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Meeting Program Units

2022 Annual Meeting

Denver, Colorado

Meeting Begins11/19/2022
Meeting Ends11/22/2022

Call for Papers Opens: 1/19/2022
Call for Papers Closes: 3/18/2022

Requirements for Participation

Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions


Program Unit Type: Affiliate
Accepting Papers? Yes

Call For Papers: REMODELING THE MOTEL OF THE MYSTERIES: innovations in the study of secret cults

A rich range of new approaches has reinvigorated the study of Greek and Roman mystery cults. New technologies for reconstructing the affective, embodied, interactive experience of these rituals open previously inaccessible frameworks for a phenomenology of the mysteries. Fresh analysis of the Christian fathers read them less as the voice of Christianity triumphant than as interlocutors in the complex processes of social, personal, and gender identities the rites enabled. Digital humanities approaches enable consideration of soundscapes and social networks; comparative studies draw on ethnographic models of secrecy; contextual approaches explore intersections with magic. More detailed historical-philological studies on specific cult sites and activities have shown the different ways in which Greeks and Romans made use of such rites. This panel invites papers focused on innovations in theory and method in relation to Greek and Roman mystery cults, including disability studies, framing an emerging analytical horizon for rites sealed by secrecy.

Abstracts (500-600 words) for papers of fifteen to twenty minutes should be submitted by email attachment as .doc or .docx files to socamr@gmail.com. All abstracts will undergo blind review; abstracts should contain a title and a word count but should not have any information regarding the identity of the submitter. Please direct all queries to SAMR at socamr@gmail.com.

Program Unit Chairs

Robyn Faith Walsh
Daniel Schowalter

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