The UK Punic Network Graduate Workshop creates an opportunity for graduate students working on Phoenician and Punic topics at Masters and Doctoral level to meet and discuss their work with students and staff with similar interests based at other universities. This series of meetings is one of the results of the British School at Rome/Libyan Society Punic Project, and in particular the conference held in Rome in November 2008 on ‘Identifying the Punic Mediterranean’. It has taken place in the past at Glasgow University (2009, 2011) and at Oxford University (2010, 2013, 2014), and will next take place in Durham University on Wednesday March 18^th 2015, from approximately 9 am – 6 pm. The workshop is sponsored by the Oxford Centre for Phoenician and Punic Studies (http://punic.classics.ox.ac.uk) and is held in association with Collingwood College and the Centre for the Study of the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East. The day is primarily aimed at students and staff working in the UK, but is open to anyone who is interested, on a first-come, first-served basis.

This is a call for papers for this meeting. As has become traditional, there will be two kinds of presentations: one of about 20-25 minutes that enables people to report on research that is well underway or (practically) completed and one of about 5-10 minutes that offers an opportunity to signal work that is just beginning, or try out specific ideas. Those interested in presenting their work should send a title and an abstract of up to 250 words to either Mark Woolmer ([email protected]) or Luke Evans ([email protected]) by Friday January 9^th 2015, along with an indication of whether their contribution is supposed to be one of the longer or shorter papers. Anyone else interested in attending the workshop should contact us to register by the same date, as space is limited. Please also email us with any other queries.

Unfortunately, we are unable to assist with general travel and accommodation expenses: however, accepted speakers can apply for a scholarship to cover the costs of two night’s bed and breakfast in Collingwood College. We currently have eight such bursaries which will be allocated according to evidence of need and merit of proposal. UK-based graduate students are reminded that they can apply to the Wiedemann Fund for assistance with travel expenses (http://www.thomaswiedemann.org.uk/), and all those interested in attending are reminded that accommodation in Collingwood College can be reserved by contacting Mrs Glenda Reed ([email protected]).

Beauty in the Beast:

Mutants, Monsters, and Monstrosities in the Ancient World

A Graduate Student Symposium at the Johns Hopkins University

Keynote Speaker: Robert Garland, Colgate University

Monsters, as it is often conceived, have neither beauty nor kindness. However, the Latin word monstrum merely indicates the manifestation of something extraordinary, whether it be a physical being, a psychological disposition, a supernatural apparition, or a divine portent. Mutants, on the other hand, are beings with abnormal abilities. However, the word is a derivative of the Latin verb mutare, meaning “to change.” Yet, in the ancient world, these terms were commonly used to describe monstrosities, which challenged normativity.

Myth in both literature and the visual arts can challenge our common perceptions of mutants and monsters. Beautiful Arachne was punished and transformed into a horrid spider by Athena, but her weaving was nonetheless marvelous. Polyphemus, a cannibalistic ogre, still fostered all-consuming love for beautiful Galatea.

History tells of a different monster. The tyrants and kings of questionable sanity may have been unjustly incriminated and [mis]identified as monsters, while their clemency faded from memory. Conversely, deformities and disabilities, veiling inner-beauty, oftentimes warranted inequity and discrimination. Moreover, physiognomy could indicate inner moral values or contradict them, as in the case of Socrates, whom Plato and Xenophon describe as having a satyr-like appearance, all the while bearing moral excellence.

The goal of this graduate symposium is to explore the beauty, physical or abstract, in monstrosities of the ancient world. This may include, but is not limited to, mutants, monsters, and villains in literature and artistic representations, historical evildoers, the maniacal, who may have been erroneously antagonized, and the common ugly, judged at face value.

We invite graduate students from the departments of Classics, Archaeology, History, History of Art, Near Eastern Studies, and Writing to submit their abstract of ca. 350 words or less by December 1^st, 2014 to be considered for The Johns Hopkins Classics Graduate Symposium.  Please email [email protected]. Accepted graduate students will receive reimbursement for part of their room & board and travel costs.

Warm regards,

Michele Asuni

Laura Hutchison

Kristina Mueller

Anna Smith

Adam Tabeling

Co-chairs of the Symposium