DOWNLOAD THE FULL PROGRAM HERE.
September 10-24, 2021
The symposium website will host the 10-15-minute video presentations of all the panelists are live on the website under “Panel Presentations.” Registrants are able to view and make comments. Keynote presentations will be live and recorded.
September 23, 2021 (Thursday)
10:45-11:00 am (EST)
Introductory Remarks: Patricia Eunji Kim and Anastasia Amrhein
11:00-11:30 am (EST)
Keynote #1: Shelley Haley (Chair of Classics and Professor of Africana Studies, Hamilton College; President of the Society for Classical Studies)
11:30-12:15 pm (EST)
The Gender and Sex of Queenship
Papers analyze the construction of gender and sexuality for queens and queenly figures, both in the past and in present-day scholarship.
Moderator: Patricia Eunji Kim (NYU Gallatin, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow)
- Jacquelyn Williamson (George Mason University, Associate Professor) Hatshepsut: The Female King in Context
- Quinn Stickley (Cornell University, MA Student) As if He Were a Queen, Deir el-Bahri, Hatshepsut
- Alice Parkin (Oxford University, PhD Candidate) The Amazon Paradox: Exploring Female power and Agency in Myth
- Yanxiao He (Chicago, PhD Candidate) Roxane: The Making of the Last Achaemenid Queen, 4th c BCE
- Justine Cudorge (Reims-Champagne-Ardenne, PhD Candidate) Merovingian Royal Women and Authority: Gender Studies and Marks of Feminine Agency within the Frankish Palatium
12:15-1:00 pm (EST)
Keynote #2: Aminah Fadhil Jafaar Al-Bayati (Director, Iraq Museum Library)
1:00-1:30 pm (EST)
Queens as Patrons of the Arts and Architecture
Queens exercised their power and agency to support the construction and creation of public art, architecture, and spectacles.
Moderator: Ainsley Cameron (Cincinnati Art Museum, Curator)
- Mehreen Chida-Razvi (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, Deputy Curator and In-House Editor) Bilqis at the Mughal Court: Solomonic Imagery of the Empress Nur Jahan to Portray Imperial Power
- Karen Britt (Northwest Missouri State University, Assistant Professor) Empress in Exile: Eudokia’s Patronage in the Holy Land
- Michael Moore (UCLA, Postdoctoral Fellow) Hittite Queens and Their Officials
- Kate Rose (Harvard University, PhD Candidate) Kandakes of the Past and Present: A Study of Queenship and Power in Ancient Kush, mid-8th century BCE
1:30-2:00 pm (EST)
Divine Queens and Queenly Cults
An exploration of queenly goddesses, goddess-like queens, and the role of royal women in cult.
Moderator: Jillian Stinchcomb (Brandeis University, Florence Levy Kay Fellow)
- Megan Daniels (University of British Columbia, Assistant Professor) Divine Bodies: Rethinking Nude Female Imagery through the Lens of Feminine Power in Iron Age Greece
- Lindsey Mazurek (Indiana University, Assistant Professor) Movers and Shakers: Women as Founders outside Cult Structure in the Worship of Isis, 3rd c BCE
- Jessica Plant (Cornell University, PhD Candidate) Saint Thecla’s Sensational Grip on Late Antique Cult, 5th c CE
- Valentina Grasso (Cambridge University, PhD Candidate) Theodora, Shirin and Hind: Sixth-Century Women of Power and Faith, 6th c CE
2:00-2:30 pm (EST)—BREAK
2:30-3:00 pm (EST)
Keynote #3: Amy Gansell (Associate Professor, St. John’s University)
3:00-3:30 pm (EST)
Queenly Bodies and Beauty
Papers explore the visual expressions and cultural ideas around queenly bodies and beauty as politically significant themes.
Moderator: Hallie Franks (NYU Gallatin, Associate Professor)
- Lex Ladge (University of Chicago, PhD Candidate) Laodike III and Public Performances in Asia Minor
- Caitlin Gillespie (Brandeis University, Assistant Professor) Royal Baby Bumps: Pregnancy as Power in the Early Roman Empire
- Christina Ko (artist, New York City) Tools of Beauty-Soft, Bristly, and Clean
September 24, 2021 (Friday)
10:45-11:00 am (EST)
Welcome: Anastasia and Patricia
11:00-11:30 am (EST)
Keynote #4: La Vaughn Belle (artist, New York City)
11:30-12:15 pm (EST)
Defining Queenship from Antiquity to the Present
Papers employ a variety of methodological and theoretical frameworks to grapple with the notion of queenship across disciplines.
Moderator: Anastasia Amrhein (University of Pennsylvania)
- Ellie Bennett (Helsinki, PhD Candidate) Arabian Queens or Female Kings? Defining sarratu during the Neo-Assyrian period, 10th-7th c BCE
- Saana Svard (Helsinki, Associate Professor) Neo-Assyrian Queens and power, 9th-7th c BCE
- Allison Hurst (Harvard University, PhD Candidate) Bathsheba, Jezebel, and Esther: Biblical Queenship and the Power of Persuasion, Iron Age Biblical queens
- Catherine Newell (CU Boulder, MA Student) A Queenly Model: Dido, Cleopatra and the Roman Empire
- VISCO (La Vaughn Belle, Tami Navarro, Hadiya Sewer, and Tiphanie Yanique) Black Queendom in the Danish West Indies, 18th-19th century
12:15-12:45 pm (EST)
Keynote #5: Jackie Murray (Associate Professor of Classics, University of Kentucky)
12:45-1:15 pm (EST)—BREAK
1:15-2:00 pm (EST)
Reception and Modern Mythologies of Ancient Queens
These papers explore the stakes of ancient queenship in modern and contemporary visual and material culture.
Moderator: Bruce King (NYU Gallatin, Part-time Faculty)
- Jose Ignacio Rivera (Retired museum professional) Queen Calafia and the Naming of California
- Elizabeth Carney (Clemson, Professor Emerita) Picturing Olympias: The Mother of Alexander the Great After Antiquity
- Michael Seymour (Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Assistant Curator) Queens and Consorts in the Modern Story of Sardanapalus
- Aimee Hinds (PhD Candidate, Roehampton) Barbie, Perpetual Queen of Egypt
- Casey Stark (Assistant Teaching Professor, Bowling Green State University) Portrayals of Vestal Virgins in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
2:00-2:30 pm (EST)
Centering Women in the Ancient World (30 min.)
Papers offer new modes and methods of critical, creative, and publicly-engaged pedagogies that center histories and art of queens and women from the ancient world.
Moderator: Clare Fitzgerald (Head of Exhibitions and Gallery Curator, ISAW)
- ChelseaDee (arts worker and producer, New York City Vanguard of the Viragoes
- Ashley Bacchi (Assistant Professor, Starr King School for the Ministry) Representation Matters and Hellenistic Queens Have the Power to Help
- Tasha Vorderstrasse (University and Continuing Education Program Coordinator, Oriental Institute of Chicago) Studying and Teaching Nubian Queens
2:30-3:15 pm (EST)
Performance by Mrs. Smith
3:15-3:30 pm (EST)
Closing remarks Patricia Eunji Kim and Anastasia Amrhein