15. Celtics Conference in Classics, Cardiff
Marthe Becker (Universität Bielefeld), Bettina Reese (Universität Halle-Wittenberg/Centro de Estudos Clássicos, Universidade de Lisboa)
Boundaries of Belonging – Discursive Negotiations of Identities
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3,28)
This well-known statement from Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is remarkable, especially in terms of negotiating identities. It states a clear departure from familiar societal boundaries, drawn by categories such as religious and ethnic belonging, social status, and gender – categories which are, according to Paul, washed away by belonging to the flock of Christ. Such categories and the boundaries separating e.g. Jew from Greek or freeborn from slave were crucial elements for constructing individual and group identities as well as for ordering the world surrounding such an individual or group.
Recent scholarship has seen a growing interest in the question of identities and the importance for the delimitation from perceived “others” for the construction of identities.[1] In this context, identities come to be understood more as “discursive social constructs that are formed and re-formed through ongoing cultural negotiation.”[2] The distinction of one individual or group from its perceived “other” becomes clear through marking boundaries which shape the images of what one is or is not or which specific traits one is ascribed to have or not to have. In this way, boundaries delimitate not only identities but also different entities and spheres. But as Georg Simmel has shown, boundaries are at the same time sociological facts that find their expression in spatial terms.[3] Thus, they shape their environment. Boundaries, their negotiation as well as their perception provide valuable tools for structuring specific realms such as the world in which one lives.
The negotiation of boundaries between “us” and “them”, be it e.g. Graeco-Roman versus “barbarian”, Christian versus “pagan”, or orthodox versus “heretic” is a ubiquitous topic in classical as well as late antique literature. As a literary construction, it appears for example in polemical, apologetic or anti-heretical treatises in which “true” positions are distinguished from “false” and “right” forms of behaviour from “wrong” ones.
Even though constructing and negotiating these boundaries of belonging usually took place in literary contexts, they could affect everyday life as well: It did matter, e.g. whether one was considered to have the “right” faith or not or on which side of the limes one lived and died – even though the standards of living did not differ much in the agricultural regions inside the empire or beyond its pale. Furthermore, clarifying and/or (re-)establishing boundaries became more important in times of (accelerated?) change, crisis, or upheavals.[4]
Thus, a thorough investigation of the mechanisms of constructing, deconstructing, and negotiating boundaries in ancient texts leads us to further insights on the self-perception of the respective author(s), their peers, and their perceived “others” and on their methods of structuring and ordering their world, especially in times of crisis.
We would like to discuss these questions in our proposed panel. Given the omnipresence of boundaries and their ongoing negotiation, possible topics and questions include (but are by no means limited to):
- How and according to which mechanism were boundaries shaped? How did ancient writers choose their boundaries according to their respective goals, intentions and aims?
- How did political, religious, social, etc. changes and/or transformations influence the construction of boundaries – in a literal as well as in a figurative sense? How did classical writers react to these transformations and instabilities regarding identities?
- Which boundaries appear stable (e.g. barbarian – Roman), while others (seemingly) shifted? Why can certain conceptions of boundaries be regarded as (relatively) stable, while others were constantly transformed?
- How did ancient writers play with boundaries and their construction? And did the “othered” reclaim that sense of belonging?
Each paper should last 30 minutes and will be followed by 15 minutes of discussion. We especially encourage early career researchers to participate and are aiming for parity in gender as well as career stage. We are open to submissions in English, German, French and Italian.
Please send your abstracts (around 300 words) to:
Marthe Becker (
Bettina Reese (
The deadline for submissions is the 15.02.2024. The contributions will be considered for publication.
Confirmed speakers:
Marthe Becker (Universität Bielefeld)
Bettina Reese (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg/Centro de Estudos Clássicos, Universidade de Lisboa)
Gianmarco Chiari (Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II/Universidad de Cantabria)
Élise Coignet (Université de Genève)
Julian Giesecke (Universität Bielefeld)
Sebastian Weinert (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena)
Marthe Becker
Universität Bielefeld - SFB 1288: Praktiken des Vergleichens
Universitätsstraße 25
33615 Bielefeld
Bettina Reese
Centro de Estudos Clássicos
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa
Alameda da Universidade
1600-214 Lisboa
[1] Lomas, Kathryn/Gardner, Andrew/Herring, Edward, Creating Ethnicities and Identities in the Roman World, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement 120, 2013, 1–10. Dench, Emma, Romulus' Asylum, Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian, Oxford 2005. Mathisen, Ralph W., Peregrini, Barbari, and Cives Romani: Concepts of Citizenship and the Legal Identity of Barbarians in the Later Roman Empire, The American Historical Review 111, 2006, 1011–1040. Argov, Eran I., A Church Historian in Search of an Identity, Aspects of Early Byzantine Palestine in Sozomenon's Historia Ecclesiastica, ZAC 9, 2006, 367–396. Dunn, Geoffrey D., Innocent I on Heretics and Schismatics as Shaping Christian Identity, in: G. D. Dunn, W. Mayer (Hg.), Christians Shaping Identity from the Roman Empire to Byzantium. Studies Inspired by Pauline Allen, Leiden 2015, 266-290. Revell, Louise, Ways of Being Roman, Discourses of Identity in the Roman West, Oxford 2016. Pohl, Walter, Romanness: a multiple identity and its changes, Early Medieval Europe 22, 2014, 406–418. Gillett, Andrew (Hg.), On Barbarian Identity, Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the early Middle Ages, Turnhout 2002.
[2] Kahlos, Maijastina, Introduction, in: M. Kahlos (Hg.), The Faces of the Other. Religious Rivalry and Ethnic Encounters in the Later Roman World, Turnhout 2011, S. 3.
[3] Simmel, Georg, Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung
(Gesamtausgabe 11), Frankfurt am Main 1992, 697.
[4] Kahlos, Maijastina, Introduction, in: M. Kahlos (Hg.), The Faces of the Other. Religious Rivalry and Ethnic Encounters in the Later Roman World, Turnhout 2011, S. 3f.