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Call for Papers: The Domestic Dimension of Religious Conflict in the Ancient Mediterranean

3 January 2026
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Proposals for papers are sought for a conference on August 12–14 2026 in Durham exploring the negotiation of religious conflict in the domestic contexts of family and household across the Mediterranean world from Hellenism to Late Antiquity.

The Domestic Dimension of Religious Conflict in the Ancient Mediterranean
Call for Papers – International Conference
University of Durham, August 12-14 2026
 
Organiser: Dr Karl Dahm (University of Durham)
Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Prof Kate Cooper, Prof Virginia Burrus
 
Proposals for papers are sought for a conference on August 12–14 2026 in Durham exploring the negotiation of religious conflict in the domestic contexts of family and household across the Mediterranean world from Hellenism to Late Antiquity.
Households and families were the essential building blocks of ancient Mediterranean societies. Across different socio-economic strata, they reflected a communities’ constitutive norms and provided individuals with a sense of personal belonging. Their centrality to daily life meant that households periodically became the focal point of religious conflicts playing out across the wider community – with varying consequences for family cohesion. The breakdown of family bonds over internal differences and the uniting of family members against external pressures define the broad spectrum of domestic responses to clashes of religious belief systems. From the familial resistance of the Jewish Maccabees to the defiance of filial piety by Christian martyrs to the legal repercussions against ‘heretical’ households, the domestic dimension of ancient religious conflicts has long attracted the attention of modern scholars. However, it is commonly studied in disciplinary isolation and limited to its specific historical context rather than explored as a diachronic and intercultural phenomenon connecting the experiences of religious conflict across time and space.
This conference aims to investigate the domestic dimension of religious conflicts in the Ancient Mediterranean for continuities and cross-fertilisations as well as for fissures and idiosyncrasies. Its scope is emphatically interdisciplinary, welcoming papers on relevant topics in the history, literature, and archaeology of the Greco-Roman world, including adjacent writing cultures (e.g. Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian or Arabic), between the fourth century BCE and the seventh century CE. Papers might address, for example:
  • the evolution of tropes like that of filial resistance or paternal disciplining across literary genres and cultures;
  • the rhetoric and efficacy of legislation curtailing intermarriage or the domestic expression of deviant religious practices;
  • the interplay between the household as a locus of collective imagination and the venue of real religious confrontation;
  • the role of family structures in ensuring conformity with or resistance against dominant religious norms;
  • the material framework of domestic worship in a religiously hostile environment.
Applications from all scholars, especially early career scholars, are welcome. Abstracts of 500 words for 30-minute papers should be sent to karl.h.dahm@durham.ac.uk by 5.00pm on January 30.
The conference is generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust.