[LCC] [Fwd: APA 2011 Call for Papers: "Women, Food, and Drink in the Classical World"]

[Ruby]

************************************************************************

Call for Papers: Panel on "Women, Food, and Drink in the Classical World"
(APA 2011, San Antonio)

Organized by Kathryn Topper (ktopper at u.washington.edu) and Laurie Kilker
(lkilker at ithaca.edu)

Since the 1980s and 90s, customs surrounding food and drink have become
central to our understanding of ancient Mediterranean societies and are
now widely understood to have touched on aspects of ancient life as
diverse as poetry, sexuality, religion, politics, and domestic life
(Detienne and Vernant 1989, Lissarrague 1990, Murray 1990, Slater 1991,
Schmitt-Pantel 1992, Murray and Tecusan 1995). Recent inquiries into
topics such as the imagery of the Roman banquet or the cultural
significance of dining posture, as well as more general reassessments of
ideas presented in earlier scholarship, suggest that interest in ancient
dining customs shows no sign of abating (Dunbabin 2003, Orfanos and
Carrire 2003, Roller 2006). In most of these studies, however--as at the
majority of the ancient meals themselves--attention has centered on the
male participants. Although some facets of women's involvement in ancient
meals, most notably their roles as courtesans, have been extensively
examined, a comprehensive picture of ancient Mediterranean women's
relationships to practices of eating and drinking still eludes us.

Our panel seeks to address this problem by placing women's roles in
ancient meals (broadly defined to include any interaction with food or
drink) at the center of discussion. By bringing together papers on women,
food, and drink in the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan worlds, we hope to take
stock of current knowledge about the topic and to discover what avenues of
further research may be most productively explored. We therefore solicit
abstracts for papers on any aspect of ancient women's interactions with
food and drink, although papers that address underexplored questions or
evidence are especially welcome. Because of the aims of the panel, we also
encourage abstracts for papers that highlight the promises and limitations
of their own methodologies. Papers may consider literary, visual,
architectural, epigraphic, archaeological, or other forms of evidence;
possible topics include, but are not limited to: women and food
preparation; women's roles at ritual banquets; tropes or metaphors
involving women, food, and drink; evidence for women's diets, both in
daily life and at religious festivals; women and sacrifice; women's roles
at banquets outside of the centers that have been the focus of study
(Greece outside of Athens; the Roman provinces); women's involvement in
meals other than the symposium and convivium.

Please send two copies of Form D and four copies of your abstract to:
American Philological Association, University of Pennsylvania, 292 Logan
Hall, 249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304. Submissions must be
received by February 1, 2010 and will be reviewed anonymously by the panel
organizers. Please note whether your presentation requires audiovisual
equipment.