Tag Archives: North American Syriac Symposium

The Seventh North American Syriac Symposium

Aramaic Blog, News,

June 21-24, 2015

* * * The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 1, 2015 * * *

The Seventh North American Syriac Symposium will be held at The Catholic University of America on June 21-24, 2015. Held every four years since 1991, the North American Syriac Symposium brings together university professors, graduate students, and scholars from the United States and Canada as well as from Europe, the Middle East, and India, in particular from the State of Kerala. The Symposium offers a unique opportunity for exchange and discussion on a wide variety of topics related to the language, literature, and cultural history of Syriac Christianity, which extends chronologically from the first centuries CE to the present day and geographically from Syriac Christianity’s homeland in the Middle East to South India, China, and the worldwide diaspora.

The theme for the 2015 CUA Syriac Symposium will be ‘Ad Fontes: Sources for Syriac Studies’. Given the tremendous growth in Syriac studies over the last two decades, we would like to celebrate the rich and varied sources on which the field is built, from manuscripts and inscriptions to architecture, from objects of art to oral tradition. Thus, we encourage submissions that reevaluate well-known sources, investigate lesser-known sources, and bring to light entirely new ones. Submissions that reflect on disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological approaches to the sources are also welcome. No original submission will, however, be rejected on account of its subject, so long as it relates to Syriac studies and meets the scholarly standards established by the 2015 organizing committee.

Based on the response to this Call for Papers, a number of sessions, each consisting of three or four papers, will be put together. These may include some of the following:

(1) Syriac Christianity in its Greco-Roman context.
(2) Syriac Christianity and Judaism.
(3) The Syriac Bible: Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha.
(4) Ephrem.
(5) Aphrahat.
(6) The fifth and sixth centuries and the development of separate West-Syrian and East-Syrian traditions.
(7) Syriac Christianity and early Islam.
(8) Syriac Christianity in the 11th-13th centuries and the ‘Syriac Renaissance’.
(9) Syriac Christianity in the modern period and its contacts with the West.
(10) The Syriac-Christian diaspora in the 20th and 21st century.
(11) Literary genres in Syriac Christianity, or more specifically: biblical interpretation, hagiography, historiography, poetry, philosophy.
(12) Asceticism in the Syriac Christian context.
(13) Syriac liturgical traditions.
(14) Syriac language and linguistics.
(15) The study of Syriac manuscripts.
(16) Art and material culture of Syriac Christianity.
(17) Connections between Syriac Christianity and Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Georgian Christianity.
(18) Christian Arabic as part of the Syriac heritage.

Papers will be 20 minutes plus 10 minutes of discussion. Submissions can be of one of two types:

1. Individual Paper. Anyone who is submitting a paper individually is required to submit an abstract of approximately 250-350 words in addition to contact information. The symposium organizers will assign accepted paper proposals to a session.

2. Panel. A panel consists of three or four papers dedicated to a specific topic or theme. Anyone who is organizing a panel is required to submit an abstract of approximately 250-350 words for each of the papers in the panel along with the contact information for each panel participant. The panel organizer should also submit a title for the panel as well as a suggestion for a moderator. Panel participants should send their abstracts to the panel organizer who will then submit all of the panel abstracts to the symposium organizers.

The submission of panels is especially encouraged. All submissions should be sent in an electronic version (both pdf and Microsoft word document) to nasyriacsymposium@gmail.com. The deadline for submission is February 1, 2015. In order to ensure the widest range of participation in the conference, individuals will be allowed to present only one paper at the symposium.

In addition to standard papers and panels, there will be four keynote lectures:

(1) Joseph P. Amar, Professor, Department of Classics, Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame
(2) Adam H. Becker, Associate Professor of Classics and Religious Studies, New York University
(3) Bas ter Haar Romeny, Professor of Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern History, VU University Amsterdam
(4) Dorothea Weltecke, Professor of History of Religions, Universität Konstanz

Additional information for the Symposium can be found at the following website:

http://semitics.cua.edu/north-american-syriac-symposium.cfm

The website now contains information about housing and registration. Registration must be completed by Friday, April 24, 2015. Additional information will be posted on the website soon.

All papers presented at the 2015 CUA Syriac Symposium can be submitted for review for publication in a volume that will be published by CUA Press and edited by Aaron Butts and Robin Darling Young. The submission date for the final version of papers for consideration in this volume is Aug. 15, 2015. Submitted papers will be peer-reviewed both by the editors of the volume and by CUA Press.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write to nasyriacsymposium@gmail.com.

We look forward to welcoming you to CUA in the summer of 2015!

Best regards,
Aaron Butts, symposium organizer

on behalf of the local steering committee:
Aaron M. Butts, The Catholic University of America (organizer)
Robin Darling Young, The Catholic University of America (chair)
Monica J. Blanchard, The Catholic University of America
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, Dumbarton Oaks
Joel Kalvesmaki, Dumbarton Oaks
Stephen D. Ryan, Dominican House of Studies
Shawqi Talia, The Catholic University of America
Janet A. Timbie, The Catholic University of America
Lev Weitz, The Catholic University of America

===================

Peace,
-Steve

eBethArké Lives & Beth Mardutho Revamped

Uncategorized, , , ,

Wonderful news for everyone interested in Syriac Studies!

First, Beth Mardutho has recently been revamped with a spiffy new website with some more information about the Beth Mardutho Research Library. Jeez, I remember back when the previous version was first instated back at the IVth North American Syriac Symposium back in 2003. This update is a big improvement.

Second, the new eBethArké Syriac Digital Library is finally up and running. From what I’ve seen of it so far, it’s running off of a DSpace install and looks quite spiffy. Since I worked on this a very very long time ago, I’m ecstatic to see that this project has risen from the ashes into something wonderful.

Peace,
-Steve

6th North American Syriac Symposium

News, ,

The 6th North American Syriac Symposium is being held at:


Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
June 26-29, 2011

Mark your calendars! The theme is magnificent, as you’ll be able to read below.

Perhaps I should submit the part of my book pertaining to Syriac in popular culture? Everyone may find the rampant Ricky-Martin-Tattoo-Lord’s-Prayer-Klotz-Lamsa-Peshitta-Primacy-tomfoolery entertaining…. and a bit sobering, too. 🙂

The Sixth North American Syriac Symposium will be organized at Duke University on June 26-29, 2011. Held every four years since 1991, the North American Syriac Symposium brings together university professors, graduate students, and scholars from the United States and Canada (more than half of the participants) as well as from Europe, the Middle East, and India, in particular from the State of Kerala. The Symposium offers a unique opportunity for exchange and discussion on a wide variety of topics related to the language, literature, and cultural history of Syriac Christianity, from the first centuries ce to the present day.

While adopting the general template of previous symposia, the Duke Symposium will at the same time be organized in such a way that it aptly reflects current trends in Syriac studies. Additionally, it will allow Duke scholars and students to communicate to a wider audience some highlights of their research, teaching, and resources.

To serve as a general framework and organizational principle, the following theme has been chosen:

Syriac Encounters

Encounters and interactions between individuals, generations, communities,traditions, ideas, languages, and religions.

This general theme allows us to highlight various kinds of diachronic and synchronic interaction and dialogue, formation of communal identity, construction of tradition, language contact, and religious conversation both within Syriac Christianity and between Syriac Christianity and other traditions, in particular Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and various forms of Western Christianity. The overall theme is not meant, however, to exclude topics that are not directly related to it.

Depending on the response to the Call for Papers (which will be sent out in September 2010), a number of (partly parallel) sessions, each consisting of three or four papers, will be put together. These may include some of the following:

(1) Syriac Christianity in its Graeco-Roman context.

(2) Syriac Christianity and Judaism.

(3) The Syriac Bible: Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha.

(4) Ephrem and fourth-century Syriac Christianity.

(5) Aphrahat and fourth-century Syriac Christianity in the Sassanid-Persian Empire.

(6) The fifth and sixth centuries and the development of separate West-Syrian and East-Syrian traditions.

(7) Syriac Christianity and Early Islam.

(8) Syriac Christianity in the 11th-13th centuries and the “Syriac Renaissance”.

(9) Syriac Christianity in the modern period and its contacts with the West.

(10) The Syriac-Christian Diaspora in the 20th and 21st century.

(11) Literary genres in Syriac Christianity, or more specifically: biblical interpretation, historiography, poetry, philosophy.

(12) Asceticism in the Syriac Christian context.

(13) Syriac liturgical traditions.

(14) Syriac in the Aramaic language family.

(15) The study of Syriac manuscripts.

(16) Art and material culture of Syriac Christianity.

(17) Syriac Christianity: continuity and transformation.

(18) New methodologies, tools, and projects.

(19) Syriac Computing (as in previous symposia, this section, or these sections, will be organized and directed by George A. Kiraz, Director of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute).

In addition to the standard papers (20 minutes plus 10 minutes of discussion), there will be five plenary sessions, delivered by invited speakers several of whom – as was the case in previous symposia – are from Europe. At present, all five speakers have accepted our invitation; a sixth speaker, whom we invited to deliver the opening lecture, will make his decision in September. The five speakers are:

(1) Riccardo Contini, Professor of Semitic Philology, University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’, Italy.

(2) Sidney H. Griffith, Professor and Chair, Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.

(3) Amir Harrak, Professor of Aramaic and Syriac, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Canada.

(4) Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Professor in the History of Modern World Christianity, especially in the Middle East, Leiden University, The Netherlands.

(5) Alison G. Salvesen, University Research Lecturer at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, and Polonsky Fellow in Jewish Bible Versions at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UK.


Peace,
-Steve