Registration is now open for the workshop “Woodworking in the Roman Imagination” at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) on the 18th and 19th of June, 2026.
Individual papers will approach depictions of woodworking and human-wood interaction in artistic, literary and epigraphic media. Together, we seek to trace Roman ideas about human-wood entanglements from tree-felling to the production of wooden artifacts. This workshop will contribute to a multi-faceted understanding of the many meanings of woodworking in ancient Rome. It forms part of the ERC-FACERE project which investigates discourses of making in the Roman world (https://facere.site/). We look forward to welcoming Roger B. Ulrich and Carole Newlands as our keynote speakers. See the full program below.
We have a limited number of spots available. If you are interested in attending, please send an email to FACERE.ERC@gmail.com. Registration costs: 40 EUR (free for students). Keynote lectures are open to all.
Program
Thursday 18 June 2026
9:00 – 9:45 Welcome & Introduction by the organisers
9:45 – 12:15 From Tree to Timber
9:45 – 10:30 Matthew Westermayer (Brooklyn College): After the Tree, Wood: Roman Ecological Thought
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 – 11:30 Andrew Fox (University of Liverpool): Tree Literacy: Understanding Timber in the Roman World
11:30 – 12:15 Daniel Falkembach Ribeiro (Federal University of Bahia): An Amphitheater Made of Trees: Human-Wood Relations in Calpurnius Siculus’ Eclogue 7
12:15 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 16:00 Practicum (speakers only)
16:15 – 17:30 Roger B. Ulrich (Dartmouth): Pulcher in Ligno: Did the Romans Consider Wood Beautiful?
Friday 19 June 2026
9:00 – 10:30 Woodworking and the Divine
9:00 – 9:45 Marco Formisano (Ghent University): Quamvis sim ligneus: wooden poetics in the Carmina Priapea
9:45-10:30 Marietta Horster (Mainz University): Silvanus and the wood(s)
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:30 Mediating Woodworking in Vernacular Practice
11:00 – 11:45 Myrto Malouta (Ionian University): Wooden doors and gates in the papyri from Roman Egypt
11:45 – 12:30 Maxime Duval (Université Libre de Bruxelles): Challenging depictions: domestic and occasional practice of woodworking in the civitas Treverorum, from archaeological instrumentum to regional organisation
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 15:00 Woodworking and Literary Practice
13:30 – 14:15 Giulia Dovico (University of Groningen and Leiden): Composing, Polishing, Joining: woodworking metaphors in the literary-critical discourse
14:15 – 15:00 Frances Foster (University of Cambridge): Literary woodworking in the late Roman classroom
15:00 – 15:30 Discussion
16:15 – 17:30 Carole Newlands (University of Colorado Boulder): Writing with Wood