Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire: New Evidence, New Approaches (4th–6th centuries)
Call for papers
Budapest, 7-10 March 2013
Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
An International Conference organized by the
Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest
in cooperation with the University of Pécs and the Hungarian Patristic Society
After a successful conference that focused on the city of Rome in September 2012 (“Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome”), we invite papers for a second conference devoted to examining pagan-Christian interactions across the Roman Empire. This conference seeks to consider new evidence and new approaches to the material and textual remains that bear on the value of these categories in the Roman Empire between the fourth and the sixth centuries. Did these labels – pagans and Christians - matter in the daily lives of late Romans? Or are they only relevant in moments of conflict or for historians? To what degree does geography make a difference in assessing the nature of pagan-Christian relations? And, how does the presence of other religious groups – Jews and heretics, Manichees and schismatics – affect our understanding of pagan-Christian interactions in different times and places across the empire?
To facilitate a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary conversation, we encourage scholars working in any discipline – history, archaeology, art history, religious studies, classical studies - to submit abstracts for papers that address the issue of pagan-Christian relation across the empire. The organizers are particularly interested in papers that focus on new material evidence, new interpretations of texts or new interpretive paradigms with which to approach relations between pagans and Christians in the fourth - sixth centuries of the Roman Empire. The proceedings of the conference will be published.
Participants whose papers are accepted for presentation will be offered accommodation in Budapest and a field trip along the Danube limes to Pécs, with a visit to the late fourth-century Roman cemetery. We cannot, however, underwrite travel expenses.
Please send proposals of 400 words for 20-minute papers in English by 25 November 2012 to saghym@ceu.hu
Marianne Sághy Rita Lizzi Testa Michele Salzman
CEU Budapest Università di Perugia University of California Riverside