech University).
The copying and transmission of ancient texts is an issue with high stakes. Yet, when we think about the works of Aristotle, Cicero, or the Gospel writers, we have not always considered the individuals through whom our ancient sources were filtered, the hands that copied and transmitted texts. Ancient Mediterranean scribes were generally not of an elite class and many were enslaved people. As a result, their trade was considered low-status by the elite writers we often hear from and erased from discussions of how texts came to be written. However, the lives of these often-marginalized people are central to understanding how ancient books were produced and information transmitted. Recent flourishing of scholarship focused on the “human” and “embodied” aspects of scribal culture has begun to restore critical knowledge about the history of ancient reading and writing culture broadly, knowledge that is otherwise inaccessible because it is inseparably bound up with the scribe’s humanity.
This panel aims to study not just ancient texts and manuscripts but the human lives, bodies and experiences of their readers and writers. The panel is especially interested in showcasing papers that explore topics such as:
-Comparative studies of reading and writing cultures beyond the ancient Mediterranean world, including ancient and pre-modern Sub-Saharan Africa, the Near East, East Asia, India, Central and South America
-Approaches to understanding ancient scribal culture through historical calligraphy or experimental archaeology
-The social backgrounds and lived experiences of ancient readers, writers, and scribes
-The lives and experiences of enslaved literate workers
-The intersection of the scribal social history with disability studies, gender studies, or ecocriticism
-The role of the scribe in the creation/curation of ancient libraries and archives
Please send abstracts for a 15-20 minute paper by 24th February 2025 to [email protected] with the subject heading “Scribal Cultures of the Ancient World.” Abstracts should be 500 words or fewer (excluding bibliography) and should follow the guidelines for individual abstracts (see the SCS Guidelines for Authors of Abstracts). The abstracts will be judged anonymously and so should not reveal the author’s name, but the email should provide name, abstract title, and affiliation. Decisions will be communicated to the abstracts’ authors by the end of March, with enough time that those whose abstracts are not chosen can participate in the individual abstract submission process for the upcoming SCS meeting.
