In March of 2021 the AAIA, in collaboration with CCANESA, The Chau Chak Wing Museum, Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies, and the University of Sydney Departments of Archaeology and Classics and Ancient History, hosted an international online conference ‘Modern’ Women of the Past? Unearthing Gender and Antiquity. What had begun life as a series of informal discussions between myself and Louise Pryke around a public outreach event on the theme of women in antiquity exploded into a dynamic, global affair which attracted contributions from over 60 speakers from more than a dozen countries. The conference was held over two intense 12-hour days on the 5th and 6th of March.

The response to the call for papers was both humbling and overwhelming, and we discovered the exciting degree of connectivity that an online conference can bring. Freed of the (often prohibitive) costs of international travel we were able to accommodate the voices of emerging scholars from far-flung nations. We were inspired by the work of Dinara Assanova (Kazakh National Pedagogical University) who has single-handedly created a national Online Museum of Women of Kazakhstan. Her work is both a means of preserving Kazakh heritage and amassing a wealth of sources for an expanding research archive. Oluwafunminiyi Raheem (Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding) sparked tremendous discussion with his research into votive practices, dedicated to Olokun Seniade in in Ile-Ife, Southwest Nigeria. Speakers overcame the tyranny of distance and international timezones to share their research. Tais Pagoto Belo (LARP Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Saõ Paulo) presented her work on early Imperial Roman coinage at 3am Brazilian time in what was for her a second language, an impressive feat.

Beyond the demonstrations of stamina and linguistic flexibility, we were pleased to showcase impressive research by both emerging and established scholars, who were prepared to cross disciplinary boundaries and engage in enriching discussions and debates. Graeme Miles (University of Tasmania) examined the challenges Eunapius faced in his efforts ‘Representing Sosipatra in Eunapius of Sardis’ Lives of Philosophers and Sophists, while Lakshmi R (Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University) wrestled with the use of forms of Naṅkai or Naṅkaiyār in early medieval references to royal women in Tamil epigraphy.

Heidi Koepp-Junk (University of Trier) not only delivered a thought-provoking paper on ‘Women, Music and Eroticism in Ancient Egypt’ but went on to treat us with an impromptu performance, singing in ancient Egyptian, while playing a replica ancient Egyptian lute.

Discussion time at the end of sessions, and during break periods was rich with debate. Amjad Alshalan (King Saud University) revealed a razor-sharp scholarly intellect that marked her out as an emerging scholar to follow. Her paper ‘Euripides’ Medea: An Exploration of Male Representation of Women’, was a mere prelude to the pearls of wisdom she shared during discussions. Similarly Athenodora Nguyen received kudos as the non-speaker delegate who posed the most astute questions. Session after session they cut to the core of tangled issues of gender representation and interpretation, with a wit and humour that encouraged speakers to reveal their deeper thoughts on their chosen topics.
The first day of the conference concluded with the first of two keynote lectures. Dr Rachel Pope (University of Liverpool) delivered a powerhouse public lecture, hosted by the Chau Chak Wing Museum. With devastating precision, she laid bare the lack of representation of female scholars in the discipline of archaeology, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, and the deep impact this had on how the archaeological record – as it relates to women, especially powerful women – has been interpreted. She went on to explore the challenges that women working in the field face today, and the ways in which this continues to impact on how we understand the women of the ancient past. Beyond simply quantifying the nature and extent of these problems Dr Pope offered ameliorating measures such as support for women with caring responsibilities and critical re-appraisals of past interpretations of the archaeological evidence to offer more holistic understandings of the diverse experiences and roles of women who lived in the deep past.

At the commencement of the second day’s proceedings Professor Gina Luria Walker (New York School) delivered our second keynote lecture, outlining the New Historia initiative which redresses the ignorance of earlier female figures and the erasure of female historians through the creation of new biographies of female historians. She began this project with the British historian Mary Hays, whose own work Female Biography: or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of All Ages and Countries set the course for Gina’s efforts to put women back into the histories from which they have long been erased, overlooked or underplayed.

This theme continued through the day as speakers examined the ways in which women’s roles and experiences are ripe for re-evaluation. Valentina Limina (Università di Pisa) shone new light on the shifting reception of Arria from Roman times to the Renaissance, while Pablo Varona Rubio (Università degli Studi di Perugia) re-examined the roles of women in small Roman communities through a case study of Varia Gestiana Urvinum Hortense.

Staff and associates of the AAIA were well-represented at the conference. Beatrice McLoughlin delivered a paper on the Women’s Works and Days project which incorporates ethnoarchaeological research to rediscover the agency of female potters in Cyprus. Andrew Hazewinkel challenged perceptions of masculinity and femininity through the myth of Herakles enslavement by the Lydian queen Omphale and their switching of conventional gender roles. For my own research, I was thrilled to have an opportunity to share research into perceptions of female power and influence through reception of the British queens Boudicca and Cartimandua during the Roman conquest of Britain.

The conference concluded its second day with a publication session during which speakers were put in direct contact with the editors of the book series Women in Ancient Cultures at University of Liverpool Press. Led by Commissioning Editor, Claire Litt, the team outlined the entire process from proposal through to finished publication, answering many questions from our speakers.

It was a true joy to be able to host such an expanisve conference and I am incredibly thankful to Dr Louise Pryke, Dr Emma Barlow and Candace Richards for their dilligent hard work, patience and support in our endeavours to bring the conference to life.

A final word goes to our speakers who offered their gratitude in numerous emails of thanks in the days following the event:

Last year AWAWS Brisbane hosted The Cancelled Conference, and asked postgraduate students to put their cancelled conference papers to good use. The conference was a great success and one of the most rewarding aspects of the conference was the feedback presenting postgraduate students received from senior academics who attended. 

This year, in partnership with the AWAWS Academic Mentoring Program, AWAWS Brisbane is hosting The Cancelled Conference 2.0: a postgraduate conference designed to give students the opportunity to receive feedback on their work from established academics who are invested in supporting and fostering postgraduate scholarship.

There will be a number of AWAWS mentors in attendance and chairing the panels. This will ensure every presenter has the opportunity to receive critical and constructive feedback from leading academics in their field. There will also be a plenary discussion panel about the AWAWS Academic Mentoring Program. This session will highlight the benefits of academic mentoring and showcase positive academic outcomes achieved through the program by past mentors and mentees. 

Who is this conference for?

• Postgraduate students involved in the AWAWS mentoring program who would like to showcase their work to their mentors, their peers, and the broader community of ancient world studies
• Postgraduate students who are interested in joining the AWAWS mentoring program and would like to see what the mentoring program can do for them
• Postgraduates students seeking critical and constructive feedback from academics in their field 

This conference is open to all AWAWS postgraduate members. It will be held online to give students an opportunity to meet and mingle with academics in their field of study from across Australia and New Zealand who might be otherwise inaccessible due to distance. 
​
Date and Location 
The Cancelled Conference 2.0 will be held between Wednesday 29 September – Thursday 30 September 2021.
The conference will be held virtually through Zoom. Once the program has been finalised information on how to register and attend each session will be circulated. Please save the date in the meantime. 
Conditions 

• 20 minute paper + 10 minute question time 
• Paper submissions are open to all AWAWS postgraduate members: renew or join here.
• There is no set theme for this conference, all topics are welcome 
• Audience attendance is free and open to the public
• We stress that the aim of the conference is to support and encourage postgraduate research, and we invite all postgraduates, academics, and industry professionals to attend and share this aim. 

How to apply
To apply for the conference please send an abstract and your completed submission form to AWAWS Brisbane [email protected] - Submissions are due by Monday 26 July. 

If you have any further questions about the conference, you can contact us via our email address or Facebook page. 
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: @awawsbrisbane 

​Conference Convenors
Brianna Sands, MPhil candidate (UQ), Co-chair AWAWS Brisbane Chapter
Tyla Cascaes, PhD candidate (UQ), Co-chair AWAWS Brisbane Chapter ​

Speaker: Dr Rachel Pope, Senior Lecturer in European Prehistory, Liverpool University, Founder and a Director of British Women Archaeologists.
When: 7.45pm (AEDT) Friday 5th March 
Note: Speaker will be presenting from Liverpool, UK at 8.45am GMT, Friday 5th March.
​RSVP: Click here to register via eventbrite

Speaker: Professor Gina Walker, Professor of Women's Studies and Director of The Center for The New Historia, The New School.
When: 9.30am (AEDT) Saturday 6th March 
Note: Speaker will be presenting from New York, USA at 5.30pm EST, Friday 5th March.
​RSVP: Click here to register via eventbrite

If you have any questions about the conference or our key note lectures you can contact the conference convenors ​via [email protected]

‘A woman’s work is never done,’ whether in a Postmodern Pandemic, 1950s Australia or Classical Antiquity. What was that work, however, and when was it considered a ‘profession’ or even ‘work’ in Antiquity (by the worker, her family, and/or her society)? Recent research is casting new light on paid and unpaid work that ancient women undertook outside of the household oikos, domus or villa context in the ancient Mediterranean world. The 10th muse Sappho continues to attract attention (and somehow publish new work!), as do her lesser-known sisters of the lyre and pen like Erinna, Anyte or Sulpicia (1). The ‘working women’ of the oldest profession gain renewed notoriety, whether Aspasia as the ‘secret’ muse of Socrates and originator of western philosophy in Classical Athens (2), or the mostly-anonymous sex workers of Pompeii (3). Even in arts and crafts, we are slowly recognizing the ‘mass production’ of garland weavers, wool-workers (4), or female potters like the potential creator of the Dipylon Vase (5). Major challenges to this sort of scholarship remain, however, not only in the extant literary and archaeological evidence, but also in the unpacking of historic and contemporary gender (and other) biases and stereotypes, value-judgments and judgments of value. Ancient and modern definitions of ‘working women’ were, and are, neither static nor uniform, but worthy of study and questioning, whether of their professionalisation and the earning of wages, their public and private spheres, or across all the disparate categories of paid, unpaid and servile labor, labor, douleia, scholê orneg(otium) of ancient Greece and Rome.  

Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies invites the submission of abstracts for a panel at ASCS 42 on professional women of the Ancient World. Abstracts in the ASCS format should be sent in the first instance to the panel convenor Amelia R. Brown at [email protected] by August 21, 2020, so she can prepare a panel submission by August 31 for ASCS 42 Online.           

 Works cited: 

1. E. Greene, ed. 2005. Women Poets in Ancient Greece and Rome. Norman, OK. ; E. Greene and M.B. Skinner, eds. 2009. The New Sappho on Old Age: Textual and Philosophical Issues. Washington, DC. 
2.  A. D’Angour. 2019. Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher. London. 
3. S. Levin-Richardson. 2019. The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, Class, and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society. Cambridge. 

Image sourced from Pryke, L. 'Hidden women of history: Enheduanna, princess, priestess and the world’s first known author' The Conversation. February 13, 2019.

For many postgraduate students the mid-year break is usually a time to attend conferences and workshops to gain academic and professional experience. These events provide great opportunities for postgraduates to share their research ideas, practice public speaking, further their professional development, and meet fellow peers. Due to the unfolding circumstances most conferences and workshops for 2020 have been cancelled or postponed for the foreseeable future. As a postgrad-led chapter we are particularly aware of the impact these cancellations can have on academic development for postgraduate students, especially for new students planning to attend their first conference.

To combat these cancellations and to make the most of our time in isolation, AWAWS Brisbane will be holding The Cancelled Conference to provide AWAWS postgraduate members with an opportunity to put their cancelled conference papers to good use. The conference will be held virtually over Zoom in mid-July. Although we cannot fully recreate or replace attending an academic conference, we hope The Cancelled Conference will be a useful alternative.
 
Date and Location
The Cancelled Conference will be held Monday 13 – Tuesday 14 July depending on numbers.
The conference will be held virtually through Zoom, UQ’s preferred video-call software.
Zoom links for each panel session will be provided in the conference program.
 
Conditions

• 20 minute paper + 10 minute question time 
• Audience attendance is open to the public
• Paper submissions are open to all AWAWS postgraduate members  
• There is no set theme for this conference, all topics are welcome  

 
How to apply
To apply for the conference please email AWAWS Brisbane ([email protected]) with the submission form below: