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The Department of Classics and Archaeology at ���ϳԹ���Դ warmly invites you to the annual conference of the Classical Association of Canada, to be held May 5th-7th 2026. The conference will be held on the campus of the university in charming Kingston, Ontario. Our conference committee is hard at work to prepare a warm welcome, an exciting slate of events, and a convivial colloquium.

We invite proposals for 20-minutes papers in English or French addressing any topic related to Classical Studies, Classical Archaeology, ancient History, or Classical Reception. We also call for papers on pedagogical topics, new research methods, updates from excavations, surveys of the field, and any other issue that may be or become of shared professional interest to members of the Classics community. We welcome individual abstracts, as well as proposals for panels, roundtables or workshops. We also encourage submissions that would result in a poster presentation.

Proposals for individual papers should include the title and a maximum 300-word abstract (exclusive of bibliography). They must be submitted as an attached document (.docx or .doc only, please) by e-mail with the subject “CAC-SCEC Proposal.” Please ensure that you do not include your name or any other identifying aspects in your proposal. 

Proposals for panels or workshops/roundtables should include all abstracts (maximum 4 including any respondent) and a short (100-200 words) description of and rationale for the panel or workshop/roundtable. 

Please send proposals to cacqueens2026@gmail.com. All submissions must be received by email by January 5th 2026. The Organizing Committee will reach its decisions and contact presenters in early February.

MA and PhD students who wish to present should also include an official letter of recommendation from their supervisor. This letter should be sent separately by the supervisor with the subject “CAC-SCEC Recommendation or [NAME]” to cacqueens2026@gmail.com.

Our conference is in-person only with no hybrid or virtual options. Submitting an abstract should therefore be considered a commitment to present the paper in person. Paper presenters must be members of the Association. Please visit the website of the  to join the Classical Association of Canada. The CAC endorses a Statement of Professional Ethics and Statement on Academic Freedom, both of which may be found on the Association’s website. 

More information about the conference can be found on this website and will be sent as email updates to those who have registered.

The Women’s Network / Réseau des Femmes of the CAC / SCÉC invites submissions for their 2026 panel Ancient Masculinities, which aims to foster critically informed work on the construction, contestation, and performance of manliness, broadly conceived, in antiquity. 

Rooted in feminist and gender studies, scholarship on masculinity explores the social construction and reproduction of what it means to ‘be a man’, recognizing that manliness involves culturally and historically specific norms, expectations, and protocols for becoming and being ‘manly’. Over the last three decades, Classicists have begun to draw on these insights to investigate the ideologies of manhood in the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean. Maud Gleason and Erik Gunderson made seminal early contributions, calling attention to the contingency and performativity of masculinity in the Graeco-Roman world (Gleason 1994, Gunderson 2000). As in many cultures, manhood was not based solely on assigned sex and did not come automatically with adulthood: it had to be learned and earned, and once gained it could still be lost. An ancient man’s identity as such depended on his projection of masculinity via his body, words, and actions – and on the acceptance of that projection by others. Because of its contingency, masculinity was particularly fragile, subject to constant social policing, and apt to be undermined. 

Exciting work continues to be produced at the intersection of Classics and Masculinity Studies, which furnishes a valuable hermeneutic for revisiting and interrogating ancient gender dynamics in a wide range of literary and material sources from across the ancient world (e.g. Rosen and Sluiter 2003, McDonnell 2006, Williams 2010, Jones 2012, Masterson 2014, Goldberg 2021, Racette-Campbell 2023, Racette-Campbell and McMaster 2024). This panel will highlight and contribute to the vitality of this burgeoning area of inquiry. 

We warmly encourage all scholars and students interested in these themes to apply. Contributions may include theoretical or methodological explorations, analyses of ancient texts or archaeological evidence, or original creative works. Topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Normative and transgressive masculinities in antiquity
• Toxic masculinities
• Hegemonic masculinities
• Female masculinities
• Ancient masculinities beyond Greece and Rome
• Generational masculinities and intergenerational constructions of masculinities 
• Intersections of masculinity with race/ethnicity, social status, sexuality, or disability
• Receptions of ancient masculinities 

Bibliography

Gleason, M. W. 1994. Making Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Goldberg, C. 2021. Roman Masculinity and Politics from Republic to Empire. London and New York: Routledge. 

Gunderson, E. 2000. Staging Masculinity:  The rhetoric of performance in the Roman world.  Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Jones, M. 2012. Playing the Man: Performing Masculinities in the Ancient Greek Novel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Masterson, M. 2014. Man to Man: Desire, homosociality, and authority in Late-Roman manhood. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

McDonnell, M. 2006. Roman Manliness: Virtus and the Roman Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Racette-Campbell, M. 2023. The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Racette-Campbell, M. and A. McMaster, eds. 2024. Toxic Masculinity in the Ancient World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Rosen, R. and I. Sluiter, eds. 2003. Andreia: Studies in Manliness and Courage in Classical Antiquity. Leiden: Brill.

Williams, C. A. 2010. Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Application Details

Abstracts in both French and English are welcome; they should be no more than 300 words, plus relevant bibliography. Please submit your abstract by January 5th 2026 to sdennie@ualberta.ca and cacqueens2026@gmail.com, with your name and “abstract for 2026 WN panel” in the subject heading. In the body of the email, include your full name, affiliation, contact information, and the paper title. Do not include your name in the abstract but please make sure that the title of the paper on the abstract and the title in the email are the same. Please indicate in your email if you would like to have your abstract considered for the regular sessions if it is not included in the Women’s Network panel. Graduate students should send a note of support from their supervisor along with the abstract. Membership in the CAC is required for participation.

Sing it, Muse!: Ancient Stories for Modern Audiences

Telling stories over a campfire, reading a novel before bed, listening to music, watching a play, going to a movie theatre, etc., these are the ways we enjoy the colloquial “entertainment”. The ancients played music, sang songs, read poetry, wrote books, attended plays and the like; accordingly, we are not so different (apart from the addition of technology!). Today, it’s become a popular tradition to adapt, modernize, and recreate ancient stories for modern audiences. The accessibility of classical scholarship can only reach a particular audience, while the entertainment and publishing industries innovate mythical worlds, bringing a certain awe upon their existence.

Take Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Odyssey, which will likely include his lust for dark ambience; will Nolan maintain the plot of Homer’s Odyssey, like so many others have attempted in past decades? Stephen Fry’s fascination for mythology drove him to publish four adapted novels (Heroes (2020), Mythos (2019), Troy (2021), and his most recent Odyssey (2025)) that include a riveting (fictionalized?) dialogue but maintains the original storylines. The recent treasure trove of music by artist Jorge Rivera-Herrans, known as Epic, thrills the listener as he not only puts on a display of aptitude for Greek myth and storytelling, but also creates melodies and rhythms that stick in your head. The play Medea, too, continues to be picked up by playwrights and theatre companies, each taking their own perspective on the fable, and adapting it to contemporary themes and styles. 

The question is why do we (not-so) aimlessly continue to adapt ancient entertainment for our own pleasure? This panel aims to address our fascination for old stories, music, and poetry through a modern lens and the re-telling of them. Why is there such a large attraction to stories and entertainment from 2,000 years ago? What implications (positive and/or negative) are there for disseminating these tales and themes to a contemporary audience? What value – historically, culturally, and pedagogically – does the ancient tradition have in films, TV, books, etc.? How can we reframe or broaden classical scholarship in a fictionalized way so that it is more relatable to the modern audience? How can we make it so that they are – accurately(?) – entertained?

The Graduate Student Caucus warmly invites abstracts from current graduate students (MA/PhD) and alumna that are interested in participating in our panel. Perspective panelists are encouraged to consider the contexts, theoretical approaches, and/or the realism vs. mythical (mystical) thorough literary analysis, archaeological evidence, or inventive assessments. Topics that could be explored, but are not limited to, include:

• Music theory and instrument evolution
• Modernized/adapted theatre
• Storytelling
• The ancient vs. modern novel/novella/graphic novel
• Classical themes in popular culture
• Entertainment’s (de)evolution
• Film adaptations of original stories/myths
• (In-)accuracies of modern retellings and their pedagogical value

Details

Abstracts either in English or French are welcome and should be 250-300 words in length. To be considered, submissions will be accepted until January 5th 2026. Please include the following in your submission: name, affiliation, program, and title.

These should be submitted as a PDF to cacscec.gsccecs.executive@gmail.com with the subject line: CGSCECS Abstract CAC2026.

For any inquiries, please refer to the Annual Conference website or contact us at the e-mail above.

Sincerely,

The Graduate Student Caucus