Four male scholars studying imperial processions and ceremonies are looking for a female commentator to gain acceptance for their panel at next year's AHA. These are Prof. Richard Wortman, Columbia University, Prof. Lawrence Bryant, California State University, Chico, Prof. Ron Sela, Indiana University, Bloomington and Darin Stephanov, advanced graduate student at UCLA.

The purpose of this panel is to compare patterns of staging processional ceremonial across space and time. In doing so, we can differentiate between universal and time-/space- specific concerns and analyze the dramatized interaction between ‘ruler’ and ‘ruled’ on a number of symbolic levels. Through techniques of military and religious involvement, costume, color, text, image, sound and sequence, we can reconstruct entire spectacles, with their inherited (non-changing) aspects and, more importantly, contemporary (changing) aspects, reflective of economic, social and political realities. In the end, all of this discussion can be brought to bear on modern-day ceremonial as well.