AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PAPYROLOGISTS
SUMMER INSTITUTES IN PAPYROLOGY
A consortium of ten universities is hosting a series of intensive programs in
papyrology for each of the ten summers from 2003 to 2112. (See list below.)
During the ten-year period, the American Society of Papyrologists is seeking
to raise a permanent endowment for the program so that the series can be continued
indefinitely. (Please contact the ASP Treasurer for information on donating
to the endowment fund.)
The principal objective of the seminars is to provide participants with sufficient
instruction and practical experience to enable them to make productive use of
texts on papyrus in their research and to become active scholars in the field
of papyrology. Each seminar has a distinctive linguistic, chronological, or
thematic focus, reflecting the interests and available resources of the host
institution. Some seminars will involve forms of the Egyptian language and scripts
as well as Greek.
The seminars are directed at advanced graduate students and younger faculty
in relevant fields, including Classics, Ancient History, Egyptology, Archaeology,
Ancient Religions, and Biblical Studies. Approximately 10 participants are chosen
for each seminar by the host institution. The programs are intensive and 5-6
weeks long. The faculty normally include both those who regularly teach at the
host institution and guest professors from other universities in North America
and Europe. ASP provides a certificate to those completing the institute, but
the host institutions neither grant credit nor provide a transcript.
Most seminars offer stipends to defray some of the participants' costs. There
is no tuition fee.
Schedule of seminars and list of host institutions, with names of organizing
faculty:
2003 Yale University: Robert G. Babcock, Ann Ellis Hanson
2004 University of California, Berkeley: Todd M. Hickey
2005 University of Cincinnati: Peter van Minnen, William A. Johnson
2006 Columbia University: Roger S. Bagnall, Raffaella Cribiore
[2007 Institute postponed.]
2008 Stanford University: J. G. Manning Information Sheet | Application form | Supplementary Funding Application
2009 University of Michigan: Traianos Gagos, Arthur Verhoogt
2010 Duke University: Joshua Sosin
2011 University of Toronto: Alexander Jones
2012 University of Illinois, Urbana: Maryline G. Parca or University of Chicago: David Martinez
SUMMER INSTITUTE REPORTS:
Yale University, New Haven, 2003
Robert G. Babcock and Ann Ellis Hanson, Organizers
The inaugural summer institute was hosted in summer of 2003 by Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, with 13 participants from the United States and abroad. The seminar focused on Greek and Latin papyri, with emphasis on those from the Roman garrison housed at Dura-Europos, in keeping with Yale's commemoration in 2003/2004 of the work of Michael Rostovtzeff. Principal instructors were Hélène Cuvigny (CNRS, Paris) and Ann Ellis Hanson (Yale University); lecturers included Roger Bagnall, Adam Bülow-Jacobsen, Raffaella Cribiore, Ruth Duttenhöfer, Ranon Katzoff, Susan Matheson, John Matthews, William Metcalf, Timothy Renner, and Peter van Minnen.
University of California, Berkeley, 2004
Todd Hickey, Organizer
In June and July of 2004, the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri hosted a seminar
in papyrology for advanced graduate students and junior faculty. The seminar
was presented under the auspices of the American Society of Papyrologists and
was generously supported by Deans Ralph Hexter and Mary Ann Mason; by The Bancroft
Library and the Department of Classics; and by Professors Donald Mastronarde,
Ronald Stroud, Anthony Long, and Erich Gruen. Professors Arthur Verhoogt (Michigan)
and Karl-Theodor Zauzich (Würzburg) were the principal instructors. Additional
lectures and workshops were provided by Professors Susan Stephens (Stanford),
Richard Jasnow (Johns Hopkins), Joseph Manning (Stanford), and Jacco Dieleman
(UCLA); and by Tina DiCerbo (University of Chicago Epigraphic Survey). CTP received
twenty-three applications from around the world for the ten places; the application
pool was so strong that the admissions committee decided to accept twelve individuals.
In the end, the following young scholars took part in the seminar: Carolin Arlt
(Würzburg), D.ssa Silvia Barbantani (Venice), James Brusuelas (Irvine),
Christelle Fischer (Stanford), Brigit Flannery (Berkeley), Marius Gerhardt (Halle-Wittenberg),
Jacqueline Jay (Chicago), Jean Li (Berkeley), Andrew Monson (Stanford), Giovanni
Ruffini (Columbia), Will Shearin (Berkeley), and Monica Signoretti (Johns Hopkins).
The seminar concerned the most neglected lot of papyri in the Berkeley collection:
the 3rd and 2nd Century BCE papyri from the human mummy cartonnage that the
Phoebe Hearst-sponsored expedition had recovered (in 1900) from the cemetery
outside the remains of the village of Tebtunis. None of the thousands of Egyptian
papyri from this lot had been studied, and several of the fragments looked promising-they
were literary or had content of obvious interest (e.g., a fragment mentioning
Jerusalem). The Greek part of the lot was much better known but had yielded
some very important texts (both literary and documentary, but most notably the
fragments of Sophocles's lost satyr play Inachos) and contained several archives
(bodies of texts deliberately assembled in Antiquity). The participants were
given the option of editing a papyrus (or papyri) or preparing a synthetic study
of a group of texts (e.g., those deriving from a single mummy). Throughout,
the importance of working with all of the evidence from a certain context, regardless
of language, format, etc.-an obvious principle so often ignored-was emphasized.
The participants' projects will appear in the sixth volume of the revitalized Tebtunis Papyri series (to be published by the Oriental Institute Press of the University of Chicago). The "Jerusalem fragment," incidentally, turned out to be an important text concerning the revolt of the governor of Coele Syria, Ptolemy, the son of Thraseas, during the Fifth Syrian War; while the literature included a substantial narrative concerning the battle between Re and Apophis and a ghost story.
University
of Cincinnati, Cincinnati 2005
Peter van Minnen, Organizer
The Papyrological Summer Institute at the University of Cincinnati ran from
July 5 to August 5, 2005, and was made possible by a generous grant from the
Louise Taft Semple Fund of the Department of Classics. Twelve advanced graduate
students from North America and beyond, selected by William Johnson and Peter
van Minnen (both University of Cincinnati) from a pool of applicants about twice
as large, attended workshops and worked on scans of papyri from the Vienna collection
and on original papyri on loan from the University of Michigan through the kind
offices of Traianos Gagos and Shannon Zachary. The Michigan papyri were kept
in our Archives and Rare Books Department, where Kevin Grace was our host.
The students were: Susan Beresford from University College London, Lincoln
Blumell and Donald Sells from the University of Toronto, David Branscome from
Indiana University, Sandra Burgess from the University of Missouri, Chris Eckerman
from the University of California Los Angeles, Daria Miheeva from Moscow University,
Jason Reddoch and Stephen Self from the University of Cincinnati, Dan Ullucci
from Brown University, Phil Venticinque from the University of Chicago, and
Athanassios Vergados from the University of Virginia. Most of them were classicists,
but others had a religious studies background.
The workshops were conducted by Jean-Luc Fournet (École Pratique des
Hautes Études, Paris) and Peter van Minnen, who acted as the principal
instructors, and by Willy Clarysse (University of Leuven, Belgium) and William
Johnson. Additional lectures were given by Caroline Magdelaine (Marc Bloch University,
Strasbourg, now the Sorbonne, Paris), Dave Martinez (University of Chicago),
Katy McNamee (Wayne State University), Gregg Schwendner (Wichita State University,
then Tytus Summer Fellow at Cincinnati) and Susan Stephens (Stanford University).
The stated theme of the summer institute was "Books and Religions,"
and we devoted relatively many workshops to it, although we also covered the
basics of documentary papyrology. Most papyri the students worked on were Greek
documents, but there were a few literary and religious texts as well (Ecclesiastes
in Greek and the apocryphal Letter to Abgar in Coptic). Among the documents,
a detailed temple inventory listing rare cult items and a checklist of fancy
clothes packed for a high official on a business trip stand out.
Roger Bagnall and Raffaella Cribiore, organizers
The 2006 Summer Seminar was held at Columbia University from June 19 through July 28. It was focused on Late Antiquity, with work on both Greek and Coptic papyri, both documentary and literary. The faculty consisted of Roger Bagnall and Raffaella Cribiore (both Columbia University) and Heike Behlmer (Macquarie University). David Ratzan (Columbia University) was the seminar assistant. Additional lectures were given by Rodney Ast (Columbia University), AnneMarie Luijendijk (Princeton University), and Giovanni Ruffini (Columbia University). The group also visited the collections of Princeton University and the Pierpont Morgan Library, hearing presentations by Don C. Skemer and William Voelkle, respectively, and seeing representative papyri from these collections.
The participants in the seminar were Marja Bakker (Leiden University), Alette
Bakkers (Leiden University), Stephen Bay (University of Illinois; now Brigham
Young University), Katherine Blouin (Université Laval), Ari Bryen (University
of Chicago), Usama Gad (Ain Shams University), Brendan Haug (University of California,
Berkeley), Kevin Kalish (Princeton University), Florence Lemaire (Sorbonne),
Rachel Mairs (University of Cambridge), Valentina Millozzi (Università
degli Studi, Urbino), and Jennifer Westerfeld (University of Chicago).
The core program of the Seminar consisted of morning lecture/seminar meetings
on topics ranging over the period from the late third century to the eighth
century in both languages. (For a full schedule for the seminar, click
here.) In addition, two Coptic classes were offered, one for beginners and
one for more advanced students. Each participant used the afternoon hours to
edit one papyrus and one ostrakon, all from the Columbia collection, which were
then presented in a series of seminar meetings during the second half of the
six-week period. These texts will be published in a series of articles.
Funding for the Seminar was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through
the Distinguished Achievement Awards to Roger Bagnall and Peter Brown.