Conference Schedule

Saturday, October 6

Lunch for all participants 11:30-1:00
Opening Remarks: Calvin Roetzel, University of Minnesota
Talk (Audio)		 1:00-1:15
I. Imitation and Mimesis 1:15-2:45
Chair: Michael Lower, University of Minnesota  
Steve Weitzman, Indiana University -“‘Double Trouble’ in the Writing of Josephus”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Chris Frilingos, Michigan State University - “Random Acts of Violence: Ironic Brutality in Jewish, Christian, and Pagan Narrative”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Coffee Break 2:45-3:15
II. Destructive Imaginings 3:15-5:30
Chair: Philip Sellew, University of Minnesota  
Jennifer Glancy, LeMoyne College - “Jesus in Jerusalem: Person, Place, Violence”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Kimberly Stratton, Carleton University - "The Eschatological Arena: Re-inscribing Roman Violence in Fantasies of the End Times."
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Ra‘anan S. Boustan, University of California, Los Angeles - “Immolating Emperors: Jewish Revenge Fantasies in Late Antiquity”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Key Note Address 7:30-9:30
Welcome: Associate Dean James Parente, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota
Talk (Audio)		  
Introduction: Ra'anan S. Boustan, University of California, Los Angeles  
Bruce Lincoln, University of Chicago Divinity School - “Sanctified Violence in Ancient Mediterranean Religions: A Typological Overview”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Public Reception 9:30—

Sunday, October 7

Breakfast 8:00-9:00
III. The Rhetoric of War and Peace 9:00-11:15
Chair: William Beeman, University of Minnesota  
Tom Sizgorich, University of New Mexico - “Sanctified Violence and Kindred Blood: Monotheistic Militancy as the Tie that Bound Rome and Islam"
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Calvin Roetzel, University of Minnesota -
“Paul and the Language of War in 2 Cor 10:1–11:31”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Shelly Matthews, Furman University -
“Clemency as Cruelty”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Lunch for all participants 11:15-12:45
IV. The Precarious Sanctity of the Martyr 12:45-3:00
Chair: Thomas Pepper, University of Minnesota  
Andrew Gallia, University of Minnesota
“Thrasea the Martyr: Sanctity and Political Persecution under the Early Principate”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Hermann Lichtenberger, Everhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
“Violence in the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles of the Second and Third Centuries”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Margaret M. Mitchell, University of Chicago Divinity School
"Christian Martyrdom and the ‘Dialect of the Holy Scriptures’: The Literal, the Allegorical, and the Martyrological."
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Coffee Break 3:00-3:30
V. Textual Practices and Violence 3:30-5:45
Chair: Lauren Monroe, Cornell University  
Alex Jassen, University of Minnesota - “Scripture, Tradition, and the Hermeneutics of Violence in the Dead Sea Scrolls”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Beth Berkowitz, The Jewish Theological Seminary - “Hermeneutics and the Arts of Resistance: Violent Readings by the Rabbis”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Laura S. Nasrallah, Harvard Divinity School - "A Crisis of Representation: Justin, Roman Violence, and the Semiotics of Empire"
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio)		  

Monday, October 8

Breakfast 8:00-9:00
VI. Violence and Order 9:00-11:15
Chair: George Sheets, University of Minnesota  
Clifford Ando, University of Chicago - “Religion and the Laws of War: An Archaeology”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Natalie Dohrmann, University of Pennsylvania - “The Rabbis and the Question of Law: Aspects of Coercion”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University - “State Intervention and Holy Violence: Timgad / Paleostrovskii / Waco”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Lunch for all participants 11:15-12:30
VII. (Mis)understanding the Violence of Others 12:30-2:00
Chair: Andrew Gallia, University of Minnesota  
Celia E. Schultz, Yale University - “The Romans and Ritual Murder”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
David Cook, Rice University - “The Ismaili Assassins as Proto-Suicide Attackers: Examining the Narratives of Medieval Assassination in the Muslim World”
Introduction (Audio), Talk (Audio), Q&A (Audio)		  
Wrap-up Discussion
Talk (Audio)		 2:00-2:30