The 26th multidisciplinary Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity will be organized on 8.-9. November 2019. The symposium will bring together scholars and postgraduate students with an interest in Late Antiquity from a variety of universities and disciplines (including, but not limited to classics, history, archaeology, legal history and Roman law, theology, religious studies, art history). The title for this year’s symposium is (ca. 150-700 CE). Our theme of forced and voluntary mobility in Late Antiquity will be approached from a wide perspective. However, we seek especially to trace the encounters between individuals and peoples, both in terms of everyday interaction, and in terms of cultural discourses of inclusion, exclusion, coexistence and mutual recognition.

Our three invited speakers are:

Julia Hillner: Convicts, Patrons and Collateral Damage: Women and Exile in Late Antiquity

Geoff Nathan: ”Vastantur pauperes, viduae gemunt, orphani proculcantur”: The Refugee and the Displaced Community in Late Roman Gaul

Arietta Papaconstantinou: The Languages of Emigrants: Power, Subversion, Resilience

The symposium will be divided into thematic sessions broadly structured around archaeological, literary, and historical frames of inquiry.

The symposium will be organized at the zoological research station of the University of Helsinki at Lammi, in the middle of the Finnish agricultural landscape.

The symposium will have a participation fee (20€ from students, 60€ from others), which will include accommodation at the symposium venue (one night in a shared room) and meals for two days. We offer transportation from Helsinki to Lammi and the return journey by a coach. Registration for the symposium starts on August 12th and closes on 1st October 2019.

The symposium is organized by a multidisciplinary organizing committee:

The meeting is funded by the following research projects all based in the University of Helsinki: