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Queen: Reimagining Power From Antiquity to the Present
A virtual symposium hosted by the Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Ancient queens established a powerful public presence through visual and material culture, and their legacies continue to shape and impact the ways we express ideas about race, gender, and identity.
QUEEN: REIMAGINING POWER FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT is an interdisciplinary, virtual symposium hosted by NYU Gallatin on September 23-24, 2021. This symposium integrates scholarly and creative knowledge production from different perspectives that broaden the stakes and widen the impact of historical work. The symposium will model collaborative, critical, and public approaches to history and art by including the expertise of students, artists, performers, and educators beyond the university alongside the work of scholars and curators. Spanning two days, the symposium comprises seven panel discussions, five keynote talks, one performance, and an interactive website featuring public engagement, student work, and more.
See here for full symposium site.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Introductory Remarks
10:45-11:00 am EST
Anastasia Amrhein and Patricia Eunji Kim
KEYNOTE ONE
Shelley Haley (Chair of Classics and Professor of Africana Studies, Hamilton College; President of the Society for Classical Studies)
11:00-11:30 am EST
The Gender and Sex of Queenship
11:30-12:15 pm EST
Papers analyze the construction of gender and sexuality for queens and queenly figures, both in the past and in present-day scholarship. Moderator: Patricia Eunji Kim (NYU Gallatin, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow). Panelists: Jacquelyn Williamson (George Mason University, Associate Professor) Hatshepsut: The Female King in Context; Quinn Stickley (Cornell University, MA Student) As if He Were a Queen, Deir el-Bahri, Hatshepsut; Alice Parkin (Cambridge University, PhD Candidate) The Amazon Paradox: Exploring Female Power and Agency in Myth; Yanxiao He (Chicago, PhD Candidate) Roxane: The Making of the Last Achaemenid Queen, 4th century BCE; Justine Cudorge (Reims-Champagne-Ardenne, PhD Candidate) Merovingian Royal Women and Authority: Gender Studies and Marks of Feminine Agency within the Frankish Palatium
KEYNOTE TWO
12:15-1:00 pm EST
Aminah Fadhil Jafaar Al-Bayati (Director, Iraq Museum Library)
Queens As Patrons of the Arts and Architecture
1:00-1:30 pm EST
Queens exercised their power and agency to support the construction and creation of public art, architecture, and spectacles. Moderator: Ainsley Cameron (Cincinnati Art Museum, Curator). Panelists: Mehreen Chida-Razvi (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, Deputy Curator and In-House Editor) Bilqis at the Mughal Court: Solomonic Imagery of the Empress Nur Jahan to Portray Imperial Power; Karen Britt (Northwest Missouri State University, Assistant Professor) Empress in Exile: Eudokia’s Patronage in the Holy Land; Michael Moore (UCLA, Postdoctoral Fellow) Hittite Queens and Their Officials; Kate Rose (Harvard University, PhD Candidate) Kandakes of the Past and Present: A Study of Queenship and Power in Ancient Kush, mid-8th century BCE
Divine Queens and Queenly Cults
1:30-2:00 pm EST
An exploration of queenly goddesses, goddess-like queens, and the role of royal women in cult.
Moderator: Jillian Stinchcomb (Brandeis University, Florence Levy Kay Fellow), Panelists: Megan Daniels (University of British Columbia, Assistant Professor) Divine Bodies: Rethinking Nude Female Imagery through the Lens of Feminine Power in Iron Age Greece; Lindsey Mazurek (Indiana University, Assistant Professor) Movers and Shakers: Women as Founders outside Cult Structure in the Worship of Isis, 3rd century BCE, Jessica Plant (Cornell University, PhD Candidate) Saint Thecla’s Sensational Grip on Late Antique Cult, 5th century CE, Valentina Grasso (Cambridge University, PhD Candidate) Theodora, Shirin and Hind: Sixth-Century Women of Power and Faith, 6th century CE
BREAK
2:00-2:30 pm EST
Keynote 3
2:30-3:00 pm EST
Amy Gansell (Associate Professor, St. John’s University)
Queenly Bodies and Beauty
3:00-3:30 pm EST
Papers explore the visual expressions and cultural ideas around queenly bodies and beauty as politically significant themes. Moderator: Hallie Franks (NYU Gallatin, Associate Professor); Panelists: Lex Ladge (University of Chicago, PhD Candidate) Laodike III and Public Performances in Asia Minor, Caitlin Gillespie (Brandeis University, Assistant Professor) Royal Baby Bumps: Pregnancy as Power in the Early Roman Empire, Laura Johnson (University of Utah, MA Candidate) Lorna Simpson’s Natural History, Christina Ko (artist, New York City) Tools of Beauty-Soft, Bristly, and Clean
Friday, September 24, 2021
Welcome: Anastasia Amrhein and Patricia Eunji Kim
10:45-11:00 am EST
Keynote 4: La Vaughn Belle
11:00-11:30 am EST
Defining Queenship from Antiquity to the Present
11:30-12:15 pm EST
Papers employ a variety of methodological and theoretical frameworks to grapple with the notion of queenship across disciplines. Moderator: Anastasia Amrhein (University of Pennsylvania); Panelists: Ellie Bennett (Helsinki, PhD Candidate) Arabian Queens or Female Kings? Defining sarratu during the Neo-Assyrian period, 10th-7th c BCE, Saana Svard (Helsinki, Associate Professor) Neo-Assyrian Queens and power, 9th-7th century BCE, Allison Hurst (Harvard University, PhD Candidate) Bathsheba, Jezebel, and Esther: Biblical Queenship and the Power of Persuasion, Iron Age Biblical queens, Catherine Newell (MA student, CU Boulder) A Queenly Model: Dido, Cleopatra and the Roman Empire, VISCO (La Vaughn Belle, Tami Navarro, Hadiya Sewer, and Tiphanie Yanique) Black Queendom in the Danish West Indies, 18th-19th century
Keynote 5: Jackie Murray (Associate Professor of Classics, University of Kentucky)
12:15-12:45 pm EST
BREAK
12:45-1:15 pm EST
Reception and Modern Mythologies of Ancient Queens
1:15-2:00 pm EST
These papers explore the stakes of ancient queenship in modern and contemporary visual and material culture. Moderator: Bruce King (NYU Gallatin, Part-time Faculty); Panelists: Jose Ignacio Rivero (Retired museum professional) Queen Calafia and the Naming of California; Elizabeth Carney (Clemson, Professor Emerita) Picturing Olympias: The Mother of Alexander the Great After Antiquity; Michael Seymour (Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Assistant Curator) Queens and Consorts in the Modern Story of Sardanapalus; Aimee Hinds (PhD Candidate, Roehampton) Barbie, Perpetual Queen of Egypt; Casey Stark (Assistant Teaching Professor, Bowling Green State University) Portrayals of Vestal Virgins in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Centering Women in the Ancient World
2:00-2:30 pm EST
Papers offer new modes and methods of critical, creative, and publicly-engaged pedagogies that center histories and art of queens and women from the ancient world.
Moderator: Clare Fitzgerald (Head of Exhibitions and Gallery Curator, ISAW); Panelists: ChelseaDee (arts worker and producer, New York City Vanguard of the Viragoes), Ashley Bacchi (Assistant Professor, Starr King School for the Ministry) Representation Matters and Hellenistic Queens Have the Power to Help, Tasha Vorderstrasse (University and Continuing Education Program Coordinator, Oriental Institute of Chicago) Studying and Teaching Nubian Queens
Performance by Mrs. Smith 2:30-3:15 pm EST
Closing Remarks 3:15-3:30 pm EST
Patricia Eunji Kim and Anastasia Amrhein
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