Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom

Call For Papers: We have two calls for papers. The first is an open call for proposals that address any aspect of enslavement, resistance, and freedom from enslavement in the Bible and Ancient Near East; New Testament; early Christian history; early rabbinic literature; and ancient Mediterranean history; or later interpretations of biblical, rabbinic, or other classical texts. We also welcome comparative papers, e.g., on the Bible and the Qur’an or on early Christianity and contemporary slavery, or papers on the legacies of ancient slavery for trans-Atlantic slavery. We encourage papers that show the complex experience of slavery by taking into account such various dimensions as ethnicity, age, gender, or disability, as well as relationships among slavery, religion, and specific economies. Papers might also address the theological use of slavery as a metaphor and its consequences for children and people of various ethnicities in the ancient world. Time periods addressed in any proposal may be ancient, contemporary, or any time in between. The second is a call co-sponsored with the Historical Paul session on the theme entitled “Slave Religiosity in Pauline Assemblies.” Taking Dan-El Peralta’s 2017 article “Slave Religiosity in the Roman Middle Republic” as a model, this session asks how enslaved persons might have heard of, conceived of, and practiced the Pauline gospel differently than their enslavers. We will also have an invited book review session on Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150-700 CE and an invited panel on the theme “Re-humanizing Teaching and Scholarship About Enslaved Persons.”

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