Crossing Cultures
Encounters, Clashes and their Reception in Antiquity
Thursday 15th - Friday 16th May 2025 - Università del Molise, Campobasso.
The study of cultural encounters between individuals, people and social groups has played a key role in structuring contemporary analyses of social relations in Antiquity. By providing prime examples of points of contact between cultures, the enucleation of positive and opposing encounters has shed light on the dynamics of self-and-other definitions, enabling a deeper understanding of the role of alterity in structuring social relations. From Greco-Roman dialectical definitions of barbarity vs civilization to scriptural strategies of distinction, cross-cultural encounters provide a long-lasting framework to our understanding of the Ancient World and its reception in later periods.
The analysis of cultural encounters in their complexity forces us to develop an open approach towards a wide range of sources from material evidence to literary sources. Blending archaeology, numismatics, epigraphy and literature as points of departure for scholarly investigations, we aim to get beyond the face-value reading of cultural encounters in the Ancient World, inscribing them in a process of long durée. Indeed, the study of later reception and re-interpretation of encounters is a crucial element in analysing the evolutions of the ideological framework in which alterities were encoded and how strategies of distinction/identification were projected on these historical processes.
Among the many possible declinations of encounters in Antiquity, we invite abstracts focusing on the cultural, ideological, social, prosopographical, geographical and narratological dimensions over the usual political and institutional spheres. The aim is to build a stimulating venue for different approaches to encounters in the Ancient World, in order to read under fresh light vexed questions such as the centre-periphery debate, the eminently-military nature of frontiers or the role played by religions in shaping cultural borders and perceptions.
The 2025 edition of the Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient History will take place in Campobasso (Italy) at the Università del Molise from the 15th to the 16th of May. The conference will have a hybrid format. The call is directed especially to early PhDs and first-years post-docs. We accept papers in English, Italian, Spanish and French.
To submit a paper, please send an abstract up to 250 words to ampahconference@gmail.com by December 16th, stating your name, University, area of research and your attendance preference (online or in person). You will be notified with the committee’s decision by January 31st.