ISAW Members Attend the Joint AIA/SCS Conference

It is the time of year again for the joint annual meetings of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies, which will be held January 3-6, 2019 in San Diego. Members of the ISAW community, present and past, can be found throughout the program. Here is your guide to ISAW presentations and activities at AIA/SCS 2019:

ISAW Visiting Assistant Professor J. Andrew Dufton will deliver a paper on "A Century of Building: Local and Long-Term Perspectives on the Roman Monumentalization of Thuburbo Maius, Tunisia" at the Roman Architecture and Urban Landscapes session (AIA Session 5D; Saturday 10:45am). ISAW Professor Sebastian Heath will be participating as a panelist on the "Grounding" Roman Sculpture panel (AIA Session 2I; Friday 10:45am).

For the third year in a row, the ISAW Library’s David Ratzan and Patrick J. Burns will host Ancient MakerSpaces, a all-day workshop on digital tools, resources and publication in ancient world studies (SCS Workshop; Saturday 8:30am-2:30pm). It is has become a conference highlight and an event that showcases ISAW's leadership role in supporting digital initiatives in the field. AMS2019 includes workshops on creating digital epigraphic squeezes, building online commentaries, analyzing ancient texts through digital maps and network analysis, and getting started with podcasting. Sebastian Heath has also expressed interest in giving an AMS Lightning Talk on the "gamification" of archaeological plans.

Also, in the world of digital classics, Tom Elliott, Associate Director for Digital Programs at ISAW and Pleiades Managing Editor, will deliver the paper "What Difference Has Digitization Made?" on the Mapping the Classical World Since 1869: Past and Future Directions panel organized by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Richard Talbert for the 150th anniversary of the SCS (SCS Session 6; Friday 8am). Patrick, in addition to running Ancient Makerspaces, will give a paper called "Object-oriented Philology" on the Digital Classics Association panel Reconnecting the Classics which explores the digital future of comparative philology (SCS Session 62; 1:45pm).

ISAW graduate student Georgios Tsolakis has organized, with his Princeton colleague Marco Santini, a joint AIA/SCS session on Epigraphic Approaches to Multilingualism and Multilingual Societies in the Ancient Mediterranean (AIA Session 3H, SCS Session 31; Friday 1:45pm). Georgios will also deliver a paper at this session with the title "'It seems that they are using the Carian Language': Multilingualism, Assimilation, and Acculturation in Caria." In yet another ISAW connection, former ISAW Visiting Assistant Professor Emily Cole will be a respondent on this panel.

This year's program includes two papers from ISAW Affiliated Faculty. John N. Hopkins (NYU Department of Fine Arts; Institute of Fine Arts) will speak on "Assembling the Multivalence of Provincial Emulation: A First Century Polykleitan Head from Aquitania" on the Roman Sculpture, from Antiquity to Today panel (AIA Session 1B; Friday 8am) and Stephen J. Tinney (University of Pennsylvania) will speak on "Ancient Mesopotamian Literate Culture" as part of the Advisory Council on Classical Studies of the American Academy in Rome's Ancient Mediterranean Literatures: Comparisons, Contrasts, and Assumptions session (SCS Session 67; Sunday 8am).

The program also includes the work of past ISAW Scholars. Jinyu Liu (Depauw University, Shanghai Normal University; VRS 2007-08) will deliver a paper called "Who's 'We' in Classics" on the SCS Presidential Panel, Global Classics (Friday 5pm). Nicola Aravecchia (Washington University in St. Louis; VRS 2009-10) will speak on "From Paganism to Christianity in Egypt's Western Desert: Changes in the Landscape of a Late Antique Hamlet" at the Afterlife of Ancient Urbanscapes and Rural Landscapes in Post-Classical Mediterranean (A.D. 400-1300) session (AIA Session 1J; Friday 8am). Mantha Zarmakoupi (University of Pennsylvania; VRS 2009-10) will speak on "Maritime façades in Roman Villa Architecture and Decoration" on the American Friends of Herculaneum panel, Herculaneum: Works in Progress (SCS Session 77; Sunday 8am). Finally, in addition to being a respondent on Georgios’s session as noted above, Emily Cole (University of California, Berkeley; VAP 2016-2018) will also deliver a paper at the Systems of Knowledge and Strategic Planning in Ancient Industries session called "No Two are the Same: Stela Production in Ptolemaic and Roman Akhmim."

The 2019 Joint Meeting of the AIA and SCS runs from Thursday, January 3, to Sunday, January 6. Preliminary programs for both meetings are available online: the AIA program can be found here and the SCS here.