Shifting Frontiers

Call For Papers

Deadline: November 15, 2010

The Society for Late Antiquity announces the Ninth Biennial Conference on Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity, to be held at Penn State University (University Park) from June 23-26, 2011. The conference will explore the theme of “Politics in Late Antiquity, ca. 200-700.”

Along with the cultural and religious transformations of the late Roman and post-Roman eras, the political culture of the empire was transformed, from the aristocratic and senatorial monarchy of the early empire to the equestrian and military government of the third and fourth centuries to the emerging Christian monarchy of the Theodosian empire and beyond. Each of these traditions had a long afterlife in the post-Roman West and Byzantine East. The Program Committee seeks contributions that address any aspect of the political life of late antiquity, with particular emphasis on 1) the functioning of Roman and post-Roman government and the tensions between center and periphery 2) the gap between rhetoric and reality in the practice of politics 3) the material _expressions of politics and government, as reflected in art, architecture, and archaeological evidence.

As in the past, the conference will provide an interdisciplinary forum for ancient historians, philologists, art historians, archaeologists, and specialists in the early Christian, Jewish and Muslim worlds to discuss a wide range of European, Middle-Eastern and African evidence for cultural transformation in late antiquity. Proposals should be clearly related to the conference theme, stating both the problem to be discussed and the nature of the presenter’s conclusions.

Abstracts of no more than 500 words, for 20-minute presentations, should be sent as email (attachments in MS Word only) addressed to:

Professor Michael Kulikowski

c/o Tiffany Mayhew

108 Weaver Building

Dept of History

Penn State

University Park, PA 16802

Phone: (814) 865-1367

Email: ShiftingFrontiers2011@gmail.com