BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Date iCal//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.20.2//
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Toronto
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:20251102T020000
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
RDATE:20261101T020000
TZNAME:EST
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20260308T020000
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:calendar.1918.events_uoft_date.0@www.classics.utoronto.ca
CREATED:20251223T164327Z
DESCRIPTION:\nWhen and Where: \nThursday, April 09, 2026 1:00 pm to Satur
 day, April 11, 2026 1:00 pm \n MN3230, the Collaborative Digital Resear
 ch Space (CDRS) \n University of Toronto Mississauga \n\nDescription: \nPl
 ease join us from April 9th to 11th for the conference 'Ensuring Continuit
 y in a World of Uncertainty and Risk: Taking Precaution and Making Provisi
 ons in the Roman World,' organized by Professors Andreas Bendlin and Phil
 ip Egetenmeier. Please see the following link for a full program schedule 
 and list of speakers and paper titles: Ensuring Continuity April 2026 Toro
 nto.pdfParticipants may attend the conference either in person or online. 
 To register, please email Philip Egetenmeier by April 1st, 2026 (philip.
 egetenmeier@utoronto.ca). People in the ancient Roman, like ourselves, d
 esired sustainability and continuity. However, uncertainty and risk––trig
 gered by high mortality, famines, insecure trade and supply routes, dai
 ly violence, and warfare––were permanent features of the lived experience
 s of individuals, social groups, and polities. This desire for sustainab
 ility resulted in various risk management and resilience strategies: econo
 mic, legal, political, or religious. Nor did this desire apply only to 
 the immediate present: people employed strategies of forward-thinking to p
 redict and control the future or safeguard their memories and fortunes.Sch
 olars of the pre-modern Mediterranean world have recently begun to focus o
 n questions of riskmanagement and future-thinking, investigating, for in
 stance, ancient economic strategies for sustainability and (short to mid-
 term) gain. But what is still lacking is a re-conceptualisation of the fie
 ld, building on the (relatively recent) insight that “future-thinking” wa
 s indeed prominent in premodern societies. The field, in other words, la
 cks a holistic approach. Our contribution to this emerging conversation is
  to invite leading scholars to develop a methodological framework for “fut
 ure-thinking” in Roman antiquity, asking: How did people ‘take precaution
 ’ and ‘make provisions’ about their lives? How did they take recourse, fo
 r instance, to local and Roman law, thus overcoming political, social o
 r gender inequalities? Which “future-thinking” strategies, if any, did t
 he medical profession develop to address infant mortality, death in child
 bed, or contraception? How did priests and laypeople employ religious rit
 ual to influence how the gods had determined their future? How did local i
 mperial elites and Roman emperors manipulate institutions? What strategic 
 choices did people make to ensure that the future might be as they intende
 d? Our speakers examine these questions through the lens of economic, int
 ellectual, legal, medical, political, and religious history. The geogr
 aphical scope of papers ranges widely, from the city of Rome and Italy to
  Roman Spain in the West and Asia minor (modern Turkey), Roman North Afri
 ca, Egypt and the Near East.This conference will be of interest to schola
 rs of the Roman Mediterranean, but also to colleagues working on related 
 questions in other premodern and modern societies. The topic resonates wit
 h contemporary (felt) experiences of risk and uncertainty. The resilience 
 ancient societies developed to ensure survival and continuity in world of 
 risk and uncertainty provides an historical exemplum for our own societies
 , making the topic particularly pertinent to today’s concerns.  \n\nCateg
 ories \n Conferences \n\nAudiences \n FacultyGraduate StudentsUndergraduat
 e Students
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260409T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260411T130000
LAST-MODIFIED:20260319T141720Z
SUMMARY:Conference: Ensuring Continuity in a World of Uncertainty and Risk
URL;TYPE=URI:https://www.classics.utoronto.ca/events/conference-ensuring-co
 ntinuity-world-uncertainty-and-risk
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR