“The Age of Sensing”:  
The 5^th International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology

October 13-15, 2014
Duke University, Durham, NC
http://space2place.classicalstudies.duke.edu

The 1990s will be remembered in the history archaeology as the age of GIS. At that time, the introduction of digital technology in archaeological research was in its infancy. In the following decade, however, the archaeological community became aware of the need for consistency in approach with rapid advances in software and hardware making it possible to envisage a significant renewal of the archaeological process. This was the age of the Digital Revolution.
Now, in the early years of the present decade we feel that we are ready – or at least nearly ready – to embrace new methods of recording, interpreting, conceptualizing and communicating archaeological data and relationships across the passage of time. In the next few years, we will have the opportunity to blend the physical world with a sensory-rich ‘virtual’ world where archaeologists can naturally and intuitively manipulate, navigate and remotely share interpretations and case studies. Our understanding of archaeology will be taken to a new level, enhancing our capacity to develop interpretations and to present them to fellow specialists and to the general public as simulated scenarios in 4D.  This is the Age of Sensing.
The theme of the 5^th International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology is “The Age of Sensing.”  We are seeking abstracts and workshop proposals relating to any of the following topics:
– Large Scale Remote Sensing
– Close Range Sensing
– 3D Modeling
– Body sensing
– Immersive Sensing
– Aerial Photography
– GIS and Sensing
– Spatial Technologies and Landscape
– Virtual Landscapes
– Integrated Technologies
– Intra and inter-site Applications
– Lidar Applications
– Geophysics
– Sensing and Urban Context
– Cultural Resource Management
– Drones and UAV
– Close Range Sensing
– Remote Sensing
– Virtual Reality and Cyber-Archaeology
– Defining High Standards
– Commercial Archaeological Remote Sensing
For papers:
Please submit an abstract of 300-500 words (Times New Roman, 11pt font, standard margins) by March 31, 2014.  Seehttps://space2place.classicalstudies.duke.edu/submission for the submission form.
For workshops:
Please submit a proposal by March 31, 2014 to space2place@duke.edu, including a title, number of participants (expected), technical requirements (equipment needed), and a description of the workshop.

Call for Papers for the Archaeological Review from Cambridge

Seen and unseen spaces

Volume 30.1, April 2015

Vision is the element of ancient sensory experience most readily accessible to archaeological methodologies. Monumentality and display, intervisibility, the aesthetics of materials and the provision of light – to name but a few areas of archaeological inquiry explicitly linked to sight – all add to our interpretation of the meaning and use of ancient space, taken here in an inclusive sense to mean both the built environment and the wider landscape.
Equally important is the corollary of not seeing, and recent archaeological studies have rightly emphasized the role of the unseen in shaping past perceptions of space – that which is intentionally or inadvertently hidden or masked, implicitly understood, or even ignored and overlooked. ‘Seeing’, after all, is not just the phenomenon of sight alone, but also the act of meaningful perception.
The visibility or invisibility of space and the people and things it can contain may be closely related to issues such as power and control, identity, privacy, gender and culturally specific ideas of appropriateness at all levels of past human society. A few of the important questions that arise are: how and why are given spaces created, adapted or utilised in order to enhance or negate visibility? What people or institutions are responsible for this shaping of space, and in doing so, who or what has been made more or less visible? Who is intended to see or not see these spaces? At the same time, how are spaces made meaningful through the manifestation of seen elements such as material culture, architecture and the presence and performance of people, or conversely through aspects of the unseen such as memory and the enculturation of social norms? Finally, how do we ensure that contemporary archaeological interpretations of the significance of seen and unseen spaces actually reflect the worldviews and perceptions of the people we study, which most likely differed significantly from our own?
The theme editors welcome papers using any theoretical and methodological approach to address aspects of the seen and unseen in any time period and area of the world. We also encourage contributions working at any scale of archaeological space – from landscape to settlement and house to burial chamber. Possible themes might include (but are not restricted to):

• Aspects of privacy, display and control in settlement, mortuary and landscape contexts
• Archaeological approaches to vision, experience and perception
• The visualisation and reconstruction of ancient sites and landscapes
• Interpretations of how space is made meaningful through aspects of the seen and unseen
• The integration of archaeological-scale data and patterning with human-scale perception

Abstracts of no more than 500 words describing your potential paper should be sent to Mat Dalton (mnd27@cam.ac.uk), Georgie Peters (gp377@cam.ac.uk) and Ana Tavares (at630@cam.ac.uk) by the 14th February 2014. First drafts of papers (of no more than 4000 words) will be due in early June 2014.
The Archaeological Review from Cambridge is a not-for-profit journal managed and published on a voluntary basis by postgraduate archaeology research students at the University of Cambridge. Issues are published twice a year. Although primarily rooted in archaeological theory and practice, the ARC accommodates a wide range of perspectives in the hope of establishing a strong, interdisciplinary journal which will be of interest to those engaged in a range of fields, and therefore breaking down some of the boundaries that exist between disciplines.

GENERAL CALL FOR PAPERS
Symposia is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal for scholars in the humanities and social sciences who identify religion as an important consideration in their research. We invite submissions of original research papers on any topic that critically engages the study of religion.
SPECIAL TOPIC CALL FOR PAPERS: MEDIATION
Following the success of “Media Fever!,” the 2013 Graduate Student Conference at the University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion, this year’s issue of Symposia invites papers on the theme of religion and mediation.
Religions are mediated through people such as shamans, pastors, neighbours, and devotees; through material objects such as amulets, scripture, paintings, and architecture; and through ideas such as theology, popular culture and superstition. Each of these mediators changes, adds layers, and affects our perception and understanding of religions. This issue of Symposia is interested in the material that filters the religious through itself and the interplay between the mediator and the mediated: the in-betweens. We welcome articles that address the mediation of religion broadly conceived, in contexts of anthropology, area studies, classical studies, cultural studies, diaspora and transnational studies, gender and diversity studies, geography, history, philology, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology, as well as those that extend the subject across historical and geographical
boundaries.
SUGGESTED TOPICS
The following sub-fields allow for a flexible interpretation of this volume’s theme, as well as encourage submissions reflecting a broad spectrum of interests and disciplines:
• Critical reflections on the turn to mediation and different notions of mediation
• Analyses of the absorption and transformation of practices through new media
• The social processes that shape religious mediation
• Conflict and struggles over practices of mediation
• The role of intermediary objects, figures, and institutions that stand between an audience and deities, the divine, or religious ideas
• The uses of concepts, ideas, and language that mediate “religion,” “religions,” and the “religious”
• How medial bodies raise the question of religious experience
• Hybridity, in-betweenness, liminality and religion
• How media technologies are incorporated and reconfigured by religious practice
• Mediation beyond the turn to material culture
Articles written in clear, grammatical, and fluent English or French will be considered. Articles should not exceed 25 pages in length. The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 21, 2014.
Articles should be submitted by email to symposiajournal@gmail.com.
CALL FOR BOOK REVIEWS
The editorial team also extends a call for reviews of any academic publication relevant to the study of religion and released within the 2012 to 2013 calendar years. Due to high demand in the past, this year’s volume will publish a limited number of reviews. Reviewers should act quickly to secure one of these slots.
Reviewers are asked to submit the title of the book to be reviewed no later than Friday, February 7, 2014. Every effort will be made to secure a review copy of the text. Please note, however, the review copies cannot be guaranteed and may take up to 12 weeks to arrive. Please indicate if you do not require a review copy. Completed reviews should not exceed 750 words in length and are to be submitted no later than Friday, May 2, 2014.
Requests for review copies and completed reviews should be submitted by email to symposiajournal@gmail.com.
Past issues of the journal can be viewed at http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/symposia/index.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology (JIIA)
Peer reviewed online journal.
Available at http://www.jiia.it
Editor: Dr. Antonella D’Ascoli
Thematic issue: Consumption of perfumed oil in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East: funerary rituals and other case studies / Consumo di olii profumati nel Mediterraneo e Vicino e Medio Oriente: riti funerari ed altri usi.
The ‘Journal of intercultural and interdisciplinary archaeology’ (JIIA) invites the submission of papers for a forthcoming issue focusing on the consumption of perfumed oil in the ancient Mediterranean. One of the earliest known uses has been associated to funerary rituals (purification of bones) in the Hittite kingdom. In Egypt, oils and ointments were part of the mummification process as well as personal luxuries used by those in life. Since those first instances, perfumed oils have been present in many cultures of the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean. The Mycenaean palaces mass produced perfumed oil and later in Italy the same product resurfaces in Italy and Greece associated to funerary rituals referring to the cult of heroes.
The proposed thematic issue intends to gather multiple perspectives, including scientific ones on the chemistry of the oils themselves, if available, across the whole Mediterranean and spanning from the Bronze to the Iron Ages. The purpose is to evidence similarities and differences in rituals and consumption, attempting to follow a specific product across regional and chronological boundaries. Mediterranean archaeologists often erect artificial boundaries in time and space due to their high specialisation, in order to make the archaeological record more manageable. One of the key aims of JIIA is to discuss themes that help cross boundaries and bridge specialisms. Contributions able to report on and further our understanding of the production and consumption of perfumed oils are invited from any archaeological perspective. It is hoped to publish a number of papers presenting different case studies.
The Journal is an online peer-reviewed academic journal, which is being relaunched after a test run. A limited printed run is planned for the New Series 2014.
Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words to Dr. Antonella D’Ascoli ad@ngi.it by 15 February 2014.
Accepted papers should not exceed 5,000 words with colour figures at 300 dpi (CMYK). Deadline for first drafts is March 20, 2014, final publication is expected by April 2014.

Don’t miss the annual meeting of the

North American Theoretical Archaeology Group

TAG USA, May 23-25, 2014

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Twitter @tag2014uiuc
www.regonline.com/TAG2014
Facebook: Theoretical Archaeology Group – USA

Since 2008, the TAG-USA conference has provided a vibrant link between American and European archaeologists. This year, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is hosting TAG. Converge on Urbana for a lively 2014 meeting in the true tradition of TAG. There will be a plenary on Friday evening featuring Benjamin Alberti, Mary Weismantel, Kim Tallbear, and Rosemary Joyce, two days of break-out sessions on Saturday and Sunday, a special art exhibition (see below), and a Saturday night dance—not-to-be missed. In addition, attendees can take part in two new TAG events: the first is a Friday-evening Theoretical Bar Crawl featuring a series of prominent archaeologists in their natural state (with a prize to the winning crawler); the second will be a TAG Post-Mortem session! Finally, optional tours of the archaeological complexes of Cahokia and Emerald, 30 minutes from St. Louis, will be offered on Sunday the 25th or Monday the 26th, for anyone flying through St. Louis or wishing to make the 3-hour trip south of Urbana-Champaign.
Call for Regular Sessions and Papers—DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JANUARY 31!
At this time, we invite session proposals from organizers on any topic that falls within the purview of TAG. Go to the TAG2014 website to begin. Regular session proposals (max 400 words) are due by January 31, 2014.  By February 2014, a list of sessions will be announced on this website, along with the session organizers’ email addresses. At that time, potential participants should send individual paper abstracts (max 300 words) directly to the session organizers by email (deadline March 7, 2014). Session organizers are responsible for selecting papers, and for sending the complete session roster along with all paper abstracts and titles to the TAG-UIUC committee by March 21, 2014. Session organizers, please note that break-out rooms will be equipped with PCs and LCD projectors. Requests for any AV equipment other than in-room computers should be made by March 21, 2014.
Special Call for Artist’s Proposals
Artists are encouraged to participate, as art and its myriad forms, representations, and styles are well suited to convey and expound on this theme. Artists are asked to present their original work in order to generate new ideas, stimulate discussion, and, ultimately, initiate convergences in alternative media. All sessions will be held on Saturday and Sunday, May 24-25, in the Colonial Room of Lincoln Hall on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus (see http://illinois.edu/map/view). Space is limited and no projection equipment will be provided! Each artist will have a 2 x 2-meter display space, and easels or tables may be provided upon request. The room will be overseen by TAG conference volunteers during the day, but artists are encouraged to remain near their work when possible to answer questions and facilitate discussion. Security is not available for the space overnight, though it will be under lock and key during this time. Applicants must submit an abstract (max 300 words) of the proposed project/display to coordinators Jacob Skousen (bskousen@illinois.edu) and Robert Rohe (robert.rohe@gmail.com) by March 7, 2014. Please explain your project, how it fits with the TAG theme, and how you will install and present your project in the space constraints outlined above. Any questions or concerns should be addressed to the coordinators.

Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto

Call for Papers — Annual Graduate Symposium April 24th – 25th, 2014

The Methods to Our Madness?

An Inquiry into Methodology in the Study of Religion

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Steven Engler (Mount Royal University)

New Deadline for Submissions: January 27th, 2014

 
The identity of the academic study of religion might be characterized paradoxically: first, the study of religions is a field of academic inquiry that is theoretically diverse and methodologically rich; second, lacking methodological orthodoxy, scholarly approaches to the study of religion are unpredictable and chaotic, or, as some may see it, mad. Underlying both descriptions is the problem of methodological variability in the study of religion. The spirit of diverse intellectual curiosity, arguably the chief strength of our field, is at times akin to “madness”—that is, characterized by chaos and disorder. And yet, many scholars have pointed out the generative and creative potential of that which is deemed chaotic. In this light, justifying our disciplinary existence is critical to discussions that reflect on the study of religion’s goals and limits, and is crucial for thinking about the future of the study of religions.
Several questions arise from these issues: is there something inherently diverse about “religion” which compels its study to be diverse in methodology? Does the image of order applied to chaos, or of method given to madness accurately reflect the task of scholars of religion? In what ways has the paradigm of “application” been replicated in our contemporary methodologies? How can we complicate this style of approach? What changes, either in method or in theory, when the study of religion appropriates the methods of other disciplines?
We invite papers that consider the following topics and related questions:
• madness, chaos, or disorder in philosophical, historical, or anthropological contexts.
• the use of philosophical concepts in the study of religion.
• complications of the natural scientific paradigm of “method” in the study of religions.
• area studies that address specific practices, rituals, or beliefs.
• critical reflections on “the material turn,” and its larger implications for method.
• the (im)possibility of knowledge given the difficulties of source transmission or collection.
• the historical development of the study of religion in general.
• questions about taxonomy and categorization.
• reflections on the discipline or “(un)discipline” of religious studies in light of the problems associated with method.
Interested applicants are to submit 250-300 word proposals including paper title, five keywords, author name, institutional affiliation, and contact information to Zoe Anthony at methodsofmadness2014@gmail.com by January 27th, 2014. Successful applicants will be notified by mid February.

Renovatio, inventio, absentia imperii

From the Roman Empire to Contemporary Imperialism

(International conference, Brussels, 11-13 September, 2014)

 
At the occasion of the 75^th anniversary of the Academia Belgica; conference organized by the Academia Belgica (Rome), with the support of the Belgian Historical Institute in Rome, and the Princess Marie-José Foundation
 
PRACTICAL INFORMATION AND PROCEDURE:
Venue and date:
Brussels, 11-13 September, 2014

PROCEDURE:
-Abstract proposals (max. 1 p.) for papers are to be sent, accompanied by an academic c.v. (max. 3 pp.: institutional affiliation, academic publications, academic degrees,…), to empire2014brussels@gmail.com, before January 31^st, 2014. Notification of acceptance: February 25^th, 2014.
-Publication of the proceedings will take place after the selection and evaluation of the definitive papers, which are to be submitted not later than November 30^th, 2014.
 
Description of the conference theme:
Renovatio, inventio, absentia imperii. From the Roman Empire to Contemporary Imperialism
 
At the heart of the present conference will be the ‘reception’, ‘Nachleben’ or ‘permanence’ of the Roman Empire, of an idea and a historical paradigm which since Classical Antiquity has supported the most widespread claims to obtain and consolidate power. The focus will be on ‘culture’, this latter concept intended in a broad sense, i.e. including not only the arts, architecture, literature etc., but also philosophy, religion and, most importantly, discourse. As such, a wide array of themes will be subjected to academic scrutiny. Whereas the main focus will be on Europe and North America, this conference will also reach out towards non-Western contexts, whether or not directly related to the Roman example.
A theoretical and sociological dimension will join, and ideally integrate, the discussion, by means of the involvement of methodological issues relevant to the conference theme. More specifically, the following question(s) will receive particular attention: what is our position as researchers, embedded in a contemporary, often Western, democratic and capitalist context; what about the notion of empire itself, its constituent elements and the kind of ideological prerogatives to which it is generally subjected; in other words, apart from the many historical variants and instances of reception of empire, through which filters can, and inevitably do we approach this topic? Because the world has changed ever more radically since the beginning of the 21st century: after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the events of September 11, 2001 have inaugurated a revivified American ‘imperialism’, whereas at about the same time an essentially economic variant, driven by ‘emerging’ powers such as China, has increasingly contested existing power structures.
In light of such meta-historical awareness, the present conference will as much inform about the nature of the Roman Empire as it will about its historical legacy and, more importantly so, those who claim the latter inheritance throughout the most diverse epochs. Indeed, by discussing some highly contrasting views upon this topic, participants will explore issues that are of fundamental importance to the writing, creation and negotiation not only of cultural history, but also of history itself.
 
The conference will consist of a series of thematic sessions, each of which will offer viewpoints originating from the most varied temporal and geographical contexts. More particularly, proposals for papers related to the four following thematic axes are invited:
 
Session °1: Rome and its heritage. The legacy of the Imperium Romanum in European culture from Classical Antiquity to the rise of the European superpowers (1^st century-19^th century CE)
 
Session °2: Radically changing perspectives on a historical category: the Roman Empire in the contemporary era
 
Session °3: The imaginary empire. Performance and representation of power
 
Session °4: Empires without Rome?