Who’s Your Daddy

Reconstructing Paternity in the Ancient World

 

Call for Papers

November 7 - 8 2008

UCLA Royce Hall 314


The UCLA Department of Classics seeks papers for its upcoming graduate student conference, “Who’s Your Daddy? Reconstructing Paternity in the Ancient World.” The meaning of being a father or playing the role of a father is as varied as the conceptions of masculinity. This conference aims to investigate the definitions, myths, and realities of paternity in ancient literature and culture. We wish to explore fatherhood, biological and otherwise, including both social history in the Greek and Roman world and literary and mythological fathers. We encourage the submission of papers using a variety of evidence (literary, documentary, material culture, linguistic, etc.) by students of classics and related disciplines (art history, archaeology, history, philosophy, comparative literature, etc.).

"Who's your Daddy? Reconstructing Paternity in the Ancient World" is funded by the UCLA Department of Classics, the Campus Program Committee of the Program Activities Board, and the Graduate Student Association.

Deadline and Information

The Deadline for Proposals is May 23, 2008. Notification of acceptance will be e-mailed by June 27th, 2008.

E-mail abstracts of no more than 300 words as a PDF or Word attachment

to kpiller@ucla.edu. Please include the text of all attachments in the body

of your email. In your attachment, please include your name, title, affiliation, and contact information on the first page and your abstract on a second page without any identifying information.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  1. •Depictions of paternity in myth and literature

  2. •Intersections of paternity with the slave system (slaves and slave holders

           as fathers and quasi-fathers)

  1. •The term "father" in political and philosophical discourse

  2. •Theories of conception in ancient medicine

  3. •Adultery and problems of uncertain paternity

  4. •Models of adoption

  5. •The legal status of children

  6. •Depictions of fatherhood in art

  7. •The father in everyday family life

Problems with the site? Need more information? Contact Carl Evans