CfP: Local Horizons of Ancient Greek Religion.

Call for Papers

Local Horizons of Ancient Greek Religion

– University of Sydney, Australia –

There has recently been an upsurge of scholarly interest in diversifying our understanding of ancient Greek religion. At the same time, conceptual work on the local provides new insights into the lived experience in the ancient Greek world. The conference ‘Local Horizons of Ancient Greek Religion’ combines both lines of inquiry. The overall aim is to complicate our understanding of ancient Greek religion by exploring the local as a space for divergence, idiosyncrasy, and plurality. Rather than simply reviving the idea of polis religion, advocacy for the local perspective encourages a conception that is not confined to the political and social aggregation of the city-state alone.

A critical discussion of ancient Greek religious localism and how it can inform different areas of study is still outstanding. Recent advances in the field of local/global interactions disclose the tension between the local sphere on the one hand, and regional/universal, or Panhellenic, paradigms on the other. The individual papers of this conference will come together to explore this tension. In doing so, they will investigate the local both as a sphere of religious conduct and as a quantity in its own right that informs the exercise of religion in ancient Greece.

We anticipate participation from scholars working in the areas of Greek religion, history, philology, material culture, historical anthropology, and the other sub-disciplines of our field.

Abstracts should be about 300 words in length, and should be submitted electronically to one of the organizers, Julia Kindt (julia.kindt@sydney.edu.au) or Hans Beck (hans.beck@mcgill.ca), by February 25, 2018.

The organizers have secured base funding for the event from the Nicholas Anthony Aroney Research Fund at Sydney University and the Parochial Polis Research Network at McGill University in Montreal.

Confirmed speakers include Jan Bremmer, Diana Burton, Renaud Gagné, Greta Hawes, Barbara Kowalzig, Claire Taylor, and Susan Lupack.

Event date: November 21-22, 2018

Venue: Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia (CCANESA), The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Subsequent Publication: The organizers intend to publish a volume based on the papers of the conference with Cambridge University Press.

Hans Beck (Montreal) and Julia Kindt (Sydney)