Calls

International Conference
Athens, Greece | 15–17 September 2027
Organised by the International Ovidian Society and the Faculty of Philology, Department of Classics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Water is everywhere in Ovid.

It shapes landscapes and cities, bodies and emotions, myths and memories. Rivers speak, springs transform, seas separate and connect, floods erase boundaries, while tears, sweat, blood, and other bodily fluids continually blur the distinction between the human and the natural world. Water carries gods and heroes, lovers and exiles; it destroys, purifies, conceals, nourishes, and remakes. Few ancient authors imagine the world through such persistently fluid forms.

Recent developments in the Blue Humanities have invited scholars to reconsider the cultural, ecological, material, and imaginative significance of water. Rather than treating seas, rivers, and other aquatic environments merely as settings or only interesting as metaphors, these approaches emphasise water as a concrete and dynamic force that shapes ways of living, thinking, remembering, and narrating. Such perspectives open particularly fruitful possibilities for reading Ovid, whose poetry repeatedly foregrounds fluidity, movement, transformation, and the intimate entanglement of human and more-than-human worlds.

The International Ovidian Society and the Faculty of Philology, Department of Classics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens invite proposals for an international conference dedicated to exploring Ovid’s works through the perspectives offered by the Blue Humanities. We welcome contributions that investigate the many ways in which water operates in Ovid not only as physical environment or poetic image, but also as narrative principle, cultural phenomenon, religious medium, ecological presence, political space, emotional landscape, and agent of transformation.

 

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

– rivers, seas, lakes, springs, fountains, and other aquatic landscapes

– water in the built environment, including baths, aqueducts, pools, gardens, and hydraulic infrastructures

– bodies of water as spaces of movement, encounter, memory, or conflict

– water and the human body

– fluidity, metamorphosis, and changing identities

– water as metaphor and poetic language

– exile, navigation, travel, and maritime experience

– aquatic divinities and sacred waters

– emotions and affective waterscapes

– intersections of the aquatic realm and other ecocritical domains, including aquatic animals and plants linked to water

– theoretical reflections on the contribution of Ovid to the Blue Humanities

– presentation and discussion of scholarship-informed creative endeavors linking Ovidian material and aquatic dimensions

 

We welcome proposals from scholars at every career stage working in Classics, Ancient History, Literary Studies, Environmental Humanities, Reception Studies, Archaeology, Art History, and related disciplines.

Papers will be allocated 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.

 Abstracts

Please submit a title, an abstract of approximately 300–350 words, and a brief biographical note by 13 February 2027 to Daniel Libatique (dlibatique@fairfield.edu).

Applicants will be notified of the outcome of the review process in mid March 2027. 

Practical Information

Participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.

Coffee breaks, lunches, and conference dinners will be provided by the organisers.

The International Ovidian Society may be able to provide some financial support for travel and accommodation costs to early-career members of the Society whose papers are accepted for presentation. If you require further information prior to knowing whether your paper has been accepted, please contact Daniel Libatique.