Appel à contribution – CRASIS Annual Meeting and Master Class

​​​CRISIS!
The identification, analysis, and commemoration of crises in the ancient world

​Keynote and Master: Prof. Monika Trümper (FU Berlin)

​​CRASIS, the interdisciplinary research institute for the study of the ancient world at the University of Groningen, is organizing its fourth Annual Meeting and Master Class. CRASIS brings together researchers from Classics, Religious Studies, Ancient History, Late Antiquity Studies, Archaeology, Ancient Philosophy, and Legal History, focusing on Greek and Roman societies as well as on Jewish and Near Eastern civilizations and their mutual interaction. The CRASIS Annual Meeting and Master Class is a two-day event, set up as a meeting place for students at PhD or Research Master level, Post-Docs, and senior staff to promote discussion and exchange of ideas beyond disciplinary boundaries.

We cordially invite PhD and Research Master Students, Post-Doctoral Researchers, as well as Senior Researchers to submit a proposal for the CRASIS Annual Meeting and PhD/ReMa Master Class (5-6 February 2015).

The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting and Master Class will be: CRISIS! The identification, analysis, and commemoration of crises in the ancient world. Crises – natural and manmade – are an ever present phenomenon in modern society. Our media report daily about crises on local, regional, and global levels, focusing on dramatic events and their immediate effects in terms of casualties, material damage, and monetary losses. While long-term perspectives on consequences of and responses to crises receive far less attention in the modern world, some, such as the 9/11 attacks, quickly become part of a vividly cultivated collective memory. Reconstructing crises in the past requires a differentiated, dynamic interdisciplinary scholarly approach that involves new data and refined methods.

This Annual Meeting focuses on coping with crises and the memory of crises in the ancient world. What is known about the definition, nature, perception, and commemoration of crises in the ancient world? Using a broad understanding of the concept, from warfare, civil war, religious and political persecutions, to natural disaster, crop failure, economic downfall, and state collapse, this meeting brings together literary, material, as well as environmental and documentary sources​. Three key issues are central to the debate: 1. the correlation of different (textual, archaeological, natural) sources, which may follow one narrative, or tell several and contradictory stories; 2. the commemoration and memory of crises in past societies, and the ways and strategies of coping with crises; and 3. the place and interpretation of ancient crises in modern scholarship.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Identification: How can crisis be identified?
• Analysis: How can crisis be studied; which evidence is available; which theories and methods can be used?
• Response: How did ancient societies react to crises (institutionally, culturally, politically, religiously)?
• Memory: How was crisis, and the way it was overcome, represented in the sources? Was crisis consciously commemorated in texts, monuments, artworks, or the landscape? Or is crisis only indirectly reflected in ancient sources (e.g., ruined buildings in the midst of cities; dietary stress visible in bones; changes in settlement and burial patterns)?
• Assessment: How are crises, responses, and consequences portrayed and assessed in modern scholarship, in terms of concept and terminology (decline, collapse, downfall, renaissance, renewal, renovation, resilience, resistance)?

Keynote Speaker and Master

This year’s Keynote Speaker and Master is Monika Trümper, professor of Classical Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin. Her broad-based expertise is evident in her publications on topics that range from architecture, urbanism, and settlement archaeology to Graeco-Roman bathing culture and slave markets. She currently conducts fieldwork at Morgantina (Sicily) and investigates narratives of crises following the Roman conquest of this settlement.

Deadline for Abstracts

PhD and Research Master Students are invited to submit a topic proposal (500 words) for the Master Class (February 5^th) explaining how their own research relates to the theme. We invite Post-Docs and senior scholars to submit a title and short abstract (250 words) for a lecture on the second day (February 6^th). Proposals should be submitted no later than ​10 November 2014 with Tamara Dijkstra, via crasis.aws@rug.nl. When possible, CRASIS will contribute to travel and accommodation costs.

Information for PhD/ReMa Students

Research Master students are expected to submit a paper of 3000-4000 words and PhD students a paper of 5000-6000 words. These papers will circulate among the participants and are to be submitted before 5 January 2015. During the Master Class participants will present their paper, followed by a response and discussion under the expert guidance of Professor Monika Trümper. The Master Class is an OIKOS and ARCHON activity and students will earn ​3 ​ECTS by active participation.

For more information, send an e-mail to crasis.aws@rug.nl or see: http://www.rug.nl/crasis.