Call for Papers!

Cracking Open the Contact Zone: Imperialism and Indigenous Interaction in Antiquity Department of Classical Studies, Brandeis University Annual Graduate Conference

Keynote Speaker: Linda Gosner, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan

Conference Date: April 4th, 2020

The Department of Classical Studies at Brandeis University invites submissions of abstracts for our Annual Graduate Student Conference. This year’s conference examines ways in which indigenous populations interacted with imperial powers in the ancient world. This conference provides a platform for papers exploring the relationship between the conqueror and the conquered, especially in examining modes of resistance, daily life living under occupation, imperialist policies toward conquered peoples, and the socioeconomic effects of imperialism. Priority will be given to papers examining indigenous interaction with imperialism in the ancient world, but other topics related to the conference theme will be considered. We welcome submissions from graduate students of all levels and from disciplines including: Anthropology, Art History, Classics, Comparative Literature, History, Jewish Studies, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sexuality Studies, and Women’s Studies.

Possible submission topics include, but are not limited to: 

  • The justification of imperialist thought in literature
  • The colonizer’s view of the colonized, or vice versa
  • The effects of imperial policy on the lives of people living in occupied territories
  • Cultural hybridity in the contact zones of empire
  • Indigenous voices that have been silenced in the historical and archaeological records

Papers must be original, unpublished works authored by current graduate students. Please send an abstract (no more than 300 words), a paper title, and a C.V. in PDF (.pdf) format to Michelle Heeman, Elizabeth Randolph, and Michael Hall at classics@brandeis.edu. Papers should be 15-minutes in length and will be followed by a 5-minute question and answer session. The deadline for submissions is January 1st, 2020. Selected speakers will be notified by January 15th for the April 4th, 2020 conference.