Conference of the Classical Association
and the Classical Association of Scotland

University of St Andrews
Friday 11th – Sunday 13th July 2025

Call for Contributions

Deadline 5pm, 30 November 2024

The School of Classics, University of St Andrews will host the Conference of the Classical Association (CA) and the Classical Association of Scotland (CAS) on 11^th -13^th July 2025. The conference will take place in the heart of historic St Andrews, in Fife. University accommodation will be available for booking. More detailed information about practical issues will be distributed when the programme is finalised in January 2025.

We plan to host two plenary lectures, one on Friday evening, and the other on Saturday evening by the new CA President for 2024-25, Professor Stephen Halliwell. You can also look forward to receptions, the Conference Dinner, a Ceilidh, prizegivings, opportunities to visit the Cathedral and Castle sites in St Andrews, and much more! Registration will open early in 2025 but keep on reading to find out how you can share your ideas as part of #CA2025.

We’re inviting everyone – postgraduates, teachers, early-stage researchers, academics and anyone with an interest in the ancient world – alike to submit proposals for individual papers, panels, lightning talks and posters, as well as contributions to workshops. See further below for details on the various formats designed to encourage participation from a wide range of speakers.

Conference themes

We hope to appeal to a wide audience across the conference and we welcome proposals on all topics across classical literature and philosophy, history, art, archaeology, epigraphy and numismatics, linguistics, pedagogy and reception of the classical tradition. We aim to foster a friendly and inclusive environment, in the hope that panels will juxtapose speakers from different backgrounds, so that postgraduates, academics, teachers and non-specialists can all share ideas, challenges, and enthusiasms. If you would like to target your material specifically at school-age or undergraduate students, please make this clear in your proposal. We have identified the following themes as ones we would particularly like to promote, but we welcome other suggestions too.

• Classical reception
• Late Antiquity
• Classics and the environment
• Working Class Classics
• The challenge of interdisciplinarity
• Classics and the heritage sector
• Ancient animals
• Classical pedagogies
• Scottish classics

Types of Session

Anyone can submit a proposal. Once you have selected your topic, please consider which of the following you would like to do:

• present an individual paper
• organise a panel
• organise a workshop
• contribute to a workshop
• give a lightning talk
• present a poster

Individual papers will usually be 20-minutes (plus 5-10 minutes for Q&A); there will be four papers in a 2-hour panel. A particular theme might extend over two or more panels, or be limited to one.

We anticipate that most Panels will be organised as above. However, if a different structure for a two-hour panel best suits your ambitions, such as with a series of lightning talks, please feel free to propose accordingly. We also invite proposals for 2-hour workshops on any topics. Please be sure to aim for diversity in the composition of speakers for panels and workshops.

Posters will offer the opportunity to display your work throughout the conference in the main venue, where you can informally discuss your ideas with delegates during refreshment breaks. Posters may be used as a way of presenting ideas that are more effectively formulated in a graphic than oral format. Specific advice on formatting your poster will be offered after the conference programme is organised. A poster may also be more narrow in scope than a presentation. Posters on both pedagogical and research themes are welcome.

CA Partnerships Officer, Prof. Arlene Holmes-Henderson, explained the difference between these options for the 2024 CA Conference which you might find a helpful point of reference.

Speaker Information

We hope that all speakers will be able to attend in person, but we hope that panels, talks, and workshops will take place in a hybrid format.

You can submit more than one proposal and be involved in more than one panel/workshop. Please send your multiple submissions in separate emails.

Please note that submission of a proposal is not a guarantee of acceptance. In order to keep conference costs as low as possible for everyone, all speakers and chairs must pay the conference fee (which will include standard and discounted rates). Online participants will also be required to pay a conference fee, to help cover costs of streaming. Exact rates will be confirmed in early 2025.

What to do next

Please submit your proposals to CA2025@st-andrews.ac.uk by 17.00 on 30 November 2024. No late submissions will be accepted. All other enquiries should also be directed to this e-mail address.

Your email must include the following details depending upon the type of session you are proposing:

What to include

1. Panel proposal:
   • Panel title
   • A 650-word panel statement, offering an overview of the panel.
   • Organizer(s), identifying the Panel Chair
   • The name, academic institution/school, paper title for each speaker + 300-word abstract.
   • Panels may consist of a combination of lightning talks and papers, within a 2-hour framework.
2. Submission of a paper:
   • Your name, academic institution/school, paper title
   • 300-word abstract of your paper, indicating, where appropriate, how it fits into the conference’s themes.
3. Lightning talks:
   • Your name, academic institution/school, talk title
   • 250-word outline of the ideas you would like to explore, outlining any particular challenges for exploration by the audience. Please indicate, where appropriate, how these fit into the conference’s themes.
4. Posters:
   • Your name, academic institution/school, poster title
   • 300-word outline of the theme or material to be discussed in the poster.
5. Workshops:
   • Name, academic institution/school
   • Outline of proposed format (interactive activities / discussion / paper presentation / lightning talk)

To assist with scheduling, when submitting your email, please let us know if you will NOT be able to attend a particular day of the Conference (e.g. Friday, Saturday or Sunday).