A few months ago this blog, which was initially started to report on aspects of the progress of a book I'm writing, was taken over by something highly relevant to that book - a conference I was organising at Roehampton on Athena. Since then, I've been discussing several possible follow-up events and activities, even including a tour of Athena-related sites throughout Europe.
One thing that emerged in the planning of the
event was that two of the booklet
contributors, Olivia Huntingdon-Stuart ("The Age of Athena") and Houman Sadri
("Synthesising male and female aspects of war in Azzarello and Chiang's Wonder
Woman"), were engaging in Athena-related research with lots of interfaces - and
from different disciplinary starting-points. Olivia is now planning a follow-up
event, titled *The Age of Athena* which will explore gender norms and non-binary
concepts via the vehicle of Athena.
Olivia is co-ordinating a meeting to
discuss this event next month at Roehampton, on ***21 October***, in the Convent
Parlour of Digby Stuart College. If anyone would like to join us, let me know.
Or - if anyone would like to suggest possible discussion ideas (including those
based away from London...), do get in contact. I'm aware that a trip to SE London in October might simply not be do-able for lots of people... Here’s the
programme:
11.00: meet for coffee in Hive Café, Digby Stuart
College
11.30-12.45: Introduction of scope of event; participants set out
research and other relevant interests leading into informal presentations from
Olivia Huntingdon-Stuart and Houman Sadri
12.45-1.45: Break for Lunch
(the Hive Café and Digby Diner serve a range of moderately-priced
options)
1.45-3.00: Further informal presentations including by Tony
Keen. Other contributions welcome! Presentations to lead into discussion of
where to go next - conference? activism?
3.00 onwards - wind down with
coffee
Possible topics for this initial event and for future
exploration are:
Gender norms and non-binary concepts in:
- Classical myth
and culture (e.g. gods, divine attributes, parthenogenesis.)
- Medieval,
early modern, modern and contemporary cultures
- Pop culture (e.g. Wonder
Woman, Xena, advertisements.)
- Literature and art (e.g. Romance Literature,
Shakespeare.)
Religion: ancient and modern
Philosophy (e.g. gender and
ontology, gendering Plato’s theories.)Thanks for reading this far – let me know if you’d like to
join us on 21st - or if anything here chimes with your own interests.