Late Antiquity and the New Humanities (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Heidi Marx-Wolf
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Manitoba
Presider Name
Heidi Marx-Wolf
Paper Title 1
Discussant
Presenter 1 Name
Philip Rousseau
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Catholic Univ. of America
Paper Title 2
Discussant
Presenter 2 Name
Anthony Kaldellis
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Ohio State Univ.
Paper Title 3
Discussant
Presenter 3 Name
Mira Balberg
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Northwestern Univ.
Paper Title 4
Discussant
Presenter 4 Name
Ellen Muehlberger
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Paper Title 5
Discussant
Presenter 5 Name
Catherine Chin
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Univ. of California-Davis
Start Date
16-5-2015 1:30 PM
Session Location
Valley II Garneau 205
Description
This panel will explore what has changed since the emergence of "late antiquity" as a field of study with which scholars identify. Panelists will offer critical reflections on the growth of late antiquity as an identifiable scholarly field, on its origins or its boundaries (both explicit and implicit), and on its future. Because the emergence of late antiquity in the last fifty years owes a great deal to scholars who chose to step outside the boundaries of their disciplines—into cultural studies, or anthropology, or political science—panelists will also reflect on the study of late antiquity in the context of what some call "the new humanities," meaning the expanding range of analog and digital approaches and methodologies available to humanists. Panelists will attempt to gauge the state of late ancient studies as a whole, as well as the increasing collaboration between those scholars of late antiquity who study texts and those who work in material culture. Finally, panelists will also discuss best strategies for teaching late ancient materials. Topics covered by panelists will include: periodization (for instance, late antiquity, the post-classical and early medieval worlds), geographic designations (for instance, Byzantium, the West, and the East), research methods, the place of Jewish history and Rabbinic texts in late ancient studies, and novel approaches to doing history in this period (for instance, speculative fiction as history writing).
Heidi Marx-Wolf
Late Antiquity and the New Humanities (A Roundtable)
Valley II Garneau 205
This panel will explore what has changed since the emergence of "late antiquity" as a field of study with which scholars identify. Panelists will offer critical reflections on the growth of late antiquity as an identifiable scholarly field, on its origins or its boundaries (both explicit and implicit), and on its future. Because the emergence of late antiquity in the last fifty years owes a great deal to scholars who chose to step outside the boundaries of their disciplines—into cultural studies, or anthropology, or political science—panelists will also reflect on the study of late antiquity in the context of what some call "the new humanities," meaning the expanding range of analog and digital approaches and methodologies available to humanists. Panelists will attempt to gauge the state of late ancient studies as a whole, as well as the increasing collaboration between those scholars of late antiquity who study texts and those who work in material culture. Finally, panelists will also discuss best strategies for teaching late ancient materials. Topics covered by panelists will include: periodization (for instance, late antiquity, the post-classical and early medieval worlds), geographic designations (for instance, Byzantium, the West, and the East), research methods, the place of Jewish history and Rabbinic texts in late ancient studies, and novel approaches to doing history in this period (for instance, speculative fiction as history writing).
Heidi Marx-Wolf