This international summer school focuses on ideological messages communicated by leaders in the ancient world (Ancient Near East, Greece and Rome, c. 3000 BC – AD 600) during periods of religious change. The latter can be understood as periods in which new religions, specific religious factions, sects or cults rose, expanded or gained a position of dominance, thereby causing changes in or threatening existing social, religious and/or power structures. Which messages were communicated by central and local authorities as well as specific religious authorities in these epochs? What do these messages tell us about the nature of power exercised by leaders?

The summer school is specifically targeted at doctoral candidates and early postdocs. Each day will commence with a keynote lecture delivered by renowned scholars and ample opportunities for discussion afterwards. Keynote speakers are Paola Ceccarelli (Cambridge), Eckart Frahm (Yale), Olivier Hekster (Nijmegen), Carlos Noreña (Berkeley), and Piotr Steinkeller (Harvard). The afternoons will be dedicated to short presentations by participants based on papers circulated in advance. Selected papers will be published.

Anyone interested in participating is kindly requested to apply with a CV, list of publications (if available), and an abstract of 500 words at maximum until 15 March 2015. Please use our portal to upload your application (https://s-lotus.gwdg.de/uni/uxgw/gsgg_ss_2015.nsf/application).

Accommodation is free for all participants. Reimbursement for travel costs is predictably available for a limited number of applicants. In case of further questions, do not hesitate to contact the organizers, Gösta Gabriel and Erika Manders, via iprca2015@uni-goettingen.de.

For more information, see also http://www.uni-goettingen.de/iprca2015.