Recent Events
Durham Book Festival: Writing in the Academy
Prof Richard Hingley talks about his new book Hadrian's Wall: A Life as part of the Durham Book Festival.
26th October 2012, 12:30 to 13:30, Institute of Advanced Study Seminar Room, Cosins Hall, Palace Green
Professor Maggie O'Neill, Professor Richard Hingley & Professor Andrea Noble
Chorography and Archaeology: Place, Space and Time in current and future approaches in Archaeology
10 July, 2012 1:00 – 5:00pm
Birley Room, Department of Archaeology
Durham University
Speakers include
Professor Michael Shanks (Stanford)
Professor Richard Hingley (Durham)
Dr Christopher Witmore (Texas Tech)
Dr. David Petts (Durham)
Darrell J. Rohl (Durham)
Institute for Advanced Study: Frontiers Workshop 2: Debatable Lands
IAS Seminar Room, Wednesday 25th January 2012, 12.00-17.30
12.00-1.00 Lunch
1.00 Dr Edward Welch (School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University), Brief Introduction
1.00-1.30 Dr Ben Campbell (Anthropology, Durham), Living on the Frontline. Getting it From Both Sides
1.30-2.00 DrPiers Vitebsky (Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge), Ontologies and powers: crossing boundaries in Tribal India
2.00-2.30 Dr Andrew Burridge (IBRU, Durham), Managing the External Borders of the European Union through Emergency Measures: Frontex and Rapid Border Intervention Teams
2.30-3.00 Discussion
3.00-3.30 Tea and biscuits
3.30-4.00 DrSophia Labadi (UNESCO, Paris), World Heritage as debatable lands?
4.00-4.30 ProfessorRichard Hingley (Archaeology, Durham), The Roman frontiers as debatable lands
4.30-5.00 Professor Sarah Green (Social Anthropology, Manchester), Summing up
5.00-5.30 Final discussion
Breaking Boundaries in Postgraduate Frontiers and Borders Research
Ustinov College, Durham University, 25-26 November 2011
Keynote Speaker: Professor David Breeze, Friday Evening
(“Frontiers of the Roman Empire: a stimulation for international co-operation,” with optional dinner and wine reception)
Special Performance: Stephe Harrop, Professional Storyteller, Saturday
(“The Border Ballads,” with wine reception)
Frontiers, borders, boundaries and barriers are a familiar feature of contemporary human experience. We face them in the geopolitical realities of modern nation-states, social, ethnic, gender and class divisions, cultural taboos, moral lines drawn by the secular and the divine, the passage between life and death, and in a vast array of ideological lines drawn by individuals and societies. Historical and contemporary frontiers alike play an important role in human behaviour, as they are often barriers with which we must contend and/or negotiate, sometimes even long after they cease to serve their original function. Borders – ideological, physical, imposed and entrenched – have always been central in global and local conflicts. Perhaps paradoxically, frontiers may also simultaneously serve the contradictory roles of both exclusion and inclusion, helping to forge new and sometimes hybrid identities. Frontiers are thus an essential and timely topic for academic research across a variety of disciplines. This conference aims to provide a venue for the sharing of postgraduate research on frontiers and borders from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, with a special emphasis on “breaking boundaries” through the application of new approaches, cross-disciplinary theories and methods, accounts of discrepant experience and movement across frontiers, as well as new research that challenges long-established paradigms. The conference also aims to provide a valuable postgraduate counterpart and voice to the larger “Life of the Frontier” multidisciplinary research theme to be centred at Durham in 2011-12 under the auspices of the Institute of Advanced Study (http://www.dur.ac.uk/ias/lifeofthefrontier/).
We are seeking proposals for both paper and poster presentations. All proposals will be considered, and we welcome abstracts from postgraduate students working in any discipline, period and/or geographic region. All proposals should relate to topics on frontiers and/or borders as broadly defined above, and we particularly welcome abstracts that demonstrate a “breaking boundaries” theme. Peer-reviewed publication avenues will be pursued for all papers, and a further selection of papers may be invited for further discussion at the Durham Frontiers Conference to be held in March 2012. Please submit abstracts of c. 250 words to H.J.Shewly@durham.ac.uk no later than 19 September, 2011 and include PAPER or POSTER in your subject line. As space available for paper presentations is limited, we may not be able to accept all submissions; if you would like for your proposal to be considered for both paper and poster options, please include this with your abstract.
The afterlife of Roman frontiers: Historical perspectives on the making and breaking of frontiers
Workshop, 12th July 2010 14.00 to 17.00, Birley Room, Department of Archaeology, Durham University
Sponsored by the History of Archaeology Research Group and the Centre for Roman Culture
14.00 to 14.10: Introduction. Richard Hingley (Durham)
14.10 to 14. 35: From national frontier to multi-cultural landscape: Histories of Hadrian’s Wall. Richard Hingley (Durham)
14.35 to 15.00: Mural and rural: Re-presenting Hadrian's Wall and its landscape. Rob Witcher (Durham)
15.00 to 15.25: Roman Frontiers and Mythical Landscapes: Arthur's O'on and the Antonine Wall. Darrell Rohl (Durham)
15.30 to 15.45 Coffee/tea
15.45 to 16.10: Historical ecosystems: Porous frontiers in Roman North Africa. Orietta Dora Cordovana (Edinburgh)
16.10 to 16.35: How do we determine the function of frontiers? David Breeze (Edinburgh)
16.35 to 17.30 Discussion
Invited discussants: David Mattingly (Leicester University) and Michael Shanks (Stanford University, California)
XXIst INTERNATIONAL LIMES (ROMAN FRONTIERS) CONGRESS AT NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, 2009
Studying Roman frontiers in a globalized world
Session organizers: Richard Hingley, Divya Tolia Kelly and Rob Witcher
This session aims to explore how and why we study Roman frontiers. Specifically, it will consider the relationship between scholarly work and contemporary society. Historiographical studies demonstrate how archaeologists’ interpretive frameworks are often shaped by contemporary social and political environment (for example, the defensive frontier / Maginot Line). What then does it mean to study Roman frontiers in today’s globalized world? One of the defining characteristics of the contemporary globe is the process of de-territorialization – the integrity of nation states is eroded by the free movement of people, goods, and ideas. In such a world, the relevance of the frontier appears to have declined; perhaps the Roman frontier is of little relevance in a globalized world?
In fact, frontiers have not disappeared at all. Both iconic frontiers (e.g. Berlin Wall) and banal frontiers (internal EU customs) may have vanished; the new frontier may be in cyberspace. But other physical frontiers persist (the US-Mexico border) and other new frontiers have been defined (Israel-Palestine security fence). This session starts from the belief that the study of ancient frontiers is of no less relevance today than 100 years ago. Further, bordering and globalization theories provide new conceptual tools for the interpretation of these frontiers and the exploration of their relevance.
Papers in this session are invited to set the study of Roman frontiers in a broad historical context and to explore the interpretation of Roman frontiers today. It is intended to bring together academics from a diverse range of subjects, including archaeologists, geographers, historians who are working on the European, Eastern and African frontiers of the Empire, as well as scholars working on other historical and contemporary frontiers. The aim is to consider if and how current studies have responded to the new global order and how they might develop in the future.
Religion, Society and Culture at Dura-Europas
Friday 19 and Saturday 20 December 2008
Department of Classics & Ancient History, Durham University
For more details of this event, click here.
TRAC2008 - Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference - Amsterdam
Sessions organized by members of the Roman Centre are:
Experiencing Space and Place in the Roman World (Richard Hartis and Jason Lucas)
Image and Self- Image: Military identities (Stefanie Hoss, Richard Hingley and Peter S. Wells)
Perspectives on Ancient Classical Architecture today
Friday 14th December 2007
A workshop, held under the auspices of the Classical Reception Studies Network at the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Durham.
Timetable:
10.00-11.00 Registration and tours of Durham Cathedral
11.00-11.20 Coffee
11.20 Introduction and Welcome (Dr Edmund Thomas, University of Durham)
Session 1: Greek and Roman ruins in the twenty-first century: preservation, reconstruction, and appropriation. Chair: Dr Richard Hingley (University of Durham)
11.30 Dr Vedia Izzet (University of Southampton), “The Life and Afterlife of the Portonaccio sanctuary, Veii”
12.00 Mantha Zarmakoupi (St. John’s College, Oxford), “Analyzing and synthesizing ancient architecture in a virtual world”
12.30 Discussion
13.00 Lunch (provided)
Session 2: The use of ancient architecture for modern design. Chair: Dr Nathaniel Coleman (University of Newcastle)
14.00 Professor Helen Searing (London), “Classical architecture - lure and resistance: Perspectives of an ‘Ancient’ Historian”
14.30 Peter Wilkens (Hamburg) and Professor Lambert Rosenbusch (Pulheim-Brauweiler), “Visualisierte Architekturtheorie: Baukunst in Geschichte und Gegenwart – Projekte zur Sichtbarmachung von Stilentwicklung in der Architekturtheorie” ["Architectural theory in pictures: architecture in past and present - projects for making stylistic development visible in architectural theory" (English translation provided)]
15.00 Discussion
15.30-16.00 Tea and coffee
16.00 Hugh Petter (Partner, Robert Adam Architects), “Continuity and Change: The Evolving Classical Tradition”
16.30 Selina Mason (Deputy Head of Design, Olympic Delivery Authority for London 2012), "Contemporary Landscape and Ancient Types: London's Olympic Park"
17.00 Discussion
17.30-18.00 Round Table discussion
18.00-19.00 Drinks reception
