Interdisciplinary Approaches to Marginalised Peoples in the Ancient World: Women and Children – 9 May 2025
Date: 9 May 2025
Venue: University of Groningen, room TBA
Credits: 1 ECTS
The study of ancient society in the classical world has traditionally focused on the urban elites or the male citizens, and has neglected the women, the children or adolescents, the old people, the disabled or sick, the enslaved and criminals, the foreign residents. This workshop aims to address this problem by tackling the topics of women and children (with a plan to have future workshops on the other groups). While the situation is rapidly changing, with these groups receiving increasing attention, these discussions remain restricted to historical or literary evidence. However, in recent years, mortuary archaeology (the study of mortuary practices) and bioarchaeology (the study of human remains, and associated analytical techniques such as ancient DNA and biodistance analysis to establish genetic relations, or isotopic analyses to reconstruct diet or provenance) produce fascinating insights into the life and death of precisely these neglected categories. These new insights have not been incorporated so far into historical reflection on these ‘silenced groups’. Classicists and ancient historians make little use of (bio)archaeological information, while (bio)archaeologists are not always familiar with the complexities of the ancient world, or ignore the potential of texts, epigraphy, or imagery. As a result, the different disciplines hardly interact with each other, at a time when new questions are being asked and new methods introduced. This workshop is an opportunity to bring together scholars from across the disciplines studying the ancient world, bridging the gap between these diverse disciplines and between the humanities and the sciences.
We encourage student participation and ARCHON and OIKOS members can get 1 ECTS for attending the event and presenting a poster OR writing a reflective review of the event.
Preliminary schedule (details to follow):
09.30-10.00 Registration, tea and coffee
10.00-10.15 Opening remarks and welcome
10.15-11.15 Keynote Speaker 1
11.15-11.45 Coffee break
11.45-12.15 Speaker 1
12.15-12.45 Speaker 2
12.45-13.45 Lunch and posters
13.45-14.15 Speaker 3
14.15-14.45 Speaker 4
14.45-15.15 Speaker 5
15.15-16.00 Coffee break
16.00-17.00 Keynote Speaker 2
17.00-17.30 Discussion and concluding remarks
17.30-18.30 Reception
Registration: via this link https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe-1zIKW6BP3LboRzJErIq3gf02yyQuLm5nxu2oqx9RNF3OpA/viewform
Credits: 1 EC for attending the conference and presenting a poster OR handing in a report (to secretary@archonline.nl).
