The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is opening a call for papers for their annual meeting. The topic of this meeting is “Continuity, Transition, and Transformation of Urban Space in the Roman World,” and will be hosted Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It will take place from 2-4 January, 2025.

Throughout the Roman world, cities form a distinct locale for social and cultural interaction and are in a constant state of flux and transition. Under the lens of change and transformation, we are better able to observe the various socio-cultural dynamics and phases of development that are crucial for understanding urbanization processes of cities. Cities encompass not just the urban zones but also the surrounding suburban and rural areas. They are a combination of public and private spheres that intertwine in distinctive and fascinating ways. Over time, these spaces had various phases of occupation, abandonment, and reuse, encouraged by political, cultural, or religious events. These perhaps altered their original function and created new types of spaces and interactions within them. This panel intends to highlight the archaeology of Roman urban centers from across the Mediterranean and beyond, from the second half of the first millennium BCE to Late Antiquity. This colloquium offers a chance to explore these concepts, relationships, and the various methodologies used in archaeology and related fields to evaluate Roman urban areas

The AIA is open for papers especially pertaining to the following topics:

• Creation, use and access of spaces
• process of urbanization and deurbanization
• Cultural interactions within spaces (entanglement, colonial encounters)
• Reuse and recycling of space
• Representations of public spaces (coins, mosaics, frescoes)
• Relationships between urban, suburban and rural areas

The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2024. For more information on how to submit, please contact Katie Breyer at kbreyer@brynmawr.edu.  More information on the call for papers can be found on this flyer.