Though registration for the full workshop is now closed, the keynote lectures by Roger B. Ulrich and Carole Newlands are free and open to all.
This workshop examines how woodworking and human-wood interaction were imagined, described, and represented in artistic, literary and epigraphic media. Papers range from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity and consider themes such as human-tree relations, woodworking and the divine, the relationship between technological practice and imagination, or wood as a metaphor. The workshop highlights Roman ways of thinking about materiality and the cultural significance of working with wood in varied contexts. 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 keynote speakers. See the full program below.
Program
Thursday June 18, 2026
(Location: Academy Building, Room A2)
9:00 – 9:45 Welcome & Introduction
9:45 – 12:15 From Tree to Timber (Chair: Hylke de Boer)
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: Bettina Reitz-Joosse (University of Groningen) – City of Wood: The Temporalities of a Material
12:15 – 13:30 Lunch (Restaurant ‘t Cafe)
13:30 – 16:00: Practicum – Whittling Workshop (Marie-Loke-Zaal). Introduction and Guidance: Yoka Koopmans
16:15 -17:30 Keynote (Location: Old Courtroom): Roger B. Ulrich (Dartmouth College) – Pulcher in Ligno: Did the Romans Consider Wood Beautiful? (see link for abstract) *Free and open to all.
17:30 Drinks
Friday June 19, 2026
(Location: Academy Building, Room A2)
9:00 – 10:30 Wooden Agencies (Chair: Bettina Reitz-Joosse)
9:00 – 9:45: Marco Formisano (Ghent University) – Quamvis Sim Ligneus: Wooden Poetics in the Carmina Priapea
9:45-10:30: Daniel Falkembach Ribeiro (Federal University of Bahia): An Amphitheater Made of Trees: Human-Wood Relations in Calpurnius Siculus’ Eclogue 7
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:30 Mediating Woodworking in Vernacular Practice (Chair: Jessica Plant)
11:00 – 11:45: Myrto Malouta (Ionian University) – Wooden Doors and Gates in the Papyri from Roman Egypt
11:45 – 12:30: Maxime Duval (Universite 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 (Restaurant ‘t Cafe)
13:30 – 15:00 Woodworking and Literary Practice (Chair: Friederike Brunzema)
13:30 – 14:15: Giulia Dovico (University of Munich) – 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 Keynote (Location: Old Courtroom): Carole Newlands (University of Colorado Boulder) – Writing with Wood (see link for abstract) *Free and open to all.
17:30 Drinks