Call for Papers: Panel on "Women, Food, and Drink in the Classical World"

Call for Papers: Panel on "Women, Food, and Drink in the Classical World"
(APA 2011, San Antonio)

Organized by Kathryn Topper (ktopper@u.washington.edu) and Laurie Kilker (lkilker@ithaca.edu)

Since the 1980s and 90s, customs surrounding food and drink have become central to our understanding of ancient Mediterranean societies and are now widely understood to have touched on aspects of ancient life as diverse as poetry, sexuality, religion, politics, and domestic life (Detienne and Vernant 1989, Lissarrague 1990, Murray 1990, Slater 1991, Schmitt-Pantel 1992, Murray and Tecusan 1995). Recent inquiries into topics such as the imagery of the Roman banquet or the cultural significance of dining posture, as well as more general reassessments of ideas presented in earlier scholarship, suggest that interest in ancient dining customs shows no sign of abating (Dunbabin 2003, Orfanos and Carrire 2003, Roller 2006). In most of these studies, however--as at the majority of the ancient meals themselves--attention has centered on the male participants. Although some facets of women's involvement in ancient meals, most notably their roles as courtesans, have been extensively examined, a comprehensive picture of ancient Mediterranean women's relationships to practices of eating and drinking still eludes us.

Our panel seeks to address this problem by placing women's roles in ancient meals (broadly defined to include any interaction with food or drink) at the center of discussion. By bringing together papers on women, food, and drink in the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan worlds, we hope to take stock of current knowledge about the topic and to discover what avenues of further research may be most productively explored. We therefore solicit abstracts for papers on any aspect of ancient women's interactions with food and drink, although papers that address underexplored questions or evidence are especially welcome. Because of the aims of the panel, we also encourage abstracts for papers that highlight the promises and limitations of their own methodologies. Papers may consider literary, visual, architectural, epigraphic, archaeological, or other forms of evidence; possible topics include, but are not limited to: women and food preparation; women's roles at ritual banquets; tropes or metaphors involving women, food, and drink; evidence for women's diets, both in daily life and at religious festivals; women and sacrifice; women's roles at banquets outside of the centers that have been the focus of study (Greece outside of Athens; the Roman provinces); women's involvement in meals other than the symposium and convivium.

Please send two copies of Form D and four copies of your abstract to: American Philological Association, University of Pennsylvania, 292 Logan Hall, 249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304. Submissions must be received by February 1, 2010 and will be reviewed anonymously by the panel organizers. Please note whether your presentation requires audiovisual equipment.