The annual AWAWS Research Grant is now open to all AWAWS members! The grant is worth AU$1750 and can be used towards research in a number of ways. Applications close on Friday, May 30 at 11:59 pm. 

For more information and to access the application form, please visit our research grant page.

Please direct any questions to Estelle Strazdins at estelle.strazdins@anu.edu.au. 

​The next workshop in our Equality and Diversity series will be on Thursday 15th May at 5pm AEST, 7pm NZST. Our speaker will be Irene Salvo from the University of Verona, who will speak on gender, LGBT+, and queerness in ancient Greek and Roman Studies, with her talk entitled: Can Classicists be Queer?
 
Abstract:
One of the most traditional academic disciplines, Classics can also be one of the most disruptive. This short workshop aims to unpack how we can use Classics as a form of LGBT+ activism. It starts from my own experience as a scholar and activist. We will then collectively (and confidentially) share opinions and experiences on how our discipline can be more open to non-normative sexual orientations and gender identities. I will use some techniques from my Mindful Classics project, which exploits bibliotherapy and meditation to understand our troubled, queer lives.
 
To register for the talk, please visit the Eventbrite page. 
 
For accessibility requirements or general enquiries about the event, please email simona.martorana@anu.edu.au.  

​The Annual General Meeting of Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies will take place in mid-July this year. We are still finalising the date, but please keep your eyes open for emails from us about nominations, elections, reports, and the AGM talk. 

​Playing Diotima: 7-11 May, Flow Studios, Camperdown NSW

Presented by wren wants a top hat, this premiere production features original music by Anna Rushmer (Undine) and Rick Butler (A Succulent Chinese Musical?!)

All Diotima wants is for her music to be heard and understood. The flute is her expression, her connection to herself and her world, and she needs to share it. When she meets a young man named Aristocles, it seems she has found the perfect opportunity to free her voice. But Ancient Athens is an unwelcoming place for ambitious women. Thousands of years later, not enough has changed...

In 2025, PhD student Aurora is navigating a messy personal and academic life in Greece. She searches for women's voices through history but finds only silence. With her academic future on the line, Aurora must do everything she can to uncover the true identity of the woman mentioned in Plato's Symposium. She finds herself facing three big questions: who was Diotima? Why was Plato so taken by her? And why is it so hard to rationalise love?

This new theatre work takes a feminist approach to the study of history, exploring what is lost when the only words found in textbooks and research are those written by men. As a playwright, Rushmer is known for her inter-disciplinary approach to theatre, frequently using distortions of time and ethereal elements to explore the constancy of human experience.

More details and tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/playing-diotima

​University of Sydney Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar Series: May 12th (Monday, 12.15pm UTC+10: Zoom only)

Tamara Lewit (University of Melbourne): “She must remain as little as possible in one place”: The work of a female overseer (vilica) on a Roman estate"
 
Abstract:
Although much historical and archaeological work has examined Roman farming, very little attention has been paid to the roles of the female overseer (vilica). Yet this important figure is attested across five centuries and is the subject of an entire book of the Roman agronomist Columella’s De re rustica. Less than half a dozen scholarly papers have been dedicated to the vilica, and all focus almost entirely on her relationship to the male overseer (the vilicus). Her roles on the farm have remained unexamined, and modern writers have characterised her work as confined to the supervision of the women and domestic labour inside the house, especially cleaning, the food eaten by the household, and textile making. My paper will challenge this characterisation, arguing that it arises from a misreading of Columella’s text. By combining textual, iconographic and archaeological evidence, we can in fact see that the vilica oversaw not the “house” or the “domestic sphere”, but rather a range of vital productive activities on the farm. In particular, she seems to have had charge of the oil and wine making and was responsible for carrying out important rituals linked to production.
 
Dr Tamara Lewit is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London. She specializes in the study of the Roman to late antique countryside and her publications include ‘A child’s eye view: making Roman children visible in children’s literature’ Classicum 49.1 (2024); ‘Innovation in wine-making technologies: The role of local artisans and farmers’ in D. Van Limbergen, E. Dodd and M. S. Busana (eds) Vine-growing and winemaking in the Roman world (Peeters, 2025); and in press ‘Peopling the countryside: the everyday experience of rural life’, in G.W. Tol and A. Van Oyen (eds) Roman Rural Archaeology: Society, Economy, and Culture (Cambridge University Press).

For further info contact:
email: vgc.centre@sydney.edu.au or benjamin.brown@sydney.edu.au

Australian Catholic University (ACU) is offering two full-time PhD scholarships to undertake research into the late ancient nighttime as part of an ARC-funded project.

Successful applicants will work on the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project, Night Vision in the Late Ancient Mediterranean.

See details of the scholarships and the application process here.

This project aims to create a new history of the wakeful nighttime in the late ancient Mediterranean world by combining study of material remains with literary descriptions of human nocturnal activities. Histories of the Night have focused on the classical world, the western medieval world, and especially the Industrial Revolution. The late ancient Mediterranean is a fascinating and hitherto overlooked period in studies of the night. Using this rich case study of a period and region of great technological, social, and religious upheaval, we aim to provide a better understanding of the sociality of nighttime and a new cultural history of the period that gives agency to marginalised groups.

PhD candidates will develop thesis topics on project-related themes and will be integral to the project, working collaboratively with the research team.

Possible disciplines for the PhD scholarship include:

• Classics
  
• Biblical Studies
  
• Jewish Studies
  
• Late Antique Studies
  
• Byzantine Studies
  
• Other Ancient World Studies linked to the Mediterranean

Interested candidates should contact Dr Sarah Gador-Whyte before applying for the PhD program and scholarship: sarah.gadorwhyte@acu.edu.au

Dr Anastasia Bakogianni
​AWAWS President

Please join the Australasian Ovidian Society (AOS) for our first online meeting on Monday 7th April 2025!
 
Meeting to take place via Zoom at 2pm AEST/ 4pm NZT.
 
We look forward to meeting each other and to briefly sharing our ongoing (relevant) research projects and other work-in-progress.
 
To join the AOS mailing list please contact socawaws@gmail.com and we will pass on your information to the AOS.

With the ongoing impact that artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, are having on the higher education sector, AWAWS are organising a series of workshops around artificial intelligence and the ancient world. We plan to run three: 

1. Around assessment and AI
2. Learning and teaching and AI
3. AI for research 

As part of our planning, we would love to hear from our members. We have put together a brief survey here to get a sense of where you are on your AI journey.

​The next workshop in our Equality and Diversity series will be on Thursday 15th May at 5pm AEST, 7pm NZST. Our speaker will be Irene Salvo from the University of Verona, who will speak on gender, LGBT+, and queerness in ancient Greek and Roman Studies. More details to come soon.  

Australian Catholic University (ACU) is offering two full-time PhD scholarships to undertake research into the late ancient nighttime as part of an ARC-funded project.

Successful applicants will work on the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project, Night Vision in the Late Ancient Mediterranean.

See details of the scholarships and the application process here.

This project aims to create a new history of the wakeful nighttime in the late ancient Mediterranean world by combining study of material remains with literary descriptions of human nocturnal activities. Histories of the Night have focused on the classical world, the western medieval world, and especially the Industrial Revolution. The late ancient Mediterranean is a fascinating and hitherto overlooked period in studies of the night. Using this rich case study of a period and region of great technological, social, and religious upheaval, we aim to provide a better understanding of the sociality of nighttime and a new cultural history of the period that gives agency to marginalised groups.

PhD candidates will develop thesis topics on project-related themes and will be integral to the project, working collaboratively with the research team.
Possible disciplines for the PhD scholarship include:

• Classics
• Biblical Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Late Antique Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Other Ancient World Studies linked to the Mediterranean

Interested candidates should contact Dr Sarah Gador-Whyte before applying for the PhD program and scholarship: sarah.gadorwhyte@acu.edu.au

If you have been thinking about applying to be a mentee in the AWAWS Academic Mentoring Program, there is no better time than now! All you need to do is check out our amazing mentors, decide who could help you work towards your goals, and send an Expression of Interest to the Mentoring Program Coordinator, Eva Anagnostou (eva.anagnostou-laoutides@mq.edu.au).
 
For more information about our mentoring programme, visit our mentoring webpage, or email Eva directly.

AWAWS merchandise is now available for purchase on our products webpage. All profits go to support AWAWS activities!

Consider pre-ordering your merch for collection at ASCS 2025. A reminder will be sent closer to the time to help you make your arrangements to purchase and collect your items.

Tim Parkin (ed), Domestic Violence and Vulnerability in the Roman World, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Oxford. Volume 66.2 (2024).
 
Please feel free to send us details of publications which you would like to share with members.

Linda has reached out to AWAWS for help with finding a suitable tutor for her 16-year-old son who is excited by the ancient world:
 
I am looking into ways to help my 16-year-old son develop and expand on his knowledge of Ancient Histories.  He is currently reading about Ancient Rome and in particular, he loves the construction of the buildings, the walls, any of the structures really, he finds all that, and more, fascinating and intriguing. He also loves to read up on the ideologies, the cultures, the wars that took place [but he leaves the politics out of it for some reason] and the events that took place that shaped the world then and continue to shape the world now in many ways.
 
If you are interested, please email us at socawaws@gmail.com to receive Linda's contact details.

AWAWS is pleased to announce the first event in our Equity and Diversity Workshop series (2024/2025)

Disability in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies: Where We Are and Ways Forward

Clara Bosak-Schroeder (she/they) will discuss common experiences of disability and neurodivergence in classics and related disciplines as well as the current state of ancient disability studies. Topics will include the particular vulnerability of disabled and neurodivergent graduate students, the impact of organizations like Asterion and CripAntiquity, ableism and disablism in scholarship on ancient Greece and Rome, and rising leaders in ancient disability studies research. Ample time will be devoted to discussion.
 
Tuesday 19 November, 1:00PM – 2:30PM AEDT
 
Here’s the link to register for this exciting event.
 
Further information will follow closer to the event.​​

See below news about some interesting conferences that have open calls for abstract submissions with upcoming deadlines in the next month or so:

Female voices in a public context: authorial articulation and mimetic representation in ancient Greek literature 

​We would welcome proposals applying innovative and multi-faceted methodologies to the study of female-voiced poetry in the Ancient Greek world, combining anthropological and gender-studies approaches, with a strong focus on linguistic, textual and pragmatic aspects. 
 
Proposals for 20-minute presentations in English, to be followed by 10-minute discussion, should be submitted to the Organizing Secretary (convegnofemalevoices@gmail.com) in the form of an anonymous abstract (max. 300 words, *.pdf file), with a brief bibliography, not longer than 10 items, by 30 October 2024. We will inform all applicants of our decision by 20 December 2024.
 
Possible themes would include papers focusing on: 

• the foundation of the authority of female poetic voices in Ancient Greece within the perspective of pragmatic linguistics;
• the role of the gendered voice in the complex relationship between ‘performative’ and ‘literary’ genres, and on the interplay between female authoriality and male-authored mimetic representation;
• the role and effect of differently gendered authors/performers in the history of re-performance, transmission and transformation of the ‘female voice’;
• the meta-literary role played by the staging of poetic female voices in drama;
• the dynamics of preservation and dissemination of poetry voiced by women and of female poetic voices in the ancient Greek world from the Archaic period onward; 
• the female poetic voice as a key model in re-creations of female voices in philosophical prose; 
• the way in which Greek rhetorical theory provided a descriptive and normative analysis of the female poetic voice, based on an ideological construct of femininity; 
• the reception of Greek women’s poetry in the Humanism and in early Renaissance literatures;  
• later receptions, and the role of Greek female poetic voices in the contemporary debate on gender issues.

 
Place: University of Naples Federico II 
Dates: June 24-26, 2025
Framework/Funding: PRIN 2022/EU. 
PRIN 2022 (2022MYMSLK)

8th Open Conference of the Network for the Study of Archaic and Classical Greek Song (https://sites.rutgers.edu/greeksong/) 
​
Organizing Committee: Giambattista D’Alessio, Luigi Battezzato, Cristina Pepe
Selection Committee: Giambattista D’Alessio, Luigi Battezzato, Nadine Le Meur, Cristina Pepe, Timothy Power
Organizing Secretary: Rita Saviano, Tiziano Presutti, Vittoria Vairo (convegnofemalevoices@gmail.com) 
 
The conference will take place on site, but links will be provided to view the presentations online (registration will be required). Speakers will be offered free accommodation, but no contribution can be made to travel expenses. Registration to attend the conference on site will be announced after the publication of the program.

This prize may be of interest to some AWAWS members:
 
Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia is pleased to announce the inaugural best article competition for young scholars. The topic for 2024 is "Women in the Pre-Modern World". All authors aged 35 or below (born on 20 September of 1988 or later) are eligible to participate in the competition.
 
The winner will be announced before 15 December, 2024. The prize is $1000. All papers submitted by qualifying authors before 20 September 2024 will be considered by the Editorial Committee.
 
The topic of the article should be aligned with the theme of the competition. It can cover any of the disciplines covered by the journal, including History, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Art History, and Archaeology. Submissions should conform to the standard requirements of the journal.
 
Old World is a Platinum Open Access (no author fees) online journal dedicated to the study of pre-modern Africa and Eurasia before 1500 CE. The journal has been established by the Research Centre for History and Culture, operated jointly by Beijing Normal University (Zhuhai) and BNU-HKBU United International College. With generous financial support from Beijing Normal University and in partnership with Brill, it aims to create a forward-looking platform for the discussion of pre-modern cultures from a non-eurocentric perspective.

Finally, I (Lisa) want to end my last newsletter as AWAWS Secretary with this list of wonderful mantras or maxims for academic leadership, passed on by Helen Lovatt, University of Nottingham, one of the earlier speakers in the Equity and Diversity talk series. I hope that they can be a source of inspiration and/or comfort for whoever needs either right now.
 
Being realistic
You can’t do everything. Just do your best, or what you can.
Each time a new job appears: Are you the right person for this job, or could someone else do it better/more easily or even benefit from it (gain experience, build reputation)?
Recognise what you can and can’t change, what you do and don’t have control over.
You are enough. You have enough. You do enough.
 
Being kind to yourself
You can’t look after others if you don’t look after yourself.
Working long hours: Does this have to be done now? Will I do it faster tomorrow?
Never too busy to stop for a chat.
 
Developing effective systems
Equity not equality
Avoid change for its own sake: all change brings both good and bad.
Authenticity over measurability.
No such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. [No such thing as bad luck, only bad systems.]
Invest time to save time later. Prevention is better than cure.
Prompt. Action. Celebration. [Make things as easy as possible.]
 
Dealing with problems
If you wake in the night: lying still with your eyes shut is pretty much as good as sleeping.
What can I learn from this and how can I make sure it doesn’t happen again?
Limit the damage. [If something has gone wrong, it’s worth at least doing what you can.]
 
Dealing with burn-out symptoms
Write down your six top priorities and roll a dice.
To start a thing: What do I need to do this? When am I going to do this? Why am I doing this?
 
Resources I often recommend to others: Tinyhabits: https://tinyhabits.com/
Pomodoro technique: https://francescocirillo.com/products/the-pomodoro-technique
Negative thinking patterns: https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/unhelpful-thinking-styles/
Blogpost on managing Academic workloads: https://wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/01/04/managing-academic-workloads/

The 2024 AWAWS Research Grant will open for applications on April 15, 2024 and close at 11:59pm AEST on Friday May 31, 2024. The grant is designed to support our current members in their research projects and will be valued at AU$1250. The only eligibility criterion is that you must be a member of AWAWS in good financial standing to apply.
 
The grant can be put towards any of the following costs:

• Undertaking interstate/international research (airfares, insurance, accommodation, per diem allowances) – this might include costs associated with gaining access to libraries, museums, presentation at a conference, etc.
• Undertaking research with the aim of submitting an application for an Australian Research Council grant, Marsden Fund grant (New Zealand) or other major grant.
• Caring duties related to any of the above.

The most competitive applications will be those that demonstrate that funded research will result in tangible outcomes. AWAWS is keen to support research that will be available in the near future.
​
Each applicant must address the following four equally weighted criteria in order to be considered for the grant:

1. Proposal strength
2. Research outcomes
3. Individual and financial need
4. Gender equity and diversity

​The selection panel will normally comprise a tenured academic from an Australasian university and two members of the AWAWS Executive Committee.
 
For further details and the application form, please visit https://www.awaws.org/research-grant.html. Please note that the updated application form will be available on the website from Monday, April 15.

AWAWS finances remain healthy, with funds available for local chapter events, workshops and other AWAWS activities in 2024. For those in need, we still have Microgrant funds available! Any members suffering financial adversity are encouraged to apply, simply send us a short email stating your need.
 
If you’re interested in running a local chapter event please let us know! Applications for funding can be found on our website.
 
We thank you for your contributions and engagement with furthering the needs of women and those underrepresent in research and tertiary employment. Your regular contributions make a difference! Friendly reminder to ensure submission of a membership form when completing renewals. 
 
Account Status (March): ​see email.
 
A very big thank you to members who continue to renew memberships and donate.

AWAWS finances remain healthy, with funds available for local chapter events, workshops and other AWAWS activities in 2024. For those in need, we still have Microgrant funds available! Any members suffering financial adversity are encouraged to apply, simply send us a short email stating your need.
 
If you’re interested in running a local chapter event please let us know! Applications for funding can be found on our website.
 
We thank you for your contributions and engagement with furthering the needs of women and those underrepresent in research and tertiary employment. Your regular contributions make a difference! Friendly reminder to ensure submission of a membership form when completing renewals. 
 
Treasurer Update: see email.

A very big thank you to members who continue to renew memberships and donate.

​AWAWS Panel proposed for MAARC 2, Online Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, 2022

Extant visual representations of ancient, medieval or early modern Mediterranean women are layered with meaning, whether those representations depict human or divine, historical or mythological, Christian or Muslim women. Physical manifestations of the human female form beyond the children born of living women all still embody social, political and cultural spheres in which they were created, received and then transmitted to the present day. Over time, most of these physical images of bodies have been altered, sometimes violently, and all have endured through multiple changes of viewership and significance across myriad cultures and times. Their encoded meanings have been reinterpreted, remade or even wholly reimagined.

Modern and now Post-Modern (or Anthropocene?) and culturally-specific perceptions of women, the female body and gender have also greatly influenced the ways in which ancient and medieval female imagery has been interpreted. Ancient and medieval imagery of women has been, and still is, harnessed as a positive encouragement for self-confidence in some spheres and weaponised in others, either to action or to attack modern feminist (and other) agendas in academic, popular and international discourse.

This online panel for the 2nd Mediterranean Archaeology Australasian Research Community (MAARC) free meeting will explore a variety of ways in which women are represented in the material culture of the ancient, medieval and/or modern Mediterranean cultures (or their receptions); the processes by which these images were made, and how meaning was created, attached to these images, and changed; and the ways in which specific physical depictions of women have changed over media, time and different cultural contexts.

Papers are invited that:

• contribute to the discussion of women and gender representation in ancient material culture;
• examine reception of ancient, medieval or modern imagery of women in late ancient, medieval, modern or post-modern Mediterranean cultures; or
• engage with intersectional discourses such as queer studies, race and ethnicity studies, or disability studies.

This panel is organized by Dr Amelia R. Brown (UQ), with the assistance of Candace Richards (Chau Chak Wing Museum, USydney), on behalf of AWAWS. 

Abstracts for papers of circa 20 minutes are solicited from contributors in Australia, New Zealand or wider Australasia on current archaeological research on the ancient female form, and its reception, by email to MAARC and Dr Brown by December 19, 2021, at the MAARC email: mediterraneanarchaeology@gmail.com. If you have any questions please email Dr Brown via a.brown9@uq.edu.au.             

AWAWS Brisbane, in partnership with the AWAWS Academic Mentoring Program, is hosting The Cancelled Conference 2.0 in order to showcase the work of mentees and provide an example of what can be achieved through the program.
 
The conference will be held over held over  Wednesday 29- Thursday 30 September, with a plenary session on the mentoring program on the first day. Attendance is open to anyone, and in particular we would like to encourage those who are interested in learning about and fostering postgraduate research to attend. 

​If you would like to register to attend the conference please email Brianna, Tyla and Janette (Conference Conveners & AWAWS Brisbane Co-Chairs) - awawsbrisbane@gmail.com

Representations of ancient women, whether human or divine, historical, literary or mythological, are always layered with meaning. Physical manifestations of the human female form embody the social, political, and cultural spheres in which they were created, received and transmitted. Over time, most of these physical images of bodies have been altered, sometimes violently, and transmitted across myriad cultures and times. Their encoded meanings have been reinterpreted, or often wholly reimagined.
 
Modern perceptions of women, the female body and gender have greatly influenced the ways in which ancient imagery has been interpreted. Ancient imagery of women has been, and still is, harnessed as a positive encouragement to self-confidence in some spheres and weaponised in others, either to drive or to detract from modern feminist (and other) agendas in the academic and popular spheres.
 
This panel hopes to explore a variety of ways in which women are represented in the material culture of the ancient world (or its receptions); the processes in which meaning is created and attached to these images; and the ways in which physical depictions of women have changed over time and in different cultural contexts.
 
Papers are invited that:

• contribute to the discussion of women and gender representation in ancient material culture;
• examine reception of ancient imagery of women in medieval or modern cultures; or
• engage with intersectional discourses such as queer studies, race and ethnicity studies, or disability studies.

If you would like to participate in the panel please send your EOI including an abstract (max 250 words) and short bio (max 200 words) to candace.richards@sydney.edu.au by Sunday 12 September. Note: The due date is earlier than the ASCS abstract deadline to allow for organisation of the panel. Participants must be financial members of ASCS.

Diversity Officer
AWAWS as a group is committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone, with a particular focus on supporting minority and underrepresented groups and individuals. We aim to support diversity both within AWAWS and within ancient world studies as whole, including diversity in culture, language, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, socio-economic status, and religion. This role will help further support these aims.

The Diversity Officer will:
- help foster diversity and intersectional awareness
- liaise and affiliate with other groups (including passing along intersectional material of interest to be shared on social media by our web officers)
- advise on diversity presentation questions or code of conduct issues relevant to diversity should they arise.

Local Chapters representative
The aim of this role is to help streamline communication between the executive and the local chapters, to ensure events are well publicized, and to provide further support to Local Chapter Heads.

The Local Chapters representative will:
- liaise with local chapters about events, marketing, and funding opportunities
- liaise with web officers to ensure events are promoted to our membership
- raise any issues or challenges faced by local chapters in the Monthly executive meetings.

To nominate for one of these roles please email your expression of interest to the executive committee on socawaws@gmail.com. Expressions of interest will be accepted until 15 September 2021, with an election window (if required) of 20-24 September, 2021.