Ancient Near East

The Chicago Center for the Study of Ancient Religion (CSAR) coordinates teaching and organizes major research projects at the University of Chicago and beyond.

As the study of history has developed in the modern era, historians have increasingly come to recognize the value of interdisciplinary inquiry, bringing methodologies from fields as diverse as sociology, gender studies, and economics to bear on the study of ancient societies. The Ancient Societies Workshop provides a forum for historians from a range of disciplines to discuss topics of common interest. The theme of this year’s workshop is “Religion and Law,” which is a natural development of last year’s theme, “Epigraphic Habits.”

The purpose of the Early Christian Studies Workshop is to provide a venue for students and scholars of the New Testament, Greco-Roman religions and literatures, and the early history of Christianity to present their creative work on primary texts and other evidence for the early Christian movement and the world in which it grew.

The Hebrew Bible Workshop engages questions in and around the Hebrew Bible, its historical and cultural context, and its ongoing interpretation. Student, faculty, and visiting scholar presentations encompass a broad range of topics, disciplines, and methodologies, such as art, archeology, hermeneutics, literature, philosophy, history, philology, and linguistics. With this multitude of perspectives, the workshop aims to stimulate dialogue within the classically defined areas and interests of the field as well as to encourage new and exciting research outside of them. Workshops meet twice monthly.

The primary objective of the Interdisciplinary Archaeology Workshop is to forge a lively and respectful dialogue on aspects of method and theory that cut across the field’s diverse disciplinary locations. There is a widely perceived need for a forum to engage in conversations and projects of comparison across the different disciplinary homes of archaeology. “Encounters” will be the centerpiece of a series of explorations to be held in a variety of formats throughout the year. Our goal will be to understand human materiality from a wide array of perspectives. The workshop brings together faculty and students from numerous departments and encourages all interested participants to attend.

Bringing together faculty and students from across various disciplines, the Jewish Studies and the Hebrew Bible Workshop seeks to provide a forum for vibrant discourse and critical reflection on work and topics that may range across the field of Judaica. From Jewish language, literature, and music to religion and philosophy, this workshop looks to engage students and faculty interested in Jewish studies while stretching them to think beyond the strictures that currently typify their subdisciplines.

The Workshop has as its focus the Eastern Mediterranean World from 330 - 1453 CE, as approached from a variety of viewpoints, including Late Rome, Byzantium, Early Islam, Slavic Studies, Crusader Periods, and Eastern Church Studies. We sponsor approximately four to five graduate student and faculty speakers each quarter, as well as invited guest lecturers.
(From their website)

The Middle East History and Theory Workshop serves as a multidisciplinary platform where University students and faculty in the Humanities and Social Sciences can discuss a wide array of academic questions related to the history, societies, culture, and politics of the Middle East. As an area studies workshop, we accept papers dealing with this broad range of subjects throughout the geography of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, and over a time span extending from the advent of Islam to the present.

Organized by division and then department