Conference Panels

Panels for Maynooth 2026

In 2026, Maynooth shall host specialist panels on the following topics.

(Click on the links to each panel for further details.)

The Spartan Politeia (HERE)
Roman Poetry and Philosophy (HERE)
Magic and Society in Re-Founded Roman Cities: Corinth and Carthage (HERE)
Herodotus and the Emotions (HERE)
Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Competing Historiographical Discourses on Rome: Engagement, Emulation, Intertextuality, and Reception (HERE)
Thessalian History, Culture and Archaeology: New Perspectives, New Approaches (HERE)
Epic through Numbers. Digital and Quantitative Approaches to Greek and Latin Epic (HERE)
The Signifying Body: Voluntary Gesture, Involuntary Sign, and the Construction of Identities in the Ancient World (HERE)
Receptions of Homeric Scholarship in Antiquity (HERE)
Roman Foreign Relations (HERE)
Intensity in Greek Literature (HERE)
Children of a Lesser God? Minor Divinities in Greek Religion: A Reassessment (HERE)
Eunapius’ World: Philosophy and Historiography in Late Antiquity (HERE)

Who Gets Forgotten: Power and the Politics of Oblivion in the Graeco-Roman Culture and Beyond (HERE)
The Geopoetics of Imperial Latin Literature (HERE)
Lyric Forms, Modern Worlds (HERE)
Spoken Interaction in Greek and Latin Sources. The Benefits and Challenges of Applying Conversation Analysis in Classics (HERE)
Multicultural Eros: Comparative Poetics of Desire in the Ancient World (HERE)
Classical Antiquity and Northern Ireland (HERE)
Regime Change in the Ancient World (HERE)
KYKNOS: Layered Narratives (HERE)
Late Antique Microhistories (HERE)
Mimesis in the Socratic Tradition (HERE)
Paranomia: Transgression of Norms in Ancient Greek Culture (HERE)
Lives in Motion: Condisciplinary Approaches to Mobility in the Classical World (HERE)
Gramsci, Marx, and the Pre-Capitalist World (HERE)
Old Age and Renewal/Rebirth in Late Antiquity (HERE)
Myth Doesn't Work That Way (HERE)

Advice on Recruiting a Panel

Panel organisers are responsible for developing and disseminating any subsequent Call for Papers for their panel.

CCC is an ‘in-person conference’, attendance is expected of all proposing/presenting papers - please only present a proposal if you intend to be in Maynooth next summer. Online participation is not an option.

All contributors should use the paper proposal template (HERE) when submitting details of their individual paper.

In general, the CCC would recommend 10 as minimum number and 15 as maximum number of speakers per panel.

Panel organisers should work with the general programme template (HERE) for scheduling.

Considering that each slot of the conference has a duration of 50 min., and that a minimum of 10 min. of this time has to be kept for discussion of the presentations, two types of paper per slot are accepted: one of 40 min. or two of 20 min.
From experience, the CCC recommends papers of 35-40 mins, which might mean a maximum of some 18 speakers per panel. (Though organisers may not utilise all sessions across the full week.)

Accepted languages: it is up to the panel organisers, in recruiting their panel members, to indicate their range of language(s) for academic discourse.

All panels should in principle consider submissions in English and French.
Papers in other languages (e.g. German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish) may be accepted at the panel organisers’ discretion.
The organisation of the event will use English as its official language, for the sake of wide international accessibility.

NOTE: All members of each panel (organisers and speakers) are required to pay the Registration Fee, which is non-refundable.

(This applies also in any emergency cases in which a speaker proves unable to attend the conference in person.)

CCC Advice on Recruiting a Panel

In our experience a very effective model in general is the panel with two organizers, a younger one (whose original idea the panel may well be) and a senior one. Each will contribute to recruiting the balance of youth and experience that a panel usually needs in its speakers. Even the most experienced scholars and organizers do well, at the earliest stages of recruitment, to seek advice from trusted (and especially overseas) colleagues in their field, about who – in the world – should be invited.

The title of a panel should perhaps err on the side of precision. Potential speakers may be put off by the appearance of over-generality in the subject matter. There is, on the other hand, an art in identifying precise themes – and especially methods – which are shared by apparently disparate fields.

The wording of initial invitations to speakers is a delicate matter. Here the input, and influence, of a senior colleague may be especially valuable. Where a particularly promising colleague accepts, organizers may wish immediately to offer them a special input, as in recommending an additional speaker or in chairing a session.

Where organizers are thinking of eventually making a collective volume based on their panel, the number and length of the initial, oral contributions is especially important. A panel of 25 excellent colleagues poses a problem. Papers will tend, at least initially, to be too short to be properly developed or assessed. And publishers commonly refuse huge multi-author volumes. Appraising and addressing the characteristics of 25 different authors is a burden for any editor, and huge books are usually uneconomic – or inaccessible because of their price.

Once invitations to potential speakers have gone out, almost everyone who does eventually participate says 'Yes' firmly and within a few days of receiving their invitation. Equivocation rarely turns out well, and long silence is the worst of omens. Invitees who pose special conditions, such as 'I would only be able to speak on the Thursday', very often generate other difficulties later and quite often end by cancelling entirely.

In the months between a speaker’s acceptance and the event, organizers should send to each a circular message or two, not just to give news but also to reassure and check that all is well.