In collaboration with the School of Critical Studies (Theology & Religious Studies) at the University of Glasgow and the Joseph Chair of Catholic Spirituality at Boston College, we are pleased to announce an international conference exploring “Graphic Signs of Religion, Identity, and Authority in Antiquity.”

The modern world is, in many ways, a world driven, and sometimes even defined, by digital images that are projected on screens, transmitted to televisions, and glowing on smartphones. Although the ancient world is separated from the digital age by several millennia, it is a world no less filled with vast occurrences of graphic signs in numerous contexts including altars, inscriptions, manuscripts, stamps, seals, amulets, household objects, and traditional media for art. When, in the fourth century, St. Augustine observed Quo signo crucis omnis actio Christiana describitur (“By that sign of the cross every Christian act is described”; De doctrina Christiana, 2.150), he was not only expressing a sentiment concerning a graphic sign relevant for his day and context but also bringing to expression a principle of graphic signs of religion and identity found in both previous and subsequent eras: graphic signs are presentations of beliefs and norms and distinctive markers of identity and authority.

This conference brings together senior and mid-career scholars in order to provide both scholarly paper presentations designed to advance the scholarship being done on a variety of interrelated topics as well as workshops designed to facilitate discussion and encourage graduate student involvement in collective reflect on how graphic signs have shaped, and continue to shape, religion, representations of authority, and corporate and individual identity. Registration is requested for sessions and workshops, but not required for the public, plenary lecture on Friday night.

All sessions and workshops will take place in McElroy 237. Friday evening's plenary lecture will be held in The Heights Room (Corcoran Commons). Please register to attend.