SAMR Fall news from your president

Hello All,

As we all approach the busiest parts of the semester, I am reaching out with a few announcements that are of interest to members.

First of all, we are now gathering ideas for the next academic year's annual meetings, so if you have any interesting topics on your mind, please reach out to me directly via email: varhelyi@bu.edu

In connection with these upcoming conferences, we are also looking for new program committee members: this is a relatively low effort way to participate in our work and support other members. So don't hold back on those self-nominations (again via email).

Secondly, the conference season is upon us: the SBL/AAR meeting is in Boston in just two weeks (November 21-25) and the SCS/AIA meeting is coming up in San Francisco in January. We will of course be very present!

At the SBL, our session honoring Fred Brenk is scheduled for November 24, 1-3:30pm at Hynes 309. Detailed program can be found here. Our respondent is James Rives, who is also giving a paper at Boston University later that evening (6pm) on his book on ancient sacrifice published last year (if you want to join, just get in touch with me for location). Additionally, among the many interesteting offerings, I wanted to call your attention to the session of the Greco-Roman Religion unit on new developments in Greco-Roman religions immediately following ours. We do not have an in-person business meeting any more, but I am planning to hang in the Boston Sheraton's Henderson bar on Saturday, Nov. 22nd, from around 6:30-7pm and would love for anyone to stop by.

At the SCS, we continue with another session in Fred's honor, scheduled for January 9, 8am. There will also be another interesting session on lived experineces in ancient Greek religion the following morning. Here, again very unofficially, I will be hanging at the lobby bar in the Hilton SF Union Square Hotel on Thursday, Jan. 9th, 6pm.

All in all: don't be a stranger. Suggest ideas, join the program committee and, if you are attending the meetings, say hello!

Warmly,

Zsuzsa

Zsuzsanna Várhelyi

Distinguished Professor, National Endowment for the Humanities
President, Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions

Associate Professor of Classical Studies

Boston University