Stuart McKie – PhD Student, Open University TRAC sessions attended: Charmed, I’m sure: Roman magic – old theory, new approaches Theorizing space and material culture in Late Antiquity (first half) Interdisciplinary approaches to Roman artefacts (second half) Contextualising coins, assembling contexts and interrogating agency Integrating Environmental and Theoretical Roman Archaeology CA sessions attended: Smelling Rome The Senses in Roman Life Low genre and ideology (first half) Sacred space and the senses (second half) The experience of ancient polytheism The role of perception in making sense of space The Roman Empire I attended both TRAC and the Classical Association Conference (CA) this year, and as they were so close together I thought that a comparison of the two might be interesting. Obviously this comes with plenty of caveats: TRAC and the CA differ in size, purpose and remit, and both are world-leaders in their respective corners of our field. I don’t intend to proclaim which conference was ‘best’ – how would I even decide, and what would be the point? Instead I thought I would focus on my experiences of attending the conferences, how I found the themes, formats and content of this year’s TRAC and CA. Both adhered to the standard format of academic conferences. Panels consisted of a number of 20-minute papers centred on a specific theme. Although a few of the panel chairs reserved discussion and question time until the end of the panel, the majority gave the audience 10 minutes after each presentation to ask […]
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