CALL FOR PAPERS: The Ancient Mediterranean and the British Museum: Pasts and Futures

 A limited number of travel bursaries will be available to help support attendance for speakers who cannot access alternative sources of funding. Please indicate in your submission if you would need to apply for a bursary and we will be in touch with details of the separate application process.

This conference is being organised in the context of the British Museum’s ‘Masterplan’, a once-in-a-century opportunity to redisplay and re-interpret the collections from the ancient Mediterranean, Egypt, Assyria and the Middle East for twenty-first century publics.  The Department of Greece and Rome is one of the Museum’s curatorial departments leading this work.

To avoid the repetition of old narratives, and to ensure that the redisplay of the galleries is based on a comprehensive reimagining of the Museum’s collections, the Department considers it vital to explore the ways in which the Museum’s collections and displays have influenced (for better or worse) modern constructions of Mediterranean antiquity. We wish to invite the widest possible range of contributions and perspectives to inform this reflection. A dialogue has already begun, in a public seminar series co-organised with our neighbour, the Institute of Classical Studies (Revisiting the Ancient Mediterranean World at the British Museum). This conference, also in partnership with the ICS, aims to extend the conversation. Whether you engage with the Museum and its ancient Mediterranean collection academically, creatively, professionally, or in other ways, we invite you to help us investigate its history and plan for the future.

We will consider proposals for single or paired papers of 20-30 minutes each in length that reflect any line of research relevant to the ways in which the Museum’s ancient Mediterranean collections have shaped and been shaped by culture, politics and society, from the Museum’s foundation in 1753 to the present day. We particularly welcome papers on topics related to the three strands described below, which we have identified as particularly promising areas for exploration. While the focus of the conference will be on the British Museum and on the ancient Mediterranean, we also welcome proposals which introduce cross-institutional, comparative or international perspectives. Proposals for alternative formats, such as panel discussions or creative workshops, are also encouraged.