AIA 2008: Where To Go?

The 109th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America is coming up first thing in the new year. The location of this year’s meeting is Chicago….I hope it won’t be too cold! The reflections from my very first visit to the AIA Annual Meetings (Montreal 2006) were printed in the European Journal of Archaeology this year (vol. 8.3, see also here, here, and here). Last year (San Diego 2007), I only got round to blogging about the first day of the meeting…That doesn’t stop me from posting a brief list of what sessions I would like to attend this year.

On Friday morning, I would like to see papers in the sessions 1I “Myth on Roman Sarcophagi” and 1B “Rome in the Provinces.” I’ll also want to briefly join session 1C “Interpreting Funerary Contexts“, where my friend Konstantin Kitsais-Jørgensen is presenting on “The Urban Necropolis of Rhodes: The Monumental Tombs and Burial Plots of the Private Associations during the Hellenistic Period.” On Friday afternoon, I hope to catch papers in session 2A “The Post Roman World“, 2D “Topography of Rome“, 2G “Embodiment and Remembrance in a Mortuary Context“, and 2I “Materials and Production in the Roman World“. It would also be good to see another presentation by a friend, Søren Handberg, on “Ceramic Workshops, Agoranomoi, and Pottery Trade in Olbia Pontica” in session 2B “Greek Vase Painting“. A bit too much for an afternoon, I know…

On Saturday morning, I will be co-chairing and presenting in session 3I “Approaches to Workshops in Roman Art“, where members of the Aarhus late antiquity project as well as Martin Henig from Oxford will give papers on various aspects of their work. On Saturday afternoon, papers in these sessions look appealing: 4C “Pompeii and Ostia“, 4G “Roman Sculpture“, and 4H “Cultural Identity and the Peoples of the Ancient Mediterranean“.

Then, on Sunday morning, I hope to see sessions 5C “Corinthian Horizons: Space, Society, and the Sacred in Ancient Corinth” and 5I “Web-Based Research Tools for Mediterranean Archaeology.” And lastly, on Sunday afternoon, the following looks interesting: 6B “Villas and Villa Life“, 6D “Agency and the Individual: Exploring Women in the Material Recording of the Roman World“, and 6G “Up from the Ashes: Creativity and Conservatism in Rebuilding after Disasters.”

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