CfP: Immigration and Citizenship, Then and Now
A panel organized by the affiliate group Classics and Social Justice for the 2026 annual meeting of the SCS/AIA.
For the 2026 meeting of the SCS/AIA in San Francisco, the Classics and Social Justice affiliate group of the SCS invites papers that place the ancient and modern worlds in dialogue with one another on the topic of immigration and citizenship. With this panel, we aim to spark discussion about how issues pertaining to immigration and citizenship were approached in various social and cultural contexts in antiquity, and how the exploration of these issues in the ancient world can help us engage with them more productively in the present day.
Under this heading, we include questions such as: What factors have historically prompted changes to definitions of and requirements for citizenship? Can we learn anything about modern nationalist movements in the United States and globally from studying citizenship in ancient Greece and Rome? How does an intersectional approach illuminate elements of these discussions that may have been historically overlooked by earlier scholarly approaches? What tools from fields like Critical Race and Ethnic Studies can help us understand the ways that state power operates in the ancient world to limit and expand legal classes of people? How does gender intersect with the ways ancient Greek poleis defined and established citizenship? What can we gain from centering poleis other than Athens or Sparta when we discuss questions of citizenship? How were conquered peoples legally, socially, or economically integrated into the Roman empire? How has Rome and its legacy informed historical debates about immigration in modern contexts?
In addition to the overarching questions listed above, prospective panelists might also consider addressing one or more of the following specific questions, as they relate to the interaction between ancient and modern contexts:
What methodologies and theoretical frameworks are especially useful in exploring questions of immigration and citizenship in antiquity?
How do questions of immigration and citizenship differently impact people of different genders, classes, sexualities, professions, abilities, etc.? How do aspects of individual or cultural identity inform how people engage with political and social structures that govern questions of legal status?
How were conquered peoples politically, legally, socially, and/or economically integrated into the state?
How do approaches to this topic differ across cultures, time periods, genres, authors, or media? What about when we shift our focus to the margins of empire rather than central cities?
How can discussions about immigration and citizenship in the ancient and modern worlds shed light on one another?
What class units have you taught that invite difficult discussions in classics classes on these topics? What strategies would you recommend instructors use to engage students productively in conversations, especially in the current political climate (and in states with restrictive policies that limit discussion of race, ethnicity, and any other so-called “DEI topics”)?
Abstracts are welcome from all SCS/AIA members and will be anonymously selected. Please send abstracts (of up to 350 words) for 20-minute talks to Elizabeth Bobrick (ebobrick@wesleyan.edu) by March 15, 2025. Guidelines for abstract preparation can be found at https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/guidelines-authors-abstracts.