VRS Alumni News

This article first appeared in ISAW Newsletter 14, Winter 2016.

A photo of a man.Gilles Bransbourg

Gilles Bransbourg, ISAW Research Associate and Adjunct Curator of Roman Coins at the American Numismatic Society, gave a talk at this year’s 22nd International Congress of Historical Sciences (ICHS). His talk was entitled “Reddite quae sunt Caesaris, Caesari. Late Antiquity and the Dream of Fair Taxation” and was presented as part of the Late Antiquity in Contemporary Debate on August 26, 2015. The Debate was one of the “Specialized Theme” series of the ICHS and was organized by Rita Lizzi Testa with the support of the Italian National Committee.

A photo of a woman.Francesca Rochberg

Francesca Rochberg, ISAW Senior Fellow and VRS Alumna (2013-14), has shared the results of her research at numerous academic conferences in the United States and Europe in recent months and will continue her active presentation schedule in 2016. On November 17, 2014, she presented “Categories, Kinds, and Determinatives” in Berlin at a conference titled Die Sprache des Bewusstseins und das Bewusstsein von Sprache im Alten Orient. In April 2015, she gave a paper on the topic of “Ina lumun attalī Sin: On Evil and Lunar Eclipses” in Würzburg at a conference titled The Sources of Evil: Complexity and Systematization, Differentiation and Interdependency in Mesopotamian Exorcistic Lore. On November 20, 2015, Rochberg presented “The Representation of Phenomena in Babylonian Astronomical Models” in a session titled “Knowing Nature in the Ancient World” at a meeting of the History of Science Society in San Francisco. In a session on “Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literatures” at a meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta on November 22, 2015, she presented “What we Talk about when we Talk about Knowledge: Historical Epistemology in the Ancient Near East” for the panel “Interaction and Change in Ancient Near Eastern Scribal Cultures.” In May 2016, Rochberg will give a paper titled “Tradition and Innovation in Late Babylonian Astral Sciences” at the conference Scholars, Priests and Temples - Babylonian and Egyptian Science in Context, to be held at TOPOI, Humboldt University, in Berlin. And, finally, in June 2016, she will present “Observation and the Empirical Attitude of Babylonian Astronomers” at the conference Keeping watch in Babylon: from evidence to text in the Astronomical Diaries, to be held in Durham, UK.