24th OUBS International Graduate Conference
25 – 26 February 2022 (Oxford)
56th International Congress on Medieval Studies 
10 – 15 May 2021 (Kalamazoo, MI) PROGRAM
Ryan Strickler, Preaching the Apocalypse: Homiletic Responses to the Crises of the Seventh Century
Pacific Partnership for Late Antiquity Conference III
July 2020 (University of Adelaide) – Cancelled due to COVID
Conveners: Wendy Mayer and Baltussen
Wendy Mayer
Chris de Wet
Ryan Strickler and Leonella Fundic;
Katherin Papadopoulos
41st Conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies 
28-31 January 2020 (University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ) PROGRAM & ABSTRACTS
Katherin Papadopoulos, Memory flaws: the good, the bad, and the ugly in late antique memory studies
Justin Pigott, These heaven-bound dung beetles: Late Roman Attitudes Towards Slaves Entering the Clergy
Claiming History: The Role of Historical Reasoning in Religious Conflicts 
23-25 October 2019 (Rome) PROGRAM
Wendy Mayer (Keynote Speaker), Reshaping the Past to Claim the Future: Unpacking the role of historical memory in religiously motivated violence
18th International Conference on Patristic Studies
19-24 August 2019 (Oxford) PROGRAM
Wendy Mayer, Patristics and Postmodernity: Bridging the Gap (plenary paper);
AND workshop discussant Theologizing Performance in the Byzantine Tradition
Robin Jensen, From Despicable Idols to Venerated Icons: The Emergence of Sacred Art in Early Christianity (plenary paper)
Bronwen Neil, workshop chair and discussant Reorienting, Reframing, and Reinventing Memory in the Early Christian World
Naoki Kamimura, Augustine and the Guidance of Souls 
Amirav Hagit, workshop chair The Exegesis of Theodore of Mopsuestia and the East-Syriac Tradition
Hagit Amirav, The Naked Demon: Alternative Interpretations of the Alexamenos Graffito
Katherin Papadopoulos, Remembering earthquakes in the late antique eastern Mediterranean
Chris de Wet, Medical Discourse, Identity Formation, and Otherness in Late Ancient Christianity
Rajiv Bhola, Spiritual Echoes: Some Parallels in Eusebius’ Portrayals of Constantine and Judeo-Christian Figures of the Past.
Dissidence and Persecution in Byzantium, 20th Australasian Association for Byzantine Studies Conference
19-21 July 2019 (Macquarie University) PROGRAM ABSTRACTS
Bronwen Neil, Visions of Heaven and Hell: A Bridge to the Other World; AND panel chair Panegyric and Dissidence, chair of Keynote presentation
Wendy Mayer, Heirs of Roman Persecution: Common Threads in Discursive Strategies across the Late-Antique East; AND panel chair, Dissidence in Persecution
Jitse Dijkstra, The Avenging Sword? Imperial Legislation Against Temples in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries (Keynote presentation)
Ryan Strickler, The Empire’s Hangover: The Creepy Memory of Phocas in Early Seventh-Century Byzantine Literature; AND convenor of panel Panegyric and Dissidence
Kosta Simic, On the Correlation between Martyrdom and Eucharistic Sacrifice: Examples from Hagiography and Hymnography
Rajiv Bhola, The ‘Philosophy of Martydom’ in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica
Katherine Papadopoulos, Remembering the Egyptians: Policies, Politics and Personalilities in the Memory of Persecution; AND convenor of panel Dissidence in Persecution
HDR Ibrahim, A Symbiotic dimension to Chalcedonian/non-Chalcedonian Christology
HDR Thorne, φύσις and marital life in Justinian’s Novels
ASCS Annual Conference 2019; Australasian Society for Classical Studies; 40th Annual Conference and Meeting
4-7 February 2019 (University of New England) PROGRAM
Bronwen Neil, Visions of Utopia in the Lives of the Meridan Fathers; panel chair, Late Imperial Rome
Rajiv Bhola, Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign: Constantine’s Labarum and Eusebius’ σημεῖον and τρόπαιον, AND panel chair, Episcopal Networks
Clash of Civilisations? Where Are We now?
15-16 November 2018
Bronwen Neil (Co-convener)
Making and Unmaking Memory in the Ancient World: From the 7th Century BCE to the 7th Century CE
7-10 November 2018 (University of South Africa, Pretoria)
Bronwen Neil (Keynote Speaker), Remembering Utopia in Sixth-Century Italy, Gaul and Spain: Lives of Saints and Sinners
Rajiv Bhola, Utopia and its Preservation in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica
Chris de Wet, How to Make a Martyr: Memory and Religious Conflict and the Image of John Chrysostom in the Funerary Speech for John Chrysostom
Wendy Mayer, Remembering Dystopia in the Utopian Body: Rereading Chrysostom’s Homily on the Holy Martyr Babylas through the Lens of Purity and Disgust
Byzantine Studies Association of North America, 44th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference
4-7 October 2018 (San Antonio, TX)
Asia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society, 12th Annual Conference
13-15 September 2018 (Okayama University)
Naoki Kamimura, North African Ways of Approaching Medical Healing and ‘the Plague of Cyprian
Wendy Mayer, Well-being, Therapy, and Care for the Aged: What Does Early Christianity Have to Say to Biomedicine Today?
Symposium: Hymns, Homilies and Hermeneutics in Byzantium
18 August 2018 (Macquarie University) 
Wendy Mayer, The Homiletic Audience as Embodied Hermeneutic
Bronwen Neil, The Theotokos as Selective Intercessor for Souls
Symposium: Envisioning the Roman Emperor in Speech and Word in Late Antiquity
25 July 2018 (Macquarie University)
39th Conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies
30 Jan-2 Feb 2018 (University of Queensland) PROGRAM ABSTRACTS
3 panels x 3 papers on Memories of Utopia organised by Bronwen Neil and Wendy Mayer
Bronwen Neil, Remembering Utopia in Gregory of Tours’ Lives of the Saints AND panel chair Memory and the emperor Julian
Wendy Mayer; Desecration and disgust: The obliteration of Christian tombs under Julian AND panel chair Memory and Christian Identity: Rewriting the Past in Late Antiquity
Chris de Wet, Disciplining the Past, Imagining the Utopian Body: The Ascetic Discourse of the Soul as a Utopian Corporeal Discourse in John Chrysostom
Ryan Strickler, Paradise Regained? Utopias of Deliverance in Seventh-Century Apocalyptic Discourse
Katherine Papadopoulos, The late Eusebia (Ἡ μακαρῖτης Εὐσεβία): Memory and Manipulation
Leonela Fundic, Transformation of Ritual Spaces in the Name of Utopian Ideals in the Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to early Arab Conquests: Archaeological Evidence
Naoki Kamimura, Constructing the Sacred in Late Antiquity: Jerome as a Guide for Christian Identity
Religious Violence in Antiquity: A Religious Studies Approach across the longue durée
28-30 September 2017 (Montréal – Ottawa) PROGRAM ABSTRACTS
Jitse Dijkstra (convenor)
Wendy Mayer, Religious Violence in Late Antiquity: What Is It? Did It Exist? Can We Make Sense of It?, AND panel chair Religious Violence and the Christians
Chris de Wet, Asceticism, Religious Violence, and Monastic Curses in Theodoret’s Historia Religiosa
Jitse Dijkstra, Crowd Behaviour and the Destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in 391/392 CE
Early Christian Centuries 2: Responses to Conflict in Early Christianity
22-24 Sept 2017 (ACU, Melbourne) ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR PAPERS PROGRAM ABSTRACTS
Wendy Mayer, Peace inflaming War: Severian of Gabala, John Chrysostom and conflicting conceptual frames AND chair of Rhetorical Responses to Religious Conflict session
Bronwen Neil, Addressing Doctrinal Conflict by Letter: Leo I on the Chalcedonian Controversy AND chair of Responses to Imperial Persecution II session
Pauline Allen, Welcome address AND Two Foreign Saints in Palestine: Responses to Religious Conflict (5th-7th Centuries)
Katherine Papadopoulos; Robin Jensen: Spitting on Statues and Saving Hercules’ Beard: The Conflict over Images (and Idols) in Early Christianity (keynote paper, chaired by CI Bronwen Neil) AND chair of East versus West’ session
Naoki Kamimura: Tertullian’s Understanding of Sacred Places and the Differentiation of Christians from Pagans AND chair of The Pelagian Controversy session
Kosta Simic, Byzantine Liturgical Hymns as Instruments of Religious Polemics
Event outcome: Edited volume: Memories of Utopia: revising texts and landscapes in Late Antiquity. Eds. Neil and Simic. London: Routledge, 2020.
North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting
25-27 May 2017 (Chicago)
Wendy Mayer, John Chrysostom, Neuroscience and the Jews
Panel convened by E. Fournier and W. Mayer on Religious persecution.
Naoki Kamimura (but not relevant to this Memories of Utopia project).
Ryan Strickler, Men and Monsters in Byzantium: Dehumanizing Adversaries in Seventh-Century Apocalyptic Discourse
Event outcome: Fournier, E. and Wendy Mayer (eds) (2020) Heirs of Roman Persecution: Studies on a Christian and para-Christian discourse in Late Antiquity, London-New York: Routledge