CFP: Seneca and Stoicism

Seneca is the earliest Stoic for whom we have extensive literary remains and his works constitute the largest single body of ancient Stoic writing. His application and exploration of the practical side of Stoicism is evident in his extensive literary output, which crosses a wide and ambitious range of genres. The richness of his writing has generated a similarly rich range of approaches to his work, producing literary, philosophical and reception scholarship exploring the Senecan corpus.

In order to showcase Seneca’s particular contribution to Roman Stoicism, we invite proposals for papers for an informal workshop dedicated to his work. We welcome submissions relating to any aspect of his philosophical work, including its intersection with his tragic plays; possible approaches could include specific thematic explorations of particular Stoic ideas across Seneca’s work, or close engagements with individual texts. 

We look forward to building on the three previous Stoicism workshops, and to taking advantage of this opportunity for those with interests in Stoicism and Seneca to come together, make new contacts, and think collectively about further research.

We welcome submissions from people at any stage in their career, from doctoral students and early career researchers through to more established academics. The event will take place in Bloomsbury, central London. If anyone has specific access or dietary requirements, please contact us and we will do our best to cater for them.

Abstracts should be no more than 500 words long. Presentations will be around 30 minutes long, and followed by discussion. The deadline for abstracts is 28th February 2025.

Abstracts and any questions should be sent to the organizers:

• Dr Liz Gloyn (Liz.Gloyn at rhul.ac.uk), Department of Classics, RHUL

• Dr John Sellars (John.Sellars at rhul.ac.uk), Department of Philosophy, RHUL