Cultural memory and religion, Birmingham 5-6 July 2010

The University of Birmingham would like to invite papers from postgraduate students and early career researchers for Day Oneof a colloquium, taking place from the 5th to the 6th of July 2010 on: "Cultural Memory and Religion in the Ancient City". The possibilities offered by Cultural Memory as a methodological tool for reading and understanding modes of behaviour in antiquity have been steadily gaining currency in recent years. The aim of this interdisciplinary colloquium is to bring together scholars and research students working on the texts and material culture of the ancient world in order to exchange ideas and approaches relating to using Cultural Memory to analyse religion in various ancient urban contexts.
The colloquium will be arranged over two days; papers given on the first day will explore new research by postgraduates and early careerists currently working on Cultural Memory in ancient societies. On the second day we will turn our gaze on Rome as a case study for lieux de mémoire with papers given by invited scholars. We warmly welcome papers from postgraduate or early career researchers on any aspect of the theme of cultural memory and religion in the ancient city. We encourage abstracts relating to any area of the ancient Mediterranean from the third millennium BC to Late Antiquity. Potential topics for papers could include but arenot limited to:

-- Religious traditions and the role of memory in their conceptionand performance
-- Architectural conceptions
-- Geographical places of memory
-- Memory and myth
-- Religious commemoration of historical events

It is hoped that a combination of speakers from a variety of disciplinesand at different stages in their work and careers will generate somefascinating and stimulating discussion that will be of use both to individual research projects and to those who are interested in taking more collaborative approaches.
Our keynote speaker is Professor Karl Galinsky (who is leading the Memoria Romana project at RuhrUniversity, Bochum), and provisionally agreed invited speakers include Thomas Kuhlmann, David Larmour, Maureen Carroll and Alain Gowing.
It is anticipated that selected papers will be published as part of a series of Birmingham volumes on Cultural Memory.
Please send abstracts of c.300 words to Phoebe Roy (prr320@bham.ac.uk) and Juliette Harrisson (JGH139@adf.bham.ac.uk) by Friday, 8th January 2010.