Cultures of Reading in the Ancient Mediterranean
This international, interdisciplinary research program is an exploration of ancient "reading cultures" or "reading communities" that seeks to extend the work in William Johnson's Readers and Reading Cultures in the High Empire: A Study of Elite Communities (Oxford University Press, 2010). This approach insists that scholars embed consideration of texts and text-based practices in the larger socio-cultural realities in which they gained currency. In this afternoon conference, four scholars, selected from a group who responded to an international call for abstracts, will present new short papers that will expand the topical and methodological scope of the research and position ancient reading practices in a revealing new light. The chronological focus will range from the first century CE through to late antiquity, and the topics will include Herodotean scholia, the Shepherd of Hermas, Paul, and Plutarch, among others. Please join us for lively discussion with the authors, prospective authors, and editors of a new multi-authored book-in-progress, followed by a reception.