Please, send proposals for this panel to me, via e-mail. Proposals for other topics and requests of information about the conference should be sent directly to Wendy Mayer (see email below).

Here is the general Call for Papers:

Feast, Fast or Famine: An International Conference on Food and Drink in Byzantium
XIIIth Conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies
11-13 July 2003, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia

Organized by the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, in conjunction with the Centre for European Studies and the Research Centre for the History of Food and Drink, University of Adelaide, this conference aims to bring together scholars from diverse fields on a topic currently exciting considerable interest internationally.

The language of the conference is English. Papers will be 25 minutes in length.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words are invited on any topic related to food and drink in the period from the very beginnings of the Byzantine world in the fourth century to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE.

Possibilities for papers include the relationship between eating and politics; humour and dining; material objects associated with food and drink; the portrayal of food in art; restriction of diet (fasting/famine); diet and medicine or health; poisons; potions and magic; the economics of food production; transport; the sociology and culture of eating and drinking; the treatment of food in literature; regional industries; the impact of disasters; and military logistics. Papers that address the topic metaphorically (e.g., music or poetry as food for the soul; eating one's words) are also welcome.

Papers from the conference will be published in the series Byzantina Australiensia, subject to review by an international panel of referees.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 March 2003
Notification of acceptance of papers: early April 2003

Email submissions are encouraged and should be sent to Dr Wendy Mayer wendy.mayer@adelaide.edu.au
Fax: +61 8 8267 2438