#pacific rim roman literature seminar 33

[imperium-romanum]

Welcome to 2019, everyone!

I spent the last week and a half at my family’s shack, enjoying the company of close family and friends, and Kali the #ClassicsCat, of course! I’m excited about the fresh start the New Year brings. 2018 was a difficult year for me personally. I haven’t talked about it on the blog because I prefer to focus on positives but as I prepare to face this New Year head on, I would like to reflect on some of the major hurdles that I had to overcome in 2018.

In January, my partner and I were forced to get a restraint order against my neighbour of six and a half years who became aggressive and threatening due to severe (suspected) drug-induced paranoia. We moved in with my parents while we went through the process to have the temporary restraint order confirmed. The restraint order was confirmed in February – a win – but we were not able to return to our unit. The local council, after 11 years of my parents owning the property, decided that our unit was not a legal dwelling. Bureaucracy at its finest.

During March and April, we fought the council for an explanation and started to try and resolve the problem. It seemed we were much more willing to work with them than they were to work with us, though. Shortly before the Easter break commenced my parents received a threatening letter from the council claiming that we were still living in the unit and that we would be fined approximately $20,000 AUD for the violation. This claim was blatantly false, but we still had to go through the process of overturning the impending fine.

We continued to try and solve the problem with our unit in May, but this was soon put on the back-burner when our cat, Kali, developed ketoacidosis due to undiagnosed diabetes. Within the space of 12 hours, she went from being her bright happy self to knocking on death’s door. She spent four days in constant care. I am forever grateful to my parents who paid for her care, which quickly tallied in the thousands. Without their compassion and love for her, we would have been forced to put her to sleep. I recieved many well-wishes during this time from followers, and I am thankful for the support and kindess you showed.

Left: Kali at AHVEC, weighing just 2.7kg. Right: Kali snuggling me and my fiance at a much healthier 4kg.

Kali's struggles weren't over, in June. She again visited the emergency vet hospital after getting into the bin, pulling out a wedged in chicken container, and eating the silicone absorbent pad while we were out for a half-hour at most. We still don’t know how she managed to do it! Thankfully it wasn’t serious in the end; she brought it all back up and suffered no consequences apart from all the dirty looks that my family gave her because of the panic she caused.

After a couple relatively quiet months, my fiancé’s family dog, Jess, also developed diabetes. She was not as lucky as Kali, however, and did not respond to treatment. Within weeks she went completely blind, among other problems. At only 9 years old, my fiancé’s parents were forced to make the difficult decision to put her to sleep. While I do not regret being there for them, it was the first time I had to deal with death in such a confronting way and it was a terrible reminder of how lucky Kali was to survive.

I hit perhaps my lowest ever point mental health-wise around this time. Although the semester was very rewarding, after such an intense period of balancing my personal life and commitments, PhD research, studying a language, and tutoring both academically and privately, I felt emotionally and mentally used up. The best way to describe how I functioned during this period is that I was on auto-pilot.

 Although 2018 was undeniably the most difficult year of my almost 26 years of life, there were plenty of positives too. In January I completed my Confirmation of Candidature, which involved presenting a 20-minute paper on my research topic. Then, in February, I was very lucky to upgrade my car by 12 years. Again, I am very grateful to my parents and very aware of how fortunate I am that they are willing and able to assist me financially, with work flexible enough to fit in with a PhD being so hard to come by.

I entered my second year of candidature in late February. It was a reasonably uneventful couple of months until, over two days, I gave two more presentations in May – one at Pint of History titled ‘Catastrophic Crassus: Parthia, #EpicFails, and the Death of Rome’s Richest Man’ and one at the Humanities Showcase at my university, titled ‘It Speaks! The Voice of the Door in the Roman Paraclausithyron’. 

I also secured a casual job at UConnect, UTAS’s student services. I had four weeks of nearly full-time work at the start of both semesters which allowed me to save enough money to get me through each semester.

In June, Kali’s glucose curve stabilised, much to ours and the vet’s relief; she has settled into diabetes life well ever since.

July was a month of firsts. I went to New Zealand for the first time and attended my first conference, Amphorae XII. At Amphorae XII, I presented my first conference paper, ‘Pompey’s Eastern Settlements: Considerations and Consequences’. I met some wonderful people, including some mutual followers! I also visited some of the sights, including the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, Hobbiton, and Hamilton Gardens.

When I returned from New Zealand, I enjoyed another four-week stint working for UConnect and, through the semester, I was also lucky to tutor the first years for HTC104: Introduction to Ancient Rome. This was my first time tutoring in an official capacity and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

When September came around, I received the good news that my abstract had been accepted for ASCS40. My fiancé and I were also finally able to move out of my parents’ house and back into a place of our own. The situation with our unit is still up in the air, unfortunately, but it is moving slowly forward. Still, it’s important to appreciate the small milestones, so to celebrate our return to relative independence we established a small succulent garden in the back area and grew far too many tomato plants.

In November, I reached a major milestone in my PhD journey by completing the necessary coursework element (what UTAS calls a Graduate Certificate in Research) of my degree. As a result, I now have the equivalent of a minor in Latin on top of the Certificate itself. Imperium Romanum also reached its first anniversary!

Finally, in December, my fiancé and I spent many weekends at the family shack enjoying the blessedly warm weather that usually skips Tasmania. Over the Christmas-New Year break, I went to the beach a record three days in a row. Sometimes, you just need to enjoy the simple things.

And so I must turn my attention to 2019. This, like the years before, will be another big one. I’m venturing into the third year of my PhD candidature in late February and, with the GCR finished, I’m looking forward to devoting my time to research. I’ll be attending not one but (hopefully) two conferences this year. The first is ASCS40, 4 to 7 February, at the University of New England in Armidale. It’s now only 33 days away – my funding was approved in December and I’ve booked my flights, accommodation, and hire car. As with Amphorae XII, I’ll be live tweeting the conference and blogging about my adventures in Armidale, which I have not visited before. I’m also hoping to attend Roman Memory: Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar 33 in July at the University of Newcastle – I’ll keep you posted on that one.

To finish up, I have a few New Year’s Goals that I would like to share with you. I won’t call them resolutions as I find that term comes with a lot of negative connotations; I’m not solving problems nor do I need to ‘better’ myself. Instead, I want to focus on enjoying all aspects of my life, from the private sphere to the academic. 

 1. Read more fiction. 

I love reading, yet, over the last few years, I’ve noticed that I do very little reading simply for the pleasure of it. Because the last six years of my life have been so academically focused – having gone straight from a Bachelor to Honours to a PhD – I’ve spent so much time reading for university subjects and research that the thought of doing more reading, even fiction, is exhausting. I could probably count the number of new books I’ve read (that haven’t been set for a class) on my fingers. I’ve set myself the goal of reading two to three new fiction books every month – if I can read more, great!

 2. Do more activities.

Last year, I went on a fantastic one-day road trip with two friends to Freycinet National Park on Tasmania’s east coast. Then, through December, I enjoyed many more small adventures with my fiancé. Even though I’ve never been particularly fit, I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors. Now that I’m equipped with some top quality hiking boots, I want to get out more – do more bushwalking, walk more rugged and rocky coastlines, and explore more of Tasmania’s wilderness.

I also want to spend less time playing computer games (much as I enjoy them), and more time making things. I’m no artist, but I still love to create things. I’m going to start off by making a pom pom rug in my Harry Potter house colours – Ravenclaw – to go under my desk. I won’t be posting my creations of Imperium Romanum, but I will be posting about them on Instagram and Twitter for those who are interested.

 3. Participate in a ‘100 Days of Productivity’ challenge.

While I have a reputation for being a productive student with good grades, the truth is that I am a chronic procrastinator who happens to be very good at whipping up strong assignments last minute. Even outside of the academic sphere, I’m somewhat of a procrastinator, thanks in part to anxiety. So, while I will continue to bring you the latest Classics news, there will be some changes coming to Imperium Romanum as I turn more attention to the everyday realities of studying Classics and my experiences as a student. Life can often be overwhelming, and acknowledging this and finding a better way to tackle the day-to-day burdens before the month-to-month or the year-to-year is going to be a major focus for me. I think that a productivity challenge is an excellent way to do this. Starting January 3, I’ll be documenting my productive efforts via Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. While I expect most of my days will be related to research, I have no doubt that the challenge will have a positive impact on my life outside of university.

  And with that, I’ll wrap up. To all my followers, old and new, I wish you a very happy and prosperous 2019. I hope you’ll share your adventures with me too, and I encourage you to share your New Years Goals – my ask box and submissions are always open!

~ Admin @sassy-cicero-says

[imperium-romanum]

Australasian Conferences | 2019

Amphorae XIII – Future Directions

Monash University, 9 to 11 June 2019

We invite all submissions of abstracts for the 13th Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Hellenic or Roman Antiquities and Egyptology (AMPHORAE) to be held at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia from 9-11 June 2019.

The theme for Amphorae XIII is Future Directions. As postgraduate students in ancient world studies, our research represents the leading edge of study in our respective fields. We also live in exciting times, with rapid social and technological changes impacting the way we approach the ancient world. Indeed, change and consideration of the future was undoubtedly a concern for the peoples and cultures of our research.

Amphorae invites you to submit an abstract relevant to the theme of Future Directions to present in June, 2019. 

Abstract guidelines:

Abstract submissions for papers and poster presentations should include the following:

Presenter’s name

Presenter’s university, department and position (postgrad or honours student)

Paper title

Abstract of about 200-300 words, giving a clear idea of what you intend to argue

Type of presentation (paper, brief communication, or poster)

Send all abstracts to: amphorae2019@gmail.com

Please use the abstract cover sheet, provided on the web site.

Information for Presenters:

Presentation Formats

20 minute paper presentation with 10 minutes of discussion

10 minute brief communication with 5 minutes of discussion

Please make every effort to stick to the 20 minute limit so there can be a solid period for questions and comments.

Poster presentation (see below for more details)

Technological facilities: all the standard facilities (data projector, Powerpoint, internet connection, etc) will be available in the presentation rooms. If you have a Powerpoint, please bring it on a USB stick and arrive a few minutes before the start of your session so it can be set up in advance. We also recommend having an easily accessible copy saved online in case your USB is lost or does not work.

Timeslot requests: Unfortunately, due to the expected volume of papers we cannot generally take requests. However, if there is absolutely no possible way for you to make it to the conference on a particular day, please let us know as early as possible and we will see what we can do.

Poster Presentations:

We will be running a poster session during AMPHORAE to provide another option for delegates, particularly honours students, who may not have the time to prepare a full paper. To take part, you will need to put together an A1 or A2 sized poster that displays your research. You will not need to give a formal presentation with your poster, but should be prepared to talk about your research during the session, which will run as a casual get-together. Please indicate on the registration form if you will be presenting a poster, and submit an abstract in accordance with the guidelines above.

To Register:

Information for abstract submissions and conference registration (for non-presenters) can be found on the conference web site.

Submission deadline 31 March

ALIA ASTRA: A History of Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies

An Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies Workshop

Macquarie University, 26 April 2019

While women are conspicuous in number and achievement in Australian history, they remain largely unacknowledged and underrepresented in continuing positions and research fellowships in Australasian Ancient World Studies. The absence of any comprehensive history of Australasian women involved in the study of the ancient world contributes to marginalising the impact of women on the discipline.

This workshop aims to consolidate efforts to collect and work up data towards a history of Australasian women in Ancient World Studies by bringing together everyone who has worked on, or is undertaking, research on women in the field in Australia and New Zealand.

If you are working on the living or past history of women in the discipline please come and share your findings and join us to map out a special journal issue dedicated to a history of women in the discipline in the next two years as well as a five-year strategy for the ongoing effort to collect, archive, and disseminate information on women in the discipline for the future.

The workshop will involve three planning sessions on Friday the 26th of April at Macquarie University in which research already completed or underway will be reported on, desiderata identified, and tasks assigned. The day will culminate in a panel presentation, open to the public, which will discuss the issues involved in developing a history of women in the field.

If you are interested in participating in this workshop and /or contributing to the project, please register here (https://mqedu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3ftDiKr5nFhlC6N). If you cannot attend but have worked in this area, please register to let us know about your efforts.

An additional registration page will be established for the public panel event.

Website: https://socawaws.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/alia-astra-a-history-of-australasian-women-in-ancient-world-studies/

Roman Memory: Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar 33

University of Newcaslte, 10-12 July 2019

The thirty-third meeting of the PacRim Roman Literature Seminar will be held at the University of Newcastle from 10-12 July 2019. The theme for the 2019 conference will be Roman Memory.

We are inviting papers on Roman literature on the subject of memory. This might include: representations of Roman history in subsequent periods, the ways in which Latin authors rewrite earlier Roman literature, the use of the Muses as repositories of cultural memory, commemorations of the dead, the methods by which Roman writers position themselves in the literary tradition, the reception of Latin literature in both antiquity and later eras, the loss and recovery of historical memory, the processes of collective memory, the art of forgetting, and resistance to official efforts to erase memory through damnatio memoriae.

The theme may be interpreted broadly and papers on other topics will also be considered.

Papers should be 30 minutes in length (with fifteen minutes of discussion time). The Pacific Rim Seminar does not run parallel sessions; participants may attend any or all papers. Abstract proposals of 200-300 words should be sent to Marguerite Johnson (marguerite.johnson@newcastle.edu.au) and/or Peter Davis (peter.davis@adelaide.edu.au). Submissions from graduate students and early-career researchers are welcome. Please submit abstracts by 28 February 2019. Earlier submissions are of course welcome.

We expect that conference will be held in a venue in the city of Newcastle. A conference web site will be built in due course.

Submission deadline 28 February 2019