Making and Unmaking Memory in the Ancient World from the 7th Century BCE to the 7th Century CE

19th UNISA Classics Colloquium, in collaboration with the ARC Discovery Project “Memories of Utopia: Destroying the Past to Create the Future (300-650 CE)”. Hosted by the Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, UNISA, Pretoria.

7-10 November 2018.

Among the various presentations, the following papers will be given by contributors to the "Memories of Utopia" project:

Bronwen Neil (Keynote Speaker), Remembering Utopia in Sixth-Century Italy, Gaul and Spain: Lives of Saints and Sinners.

Rajiv K. Bhola, Utopia and its Preservation in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica.

Chris de Wet, How to Make a Martyr: Memory and Religious Conflict and the Image of John Chrysostom in the Funerary Speech for John Chrysostom.

Wendy Mayer, Remembering Dystopia in the Utopian Body: Rereading Chrysostom’s Homily on the Holy Martyr Babylas through the Lens of Purity and Disgust.

Stay tuned to the colloquium homepage for updates and full programme.

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"The conference aims to explore a wide variety of aspects relating to the building, dismantling and reconstructing of memory and reputation across the various cultures bordering on the ancient Mediterranean, and over a wide time-frame. We know that memory and history are not fixed, objective occurrences, but are subjective representations of reality, and we can see evidence of this in the way in which those items which transmit memory are manipulated and used throughout antiquity. Memory and history, for example, are often reconstructed in light of various utopian (or even dystopian) ideals, thereby creating visions of the future that are based on strategic manipulations of the past. The unmaking and reconstitution of memory can be discreet, but more often it occurs through violent means, whether through discursive and/or physical violence, which is an important aspect for further investigation."

(From the 19th UNISA Classics Colloquium website)