eminar in Late Antiquity
See Also: 2007-08 Seminars | 2006-07 Seminars | 2005-06 Seminars
The Seminar in Late Antiquity is the result of interdepartmental efforts at the University of Tennessee to stimulate graduate student interest and discuss current research in an area of study, the late antique period, that is not readily accommodated by the traditional boundaries between disciplines.
Mission Statement
The Mediterranean world of the third century C.E. was a mosaic of religions, languages, and cultures that all defined themselves--at least in part--by their relationship to a Roman empire that governed the whole Mediterranean basin and much of its European, Near Eastern and North African hinterland. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the imperial government and the myriad cultures it encompassed underwent several fundamental transformations, from the development of Christianity as a political power, to the collapse of the western empire and its division into various barbarian kingdoms, to the establishment of a single imperial power based at the new city of Constantinople on the Bosporus. In this new world of late antiquity there arose the new religion of Islam, and it was conquering Muslim armies that ushered in further momentous transformations that ended the fundamentally Roman unity of the late antique period.
This interdisciplinary seminar brings together faculty and advanced graduate students whose research lies in the Mediterranean world of late antiquity. This seminar has three components: (1) participants' research workshops; (2) visiting scholar workshops; (3) current scholarship workshops, all of which work together to keep the participants active and productive researchers in their field. The participants are not only based in different departments, but also come from different disciplinary backgrounds. Each possesses specialist knowledge, language skills, and methodological approaches to textual and material evidence that can help inform the research of the others. These differences continue to allow for genuinely interdisciplinary discussions that strengthen the breadth and depth of each participant's individual work. The seminar of course provides a forum for currently active research scholars to meet and discuss their work. But it also gives permanent legitimacy to the study of an inherently interdisciplinary period that is not readily accommodated within traditional divisions between disciplines and departments.
Contact Information
Dr. Christine Shepardson
Project Director and Seminar Chair
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
515 McClung Tower
(865) 974-2466
Email: cshepard@utk.edu
Dr. Thomas Heffernan
Professor of English
1111 McClung Tower
(865) 974-6968
Email: theff@utk.edu
Dr. Michael Kulikowski
Associate Professor of History
2631 Dunford Hall
(865) 974-7078
Email: mkulikow@utk.edu
Dr. Maura Lafferty
Assistant Professor of Classics
1101 McClung Tower
(865) 974-5383
Email: mlaffert@utk.edu