National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar
"The 'Falls of Rome' : The Transformations of Rome in Late Antiquity"
Director : Michele Renee Salzman, University of California at Riverside
(michele.salzman@ucr.edu or 951 827 1991)
Associate Director : Kimberly Bowes, Cornell University
(kdb48@cornell.edu or kimberlybowes@yahoo.com or 917 699 0340)
The NEH Summer Seminar, "The 'Falls of Rome' : The Transformations of Rome in Late Antiquity" will take place at the American Academy in Rome from 28 June through 30 July 2010. This seminar will focus on a topic that is fundamental to the study of antiquity ; "What does it mean to say Rome fell ?" Unlike other attempts to analyze the fall in terms of the political and military end of the Roman Empire, this seminar will focus on the capital of that empire, the city of Rome, in the late third to the seventh centuries. Through intensive study of texts and new archaeological remains, we will critically examine the reasons traditionally adduced for Rome's fall - political and/or military crisis - and search for more complete definitions, and more complete explanations, of societal change.
The seminar is founded on interdisciplinary interactions, including the collaboration of the Seminar Director, Michele Renee Salzman, an historian, with the Associate Director, Kimberly Bowes, an archaeologist. All readings and seminar discussion will be in English. We welcome applicants from a wide variety of fields in the humanities.
Participants are chosen from university and college faculty who teach American post-secondary students. This includes faculty teaching abroad who teach American students. Applicants of all ranks and all levels of institution are welcome. In addition, two places are reserved for qualified advanced graduate students.
For detailed information about the Seminar and the application go to the American Academy in Rome website or contact the Director or Associate Director at the Addresses above.
Deadline for applications : March 2, 2010.