XXIV Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity
Slavery in Late Antiquity

Sorry for potential cross-posting - 2nd call - deadline for abstracts May 2nd

Tvärminne, Finland
11–12 November, 2016

The multidisciplinary Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity will be  
organized on 11–12 November 2016. The symposium brings together  
scholars and postgraduate students of Late Antiquity from a variety of  
universities and academic disciplines.

The theme of this year’s symposium is Slavery in Late Antiquity.  
Research on slavery in the late Roman Empire and in the post-Roman  
kingdoms has been expanding and evolving in the recent decades. The  
theme will be approached from a wide perspective, including social,  
economic, political, legal, ideological and religious levels. We  
welcome papers that discuss slavery from the point of view of  
landowning, local differences, changes in rural and urban settings,  
alterations in ideas and attitudes, and modifications in status and  
everyday life. Papers that analyse scholarly approaches to late  
antique slavery are also welcome.

Please send a short abstract of 250–300 words along with your name,  
institution, e-mail and title by 2nd May 2016 to Dr. Ville Vuolanto:  
ville.vuolanto(at)uta.fi. Applicants will be informed by 1st June 2016  
whether they have been accepted. 20 minutes is reserved for each  
presentation, plus 10 minutes for discussion.

***

The keynote speakers of the symposium are:

Chris De Wet: Emancipating the Spirit: Late Ancient Slavery in/and the  
Religious Thought of Eunomius and Basil of Caesarea. Prof. De Wet (New  
Testament and Early Christian Studies, University of South Africa), is  
specialist of slavery in early Christianity and early Christian Greek  
and Latin literature, especially John Chrystostom. His next book The  
Unbound God: Slavery and the Making of Early Christian Theology will  
be published this year.

Marianne Bjelland Kartzow: The Paradox of Slavery in Early Christian  
Discourse: An Intersectional Approach. Prof. Kartzow (New Testament  
Studies at the University of Oslo) has worked with theories of gossip  
and other types of oral communication in the ancient world, and  
written books and articles related to gender and slavery in early  
Christian texts.

Marja Vierros: Slaves in the Sixth Century Palestine in the Light of  
Papyrological Evidence.
Dr Vierros (Classics, University of Helsinki) is specialist of Greek  
papyrology and linguistics. She is author of Bilingual Notaries in  
Hellenistic Egypt. A Study of Greek as a Second Language (2012) and  
has been involved in publishing the Byzantine papyrus dossier found in  
Petra, Jordan.

***

The symposium is free, but the number of participants we can take is  
limited. It will be organized at the Tvärminne Zoological Station on  
the southern coast of Finland. We offer transportation from Helsinki  
to Tvärminne and the return journey, as well as accommodation (one  
night) and meals in Tvärminne. However, we are not able to cover any  
travel costs to or accommodation in Helsinki. Registration for the  
symposium starts on 1 October and closes on 26 October 2016.

The symposium is organised by
Maijastina Kahlos, University of Helsinki,
Ulla Tervahauta, University of Helsinki and
Ville Vuolanto, University of Tampere / University of Oslo.

Internet pages of the symposium are to be found here:  
http://www.helsinki.fi/worldcultures/fsla/papers.html.

The Symposium is funded by the Centre of Excellence “Reason and  
Religious Recognition”, Faculty of Theology; Jaakko Frösen Fund; and  
Department of World Cultures, Faculty of Humanities, University of  
Helsinki.