The Places Between: Ancient Mediterranean Borderlands
The Ancient Mediterranean world is often portrayed as a place of stark oppositions and unyielding boundaries between groups: Civilized versus barbarian. Greeks versus Persians. Pagans versus Christians. Conflicts such as these constructed the borderlands where much of Mediterranean history played out: spaces both physical and conceptual where no single power exerted overriding hegemonic domination.
Although our research focuses on the ancient world, the questions we explore possess enduring significance: What is the relationship between contested religious or ethnic identities and internecine violence? Does imperialism foster the formation of rebellious ethnic or religious identities, both at the center of power and in the periphery? How might multiple identities form in a contested frontier region, and how might such borderlands peoples complicate the relationship between contending powers? Our group also stretches beyond the traditional Greek and Roman focus of ancient Mediterranean history to include scholars working on ancient Persia/Iran, indigenous peoples of western Asia Minor (Turkey), the Near East (e.g., the Levant), and Egypt.
Our Winter MRG meeting is scheduled for Saturday, January 28, 2012 in the McCune Conference Room at UCSB. Schedule and list of readings to be posted shortly.
A group photo of the participants in our Fall MRG meeting that took place on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at UCSB.
List of MRG Participants
PI: Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, UC Santa Barbara
Co-directors/Steering Committee:
Chair: Elizabeth Digeser, Associate Professor in History, UCSB
Ra’anan Boustan, Associate Professor in History and Near Eastern Languages & Literatures, UCLA
Touraj Daryaee, Professor in History, UCI
Dayna Kalleres, Assistant Professor in Literature, UCSD
Lynn Roller, Professor in Art History, UCD
Michele Salzman, Professor in History, UCR
Faculty:
Emily Albu, Classics, UCD
Aaron Burke, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Veronica Castillo-Muñoz
Catherine Chin, Religious Studies, UCD
Hal Drake, History, UCSB
Ed English, History, UCSB
Frances Hickson Hahn, Classics, UCSB
John Lee, History, UCSB
Nancy McLoughlin, History, UCI
Stuart Smith, Anthropology, UCSB
Christine Thomas, Religious Studies, UCSB
Graduate Students:
Ryan Abrecht, History, UCSB
Keenan Baca-Winter, History, UCI
Vicky Ballmes, Religious Studies, UCSB
Daniel Bellum, UCI
Nadia Ben-Marzouk, History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Brianna Bricker, Art History, UCSB
Lisa Cleath, History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
James Conrad, History, UCSB
Heidi Dodgen, History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Greg Goalwin, Sociology, UCSB
Angela Holzmeister, Classics, UCSB
Amy Karoll, History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Brett Kaufman, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA
Christopher Kegerreis, History, UCSB
Jason Linn, History, UCSB
Regina Loehr, Classics, UCSB
Krystal Lords, History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Moyses Marcos, History, UCR
Zach Margulies, History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Carly Maris, UCI
Patrick McCullough, History, UCLA
Elizabeth Parker, Classics, UCR
James Petitfils, History, UCLA
George Pierce, History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Matt Recla, Religious Studies, UCSB
Joseph Sanzo, History, UCLA
Emily Schmidt, Religious Studies, UCSB
Alison Turtledove, History, UCSB
Tracey Watts, History, UCSB
Colin Whiting, UCR
Peninah Wolpo, History, UCSB
Undergrauate:
Andrew Roller, History, UCSB
Program Coordinator:
Ryan Abrecht, History, UCSB
External Members:
Patrick Ryan Williams, Associate Curator and Anthropology Chair, The Field Museum of Chicago
Harry Munt, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford
James Brooks, President, School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Greg Fisher, Assistant Professor in Greek and Roman Studies, Carleton University
Heidi Marx-Wolf, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Manitoba
Bradley Parker, Associate Professor, History, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Felix Racine, Lecturer, School of Classics, University of St. Andrews