CALL FOR PAPERS:
Pollution and Propriety: DIRT, DISEASE, AND HYGIENE IN ROME FROM ANTIQUITY
TO MODERNITY

A two-day conference at the British School at Rome,
Thursday 21 and Friday 22 June 2007.

Keynote speaker: Professor Mary Douglas

This interdisciplinary conference will examine the significance of
pollution and cleanliness in the art, literature, philosophy, and material
culture of the city of Rome from antiquity through to the twentieth
century. Dirt, disease and pollution and the ways they are represented and
policed have long been recognised by historians and anthropologists to
occupy a central position in the formulation of cultural identity, and Rome
holds a special status in the West as a city intimately associated with
issues of purity, decay, ruin and renewal. In recent years, scholarship in
a variety of disciplines has begun to scrutinise the less palatable
features of the archaeology, history and society of Rome. This research has
drawn attention to the city's distinctive historical interest in the
recognition, isolation and treatment of pollution, and the ways in which
politicians, architects, writers and artists have exploited this as a
vehicle for devising visions of purity and propriety.

As a departure point, then, the organisers propose the theme of 'Pollution
and Propriety' and the discourses by which these two antagonistic concepts
are related. How has pollution in Rome been defined, and by what means is
it controlled? How does Rome's own social and cultural history affect the
way states of dirt and cleanliness are formulated? Does purity always
accompany political, physical or social change? Does Rome's reputation as a
'city of ruins' determine how it is represented? What makes images of decay
in Rome so picturesque? It is hoped that this conference will bring
together scholars from a range of disciplines who are interested in dirt,
disease and hygiene in Rome in order to examine the historical continuity
of these themes and to explore their development and transformation
alongside major chapters in the city's history, such as early Roman urban
development, the Roman Empire, early Christianity, decline and fall, the
Renaissance, the Unification of Italy, and the advent of Fascism. Papers
might include, but are certainly not limited to:

Death and burial
The history of medicine in Rome
Slavery and social pollution
Gendering dirt
Sexuality and virginity
Queerness and pollution
Public and private morality
Decay, decline and fall
Architectural unity and purity
Sewers and waste disposal; water supply
Urban segregation
The management and representation of disease
Religions, purity and absolution
Bodies, purging and beautification
Ruins and renovation
Pollution as literary metaphor
* Modernity as pollution

It is hoped that this conference will be of interest to scholars working in
archaeology, cultural history, literature, art history, and the history of
medicine. The conference will aim to develop themes in the history of the
city of Rome, as well as providing a context for examining general issues
of pollution and purity. Papers should be original and should have not
been previously published or delivered at a major conference. Abstracts of
approximately 200 words should be submitted by November 30, 2006.
Successful contributions may be considered for publication in a conference
volume.

Organisers: Dr Mark Bradley (Classics, Nottingham)
Prof Richard Wrigley (Art History, Nottingham)

Email: pollution.conferencenottingham.ac.uk