​As we enter autumn properly, there are lots of exciting AWAWS events to look forward to. Our annual research grant has been announced, so if you are eligible consider applying (for more details see below). This is one of the main ways that AWAWS supports new voices in the field. The second workshop in our Equality and Diversity series is coming up. If you are interested sign up below. There are also two amazing PhD opportunities to check out, part of the Night Vision in the Late Ancient Mediterranean project. Finally, AWAWS is gearing up for our AGM in July, so stay tuned for more information about this important event in our calendar. Enjoy your autumn and we look forward to seeing you on our events, both online and in person.

After a successful and enjoyable ASCS conference at Canberra, a wonderful opportunity to meet and to talk with so many of our members, AWAWS is looking forward to an exciting year ahead. An early highlight was Faezeh Dadfar’s talk for International Women’s Day 2025 who emphasised some of the challenges faced by our international students. We at AWAWS hope to find more ways to help our international student members, so we are currently brainstorming. Feedback and ideas from our members about how best we can accomplish this goal are welcome (email me directly at [email protected]). We also have an exciting series of workshops and talks to look forward to this year. For details for some of them, plus some exciting opportunities, keep reading! The members of AWAWS’ executive committee hope that your year started well, and that you can attend our in-person and online events. Let’s keep the conversation going and continue to support each other!

Dr Anastasia Bakogianni
​AWAWS President

​With the end of our academic year fast approaching, I wanted to wish everyone the very best of luck with writing and marking assignments and all the other associated duties involved in wrapping up our working year. Let us also not forget to celebrate our successes in 2024, acknowledge the challenges we faced and look forward to well-earned the summer holidays (wishing lots of strength to colleagues teaching summer schools and/or undertaking research and other activities). We have a lot to look forward to in 2025, starting with ASCS in Canberra. We will keep you up to date with AWAWS’s exciting plans for next year!

​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: [email protected]. If you have any questions please email Dr Brown via [email protected].             

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) - [email protected]

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 [email protected] 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.

This week we launched a new e-newsletter to bring you all the latest happenings from the AWAWS membership. We hope to bring you a newsletter update every two months. If you havent got yours please check your spam and then send us an email [email protected]

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 [email protected]. Expressions of interest will be accepted until 15 September 2021, with an election window (if required) of 20-24 September, 2021.