Religious World of Late Antiquity

Call For Papers: This year the Religious World of Late Antiquity will host four sessions. The first, co-sponsored with the Greco-Roman Religions section, will be on the theme “Twilights of the Greco-Roman Religions.” Papers are invited that investigate the varied and multiple afterlives of Greek and Roman religions in the Mediterranean world into Late Antiquity. A special emphasis is placed on the different trajectories into a post-classical religious world, in terms of continuities and discontinuities as part of broader processes, as well as intersectionalities, that is, not only a focus on individual cultic formations and discourses, but also the intersection of these processes with larger cultural shifts, and demographic changes. The second, a pre-invited panel called “Late Antiquity: Five Fragments” will offer close readings of a range of secondary or technical sources outside the field, in order to investigate provocative problems, ideas, and disciplinary techniques for scholars who study the late ancient world. The third, an invited session, will focus on experts and expertise in late antiquity. The final session is an OPEN CALL for graduate students who are currently writing dissertations about any dimension of late antiquity. We are specifically interested in papers that discuss how students are thinking with and about theory and method in their own research: How do you distinguish theory from method in your work? Do you engage with theory implicitly or explicitly in your work? Does any one work of theory stand out for you, and why? The session will function as a forum in which graduate students can discuss not only “what” they are writing about, but also “how” they are doing so. Presenters will be given 15 minutes and be paired with a respondent.

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