Studying Identities in Rome and its Empire

Here is a full copy of the email that was distributed with the call for papers:

CALL FOR PAPERS – AIA 2015 in New Orleans
“Studying Identities in Rome and its Empire”
Proposed Colloquium sponsored by the Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Group

Organized by: Andrea F. Gatzke, Elizabeth Wolfram Thill, Alexander Meyer, Allene Seet, and Betsy Bevis

Respondent: TBD

By the mid-second century CE, the Roman Empire encompassed provinces from Spain in the west to the Euphrates River in the east, connecting most of modern Europe, northern Africa, and the Near East. Rome’s trade networks stretched beyond these borders. Such vast territorial reach led to unprecedented cultural interaction among residents of the empire. While these connections encouraged the flow of ideas, religions, technologies, and people, they also created a new expanded sphere in which individuals and groups sought to establish themselves and their identities in relation to their changing world. In recent decades, scholars have shown increasing interest in issues of identity within Rome and its provinces. Myriad studies have looked at the issue from a range of perspectives, both in terms of whose identity/identities they examine, as well as in terms of their methodological approaches to analyzing those identities.

This panel aims to harness these varied methods of identity studies in order to discuss the
challenges and significance of researching this important topic. We seek papers that examine identity
from a variety of angles, including but not limited to:

• Individual identity
• Civic identity
• Social identity
• Religious identity
• Ethnic identity

Because we hope that this panel will encourage suggestions and discussions on exactly how we research identities, we ask that all papers contain some kind of discussion of methodological approach and framework, though this need not be its main focus. Suggested methodologies include, but are not limited to:

• archaeology
• zooarchaeology
• landscape archaeology
• visual/art history
• epigraphy/language
• numismatics

Please send an anonymous abstract of no more than 500 words to Andrea Gatzke (gatzkea@newpaltz.edu) by February 21, 2014. Papers will be 15-20 minutes, so abstracts should reflect a paper of that length. Please submit abstracts in PDF or MS Word format. NOTE: All presenters will have to be AIA members in good standing at the time of the Annual Meeting (renewals due by November 2014).