Summer Study

Michigan State University
Study Abroad Programs

Michigan State University is a national leader in International Studies and has a large and varied series of study abroad programs and the university encourages and supports faculty to develop such programs. My colleague Sophia Koufopoulou and I have developed a social science program in Mytilene on the island of Lesvos (at the University of the Aegean). This year we are running two 6-week programs: Summer Session I and Summer Session II.

Information on the MSU Office of Study Abroad is at http://studyabroad.msu.edu/ and information on our program in Greece is at http://studyabroad.msu.edu/programs/greecesocialsci.html.

 

Calls for Papers

Queering Mythology

Queering Mythology
Sponsored by the Lambda Classical Caucus.

Organized by Cashman Kerr Prince.

This year's LCC panel will focus on the ways ancient Greeks and Romans told and understood "queer" myths. An examination of the "frame tales," the ways in which ancient sources invoked these stories, can reveal the meanings ascribed to the myths; thus, the ways myths are framed can illuminate ancient understandings of sexuality and how they formed part of the ancient Greek and Roman sexual imaginary.

By "queer" myths we understand tales of homosexual love and desire as well as those with more implicit homoerotic content. Some narrate tales of same-sex passion (Narcissus; Nisus and Euryalus) and abduction (Zeus and Ganymede, among many others); others recount a rejection of socially prescribed and sanctioned heterosexuality (the Amazons, the Danaids and the Lemnians); still others provide an aetion for same-sex passion and action (as the myth of Orpheus in Ovid's Metamorphoses). There are also other, less familiar myths, which can be read queerly (Chariclo, beloved of Athena; Polyboea, sister of Hyacinthus; Iphis and Ianthe). These myths are narrated in various sources, such as Pausanias' Guidebook, Athenaeus' Deipnosophistai, the pseudo-Aristotelian Problemata, or recounted and analyzed by Artemidorus. What meanings are ascribed to these myths, in artistic works or in treatises? What paradigmatic ends do the myths serve in the various re-tellings? We invite papers which consider literature or visual arts, Greek or Roman. Possible topics might include: homoerotic elements in Aeschylus' Suppliants, Hercules and Hylas in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica, Ovid's Metamorphoses, or Martial's epigrams; queer readings of visual depictions of the Danaids; or uses made of the tale of the Lemnian women. This year's panel will focus on queer myths with the aim of enhancing our understandings of ancient sexualities as the Greeks and Romans understood and conceived of them.

Each speaker will have 15 - 20 minutes of presentation time, with an opportunity for questions and discussion following. Abstracts should be 500 - 800 words, double-spaced; they should not include the author's name or any reference to the author, since they will be refereed anonymously. Please submit abstracts to arrive by 15 February 2005 to Cashman Kerr Prince via e-mail <cprince@mcmaster.ca>.

« Rhétorique et historiographie »
« Rhetoric and Historiography »
Université Laval

Ce colloque aura lieu les 13, 14 et 15 octobre 2005 à l'Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Il s'inscrit dans le cadre de l'accord de coopération signé entre l'UMB et l'Université Laval et aura un pendant à Strasbourg en octobre 2006. Le sujet invite les participants du colloque à réfléchir sur les rapports entre historiographie et rhétorique. Si l'on peut affirmer en effet qu'historiographes et orateurs partagent la même volonté de persuasion de leur public et la même propension à considérer leur art respectif comme seule porte vers le vrai, on doit admettre cependant que les moyens qui sont à leur disposition à cette fin ne sont pas les mêmes. Les deux domaines ne sont pas pour autant étrangers l'un à l'autre : l'historiographe doit maîtriser une rhétorique qui confère crédibilité à ses propos, l'orateur doit souvent référer à l'histoire pour illustrer les siens. La finalité de ce colloque est de tenter notamment par l'analyse des jugements portés par les anciens eux-mêmes sur les deux types de pratiques littéraires, de définir plus avant cette inter-dépendance, en interrogeant par exemple les notions d'ambivalence générique, de vérité et d'exemplarité.

Les personnes qui souhaitent participer à ce colloque à Québec sont invitées à soumettre un résumé d'environ 300 mots avant le 15 mars 2005 à l'adresse suivante : alban.baudou@lit.ulaval.ca.

Les frais d'inscriptions sont de $ 30 CAN, payables lors de l'arrivée au colloque. Les informations relatives aux détails de l'organisation seront disponibles à partir du mois de juin sur le site de l'Institut d'études anciennes de l'Université Laval : http://www.iea.ulaval.ca/


Colloquium « Rhetoric and historiography »

On the 13th, 14th and 15th of October, 2005, the Université Laval (Quebec City, Canada) will have the pleasure of hosting this Colloquium, which takes place within the framework established by the cooperation agreements signed with the Université Marc-Bloch (Strasbourg, France). A second meeting will be hosted in Strasbourg in October 2006. The goal of the conference is to foster critical reflection on the links that exist between historiography and rhetoric. If one may say that historians and orators share a common will to persuade their audience and the same belief that their respective arts represent the sole path to discovering the truth, it must also be recognized that the two arts do not use the same means to reach that end. And yet the two fields intersect at various points: the historiographer, for example, must master a kind of rhetoric that will lend credibility to his words, while the orator must make frequent allusions to historical facts to illustrate and reinforce his arguments.

Conference organizers invite papers from anyone who is interested in exploring the relationship between these two genres; contributions may consider such various aspects as the points of convergence and divergence between the two fields, the notions of generic ambivalence, truth or exemplarity, or ancient perspectives on the two literary genres.

Scholars interested in participating to the colloquium in Quebec City should send a 300-words abstract before the 15th of March 2005 to: alban.baudou@lit.ulaval.ca.

Fees will be of $ 30 CAN, payable on arrival. Details about the organization of the Colloquium will be available in June on the web site of the Institut d'études anciennes de l'Université Laval: http://www.iea.ulaval.ca/

 

Varia

Query

My name is Shelley Rabinovitch, and I have taken on the task for the American publisher ABC-CLIO of revising their reference text A Guide to the Gods (as Guide to the Gods and Goddesses) and am seeking contributors. Revised texts are due in early 2006, and ideally contributors will work at their own pace, sending me updates as they get through the easy part just tweaking some of the old entries and into the meaty work writing or dramatically revising entries.

We are both updating the existing entries, and where applicable, adding new entries and/or entire sections. Ideally I am seeking graduate students and/or faculty who can either edit the existing entries and/or add new entries where they see holes in the listings. Contributors can choose to work on just a few entries from one culture/area, or grab an entire culture/area if they so choose.

Many of the original sources cited in the first edition are badly out of date due to wonderful new research in many areas. I am looking for scholars who can work in English or other languages, who can translate from foreign-language texts (including Greek and Latin), etc.

There is some compensation available (both in copies of the completed book, and/or in cash), and it is a great chance for a new grad to get some academic publishing credit onto their c.v.'s. There are literally dozens of cultures and pantheons needing work. I have no specialists in Classical (Greek, Latin, Etruscan, etc. etc.), Asian religions (Chinese minority, Japanese, Tibet, etc. etc.), Polynesia/Micronesia/Melanesia, Southern and Eastern African tribal, Australasian, Central and/or South American, JUST to name a few.

I would appreciate the widest distribution of this request so that I can get a good start on revising and expanding the collection. I am looking for ethnographers and anthropologists, religionists, classicists, folklorists, etc. etc.

Please have interested parties contact me at:

Shelley Rabinovitch, PhD
tsivia@uottawa.ca
Dept. of Classics and Religious Studies
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 6N5
Canada