Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
STAFF REPORT
On Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9, Fresno State hosted the Spring 2016 Mediterranean Seminar. The Seminar brought together twenty scholars from around the country, together with ten Fresno State faculty to workshop three papers on “Politics, Identity, and Religion” in the Mediterranean world.
The papers included one by Fresno State Professor of Classics and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Dr. Honora Chapman on “Josephus at the Crossroads in the Roman Oikoumenē”; one by Prof. Christina Maranci of Tufts University entitled, “The Monument and the World: Zuart‘noc‘ and the Problem of Origins”; and a paper by Prof. Alison Vacca of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, entitled, “Bughā and Bagratunik‘: Caliphal Military Campaigns in the Caucasus in the 3rd/9th Century.”
A keynote address was delivered by Prof. Michael Morony (UCLA) on “Coincidence or Cause? The Crisis of the 11th Century.” Respondents to these papers included Prof. Fred Astren of San Francisco State University, Prof. Sharon Kinoshita of UC Santa Cruz, and Prof. David Wacks of the University of Oregon. The papers were followed the next day by a series of roundtables on broad questions concerning Mediterranean Studies including discussions on how monotheistic was the Mediterranean, whether the sea is necessary to our conception of the Mediterranean, and whether Mediterranean Studies may be useful to fields outside of the Mediterranean.
A presentation by the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library on the status of their collection was also given by Daniel Gullo, curator of the Malta Collection.
Dr. Sergio La Porta was very pleased with the outcome of the Seminar, saying “the program was filled with lively discussion that continued well beyond the sessions. It was a great opportunity for these scholars to meet as well as exchange research projects and ideas.”
The Seminar was supported by the Armenian Studies Program of Fresno State with additional funding by the Provost’s Office of Fresno State, and the Phoebe McClatchy Conley Endowment for the Classics at Fresno State, and co-sponsored by the Society for Armenian Studies. Additional support was provided by University of Colorado at Boulder and the Institute for Humanities Research at UC Santa Cruz. More information on the Mediterranean Seminar can be found at www.mediterraneanseminar.org.