Available for free download (or hard copy purchase) from UCL Press: www.uclpress.co.uk/products/2... more Available for free download (or hard copy purchase) from UCL Press: www.uclpress.co.uk/products/233080
Bi-/Multi-lingualism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching
R. Mairs and R. Smith eds... more Bi-/Multi-lingualism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching
Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions Part I: Greek, Bilingual, and Trilingual Inscriptions from Egypt... more Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions Part I: Greek, Bilingual, and Trilingual Inscriptions from Egypt. Volume 1. Alexandria and the Delta (Nos. 1–206)
A. K. Bowman, C. V. Crowther, S. Hornblower, R. Mairs and K. Savvopoulos eds.
Maritime and overland routes The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, su... more Maritime and overland routes The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, such as the Arattii, the Arachosii, the Gandaraei and the people of Poclais, in which is Bucephalus Alexandria. Above these is the very warlike nation of the Bactrians, who are under their own king. And Alexander, setting out from these parts, penetrated to the Ganges, leaving aside Damirica and the southern part of India; and to the present day ancient drachma are current in Barygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander, Apollodotus and Menander (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea 47; English transl., Casson 1989).
Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual so... more Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual society in the ancient world, because of the wealth of texts preserved on papyrus in Egyptian, Greek, Latin and other languages. This makes the scarcity of interpreters in the papyrological record all the more curious. This study reviews all instances in the papyri of individuals referred to as hermēneus in Greek, or references to the process of translation/interpreting. It discusses the terminological ambiguity of hermēneus, which can also mean a commercial mediator; the position of language mediators in legal cases in Egyptian, Greek and Latin; the role of gender in language mediation; and concludes with a survey of interpreting in Egyptian monastic communities in Late Antiquity.
Hellenistic and Roman acrostich inscriptions are usually full of verbal and visual clues, which p... more Hellenistic and Roman acrostich inscriptions are usually full of verbal and visual clues, which point the reader in the direction of the ‘hidden message’ contained in the vertical lines of the text. The authors of such inscriptions want their audiences to appreciate the skill that has gone into their composition. There are several complementary ways in which the presence of an acrostich might be signalled to the reader or viewer and their attention directed towards it. These include direct verbal statements, or more subtle allusions, within the text of the inscription. But, even without having read its text, the viewer of an inscription containing a ‘hidden message’ is often immediately aware that some kind of wordplay is at work. Acrostichs, palindromes and various kinds of word square are all graphically striking, or their appearance may be enhanced to make them more so. Regular spacing, the repetition of the acrostich in a separate column and the use of painted or incised grids a...
Available for free download (or hard copy purchase) from UCL Press: www.uclpress.co.uk/products/2... more Available for free download (or hard copy purchase) from UCL Press: www.uclpress.co.uk/products/233080
Bi-/Multi-lingualism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching
R. Mairs and R. Smith eds... more Bi-/Multi-lingualism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching
Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions Part I: Greek, Bilingual, and Trilingual Inscriptions from Egypt... more Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions Part I: Greek, Bilingual, and Trilingual Inscriptions from Egypt. Volume 1. Alexandria and the Delta (Nos. 1–206)
A. K. Bowman, C. V. Crowther, S. Hornblower, R. Mairs and K. Savvopoulos eds.
Maritime and overland routes The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, su... more Maritime and overland routes The country inland from Barygaza is inhabited by numerous tribes, such as the Arattii, the Arachosii, the Gandaraei and the people of Poclais, in which is Bucephalus Alexandria. Above these is the very warlike nation of the Bactrians, who are under their own king. And Alexander, setting out from these parts, penetrated to the Ganges, leaving aside Damirica and the southern part of India; and to the present day ancient drachma are current in Barygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander, Apollodotus and Menander (Periplus of the Erythraean Sea 47; English transl., Casson 1989).
Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual so... more Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual society in the ancient world, because of the wealth of texts preserved on papyrus in Egyptian, Greek, Latin and other languages. This makes the scarcity of interpreters in the papyrological record all the more curious. This study reviews all instances in the papyri of individuals referred to as hermēneus in Greek, or references to the process of translation/interpreting. It discusses the terminological ambiguity of hermēneus, which can also mean a commercial mediator; the position of language mediators in legal cases in Egyptian, Greek and Latin; the role of gender in language mediation; and concludes with a survey of interpreting in Egyptian monastic communities in Late Antiquity.
Hellenistic and Roman acrostich inscriptions are usually full of verbal and visual clues, which p... more Hellenistic and Roman acrostich inscriptions are usually full of verbal and visual clues, which point the reader in the direction of the ‘hidden message’ contained in the vertical lines of the text. The authors of such inscriptions want their audiences to appreciate the skill that has gone into their composition. There are several complementary ways in which the presence of an acrostich might be signalled to the reader or viewer and their attention directed towards it. These include direct verbal statements, or more subtle allusions, within the text of the inscription. But, even without having read its text, the viewer of an inscription containing a ‘hidden message’ is often immediately aware that some kind of wordplay is at work. Acrostichs, palindromes and various kinds of word square are all graphically striking, or their appearance may be enhanced to make them more so. Regular spacing, the repetition of the acrostich in a separate column and the use of painted or incised grids a...
The Yiddish-language memoirs of the journalist Getzel Zelikovits (1855-1926), published in New Yo... more The Yiddish-language memoirs of the journalist Getzel Zelikovits (1855-1926), published in New York in 1919-1920, present a version of his life that deviates considerably from the version one might glean from other contemporary testimony, such as newspaper articles and institutional records. This paper examines how Zelikovits constructed a counterfactual narrative in which he seeks to present his readership with his life as it should have been. As well as Zelikovits's sense of injustice at how he had been treated by European and American academia, and by the British and French establishments, another reason for his deviation from the truth is that he was guilty of a number of serious offences: academic fraud, false accusation of murder, and likely sexual assault. I conclude by exploring what is at stake for a biographer, from an ethical and scholarly standpoint, in exposing Zelikovits's misdeeds and untruths.
Mairs, Rachel (2020) "Iran and Central Asia in the Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods," in David ... more Mairs, Rachel (2020) "Iran and Central Asia in the Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods," in David Hollander and Timothy Howe (eds.), A Companion to Ancient Agriculture, 565-574. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mairs, Rachel (2020) "Quintus," in B. A. S. S. Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchêne (eds.), Figures of Inte... more Mairs, Rachel (2020) "Quintus," in B. A. S. S. Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchêne (eds.), Figures of Interpretation, 127-130. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Mairs, Rachel (2021) "Kingship and Ruler Cult in Hellenistic Bactria: Beyond the Numismatic Sourc... more Mairs, Rachel (2021) "Kingship and Ruler Cult in Hellenistic Bactria: Beyond the Numismatic Sources," in Eva Anagnostou and Stefan Pfeiffer (eds.), Culture and Ideology under the Seleukids, 305-320. De Gruyter.
Mairs, Rachel and Christelle Fischer-Bovet (2021) "Reassessing Settlement Policies: The Seleucid ... more Mairs, Rachel and Christelle Fischer-Bovet (2021) "Reassessing Settlement Policies: The Seleucid Far East, Ptolemaic Red Sea Basin and Egypt," in Christelle Fischer-Bovet and Sitta von Reden (eds.), Comparing the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires: Integration, Communication, and Resistance, 48-85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. NB only my section is included in this uploaded version.
Mairs, Rachel (2022) "Central Asian Challenges to Seleucid Authority: Synchronism, Correlation, a... more Mairs, Rachel (2022) "Central Asian Challenges to Seleucid Authority: Synchronism, Correlation, and Causation," in Paul J. Kosmin and Ian S. Moyer (eds.), Cultures of Resistance in the Hellenistic East, 231-245. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morris, Lauren, Rachel Mairs and Michael Zellmann-Rohrer (2022) "The Temple Inscription from Khwa... more Morris, Lauren, Rachel Mairs and Michael Zellmann-Rohrer (2022) "The Temple Inscription from Khwaja ‘Ali Sehyaka/Sehyak," in William B. Trousdale and Mitchell Allen (eds.), The Archaeology of Southwest Afghanistan, Volume 1: Survey and Excavation, 668-681. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Facebook discussion group for the University of Reading-based Hellenistic Central Asia Research N... more Facebook discussion group for the University of Reading-based Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network
The book is Open Access, so you can download the PDF for free. The discount flyer is for those w... more The book is Open Access, so you can download the PDF for free. The discount flyer is for those who wish to order a hard copy!
HoLLTnet symposium on ‘Colonialism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching’ at the AILA... more HoLLTnet symposium on ‘Colonialism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching’ at the AILA 2024 conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11–16 August 2024 (https://aila2024.com/) What part have the teaching and learning of languages played in European colonial ventures in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, or in other cases of colonialism? To what extent did colonisers and colonised learn one another’s languages, through what methods and in what venues? In what ways is the ‘mastery’ of indigenous languages by colonisers linked to the drive to ‘master’ people and resources generally? And to what extent, where and why have particular languages been favoured educationally, learned informally or been denied. and demonized in colonial settings? Much previous work in the field of History of Language Learning and Teaching has had a Eurocentric and relatively inward-looking bias (McLelland & Smith 2018, 11) but a major, developing aspiration of the HoLLTnet AILA Research Network is to encourage the development of research into traditions of language learning and teaching beyond Europe, into colonial encounters involving language learning and teaching, and into colonial biases within language learning and teaching historiography. Accordingly, we invite abstract proposals for the above symposium, with a deadline of 15 September 2023. To be considered for inclusion in the symposium, you should send your title, name and affiliation and abstract of no more than 300 words by 15 September 2023 at the latest to: r.mairs@reading.ac.uk and R.C.Smith@warwick.ac.uk. We aim to complete peer review / selection and inform you of the result within a week, to enable you to submit your paper separately for consideration by the conference organizers if necessary. See attached PDF for full details.
Call for papers: HoLLT.net Symposium on 'Women in the History of Language Learning and Teaching' ... more Call for papers: HoLLT.net Symposium on 'Women in the History of Language Learning and Teaching' at the World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA 2020), Groningen, The Netherlands, 9–14 August 2020. HoLLT.net (http://www.hollt.net) is a Research Network of AILA (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée – International Association of Applied Linguistics) which was founded in 2015 to stimulate research into the history of language learning and teaching within applied linguistics internationally.
Orientalism, the Classics and Egypt (Third Meeting)
The Reception of Ancient and Modern Egyptian ... more Orientalism, the Classics and Egypt (Third Meeting) The Reception of Ancient and Modern Egyptian Culture and Heritage, in Academia and Beyond مصر والاستشراق والدراسات الكلاسيكية (اللقاء الثالث) تلقي الثقافة والتراث المصري قديمًا وحديثًا في المجتمع الأكاديمي وما سواه Monday, 11 March 2019 Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Main Entrance, Auditorium https://www.bibalex.org/en/events/eventdetails?id=68349
The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are descri... more The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have reconstructed the history of the following centuries. However, our understanding of the (mutual?) acculturation following the campaign remains limited. The aim of the conference was to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia at that time. It takes as much as possible a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers. As in the previous meetings of HCARN group in Reading 2016 and Berlin 2017, the Prague conference brings together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of the Hellenistic Central Asia.
The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are descri... more The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have reconstructed the history of the following centuries. However, our understanding of the (mutual?) acculturation following the campaign remains limited.
The aim of the conference is to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia. It will take a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers.
As in the previous meetings of HCARN group, the conference will bring together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of Hellenistic Central Asia.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
Locating the events of Alexander´s campaign: Combined analysis of archaeological and textual sources
Settlement patterns and dynamics in the late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods Structural changes in the local society Elites and their adapting to the new reality Material culture: local or introduced? New fieldwork at relevant archaeological sites
Registration now open for the History of Language Learning and Teaching conference at the Univers... more Registration now open for the History of Language Learning and Teaching conference at the University of Reading, 5-7 July 2018: https://store.rdg.ac/HoLLTnetInternationalMeeting2018.
November 14-16 2018, Institute of Classical Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Pra... more November 14-16 2018, Institute of Classical Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague
The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have reconstructed the history of the following centuries. However, our understanding of the (mutual?) acculturation following the campaign remains limited. The aim of the conference is to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia. It will take a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers. As in the previous meetings of HCARN group, the conference will bring together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of Hellenistic Central Asia.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
• Locating the events of Alexander´s campaign: Combined analysis of archaeological and textual sources • Settlement patterns and dynamics in the late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods • Structural changes in the local society • Elites and their adapting to the new reality • Material culture: local or introduced? • New fieldwork at relevant archaeological sites
We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers on relevant topics, from both established scholars and early career researchers. Abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with the author’s name, title and institutional affiliation, should be submitted to hcarn3@ff.cuni.cz no later than 31 May 2018.
Thanks to the generosity of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, we anticipate being able to offer some travel funding to participants, on a case by case basis.
Ladislav Stančo (Charles University) Gunvor Lindström (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) Rachel Mairs (University of Reading)
Alan Bowman, Charles Crowther, Simon Hornblower, Rachel Mairs, Kyriakos Savvopoulos: 'A Corpus of... more Alan Bowman, Charles Crowther, Simon Hornblower, Rachel Mairs, Kyriakos Savvopoulos: 'A Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions'. Poster presented at the XVth International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Languages – Culture of Writing – Identities in Antiquity, Vienna 28th August – 1st September 2017
Uploads
R. Mairs and R. Smith eds.
Taylor and Francis 2019
A. K. Bowman, C. V. Crowther, S. Hornblower, R. Mairs and K. Savvopoulos eds.
Oxford University Press 2021
R. Mairs and R. Smith eds.
Taylor and Francis 2019
A. K. Bowman, C. V. Crowther, S. Hornblower, R. Mairs and K. Savvopoulos eds.
Oxford University Press 2021
What part have the teaching and learning of languages played in European colonial ventures in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, or in other cases of colonialism? To what extent did colonisers and colonised learn one another’s languages, through what methods and in what venues? In what ways is the ‘mastery’ of indigenous languages by colonisers linked to the drive to ‘master’ people and resources generally? And to what extent, where and why have particular languages been favoured educationally, learned informally or been denied. and demonized in colonial settings?
Much previous work in the field of History of Language Learning and Teaching has had a Eurocentric and relatively inward-looking bias (McLelland & Smith 2018, 11) but a major, developing aspiration of the HoLLTnet AILA Research Network is to encourage the development of research into traditions of language learning and teaching beyond Europe, into colonial encounters involving language learning and teaching, and into colonial biases within language learning and teaching historiography. Accordingly, we invite abstract proposals for the above symposium, with a deadline of 15 September 2023.
To be considered for inclusion in the symposium, you should send your title, name and affiliation and abstract of no more than 300 words by 15 September 2023 at the latest to: r.mairs@reading.ac.uk and R.C.Smith@warwick.ac.uk. We aim to complete peer review / selection and inform you of the result within a week, to enable you to submit your paper separately for consideration by the conference organizers if necessary.
See attached PDF for full details.
HoLLT.net (http://www.hollt.net) is a Research Network of AILA (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée – International Association of Applied Linguistics) which was founded in 2015 to stimulate research into the history of language learning and teaching within applied linguistics internationally.
The Reception of Ancient and Modern Egyptian Culture and Heritage, in Academia and Beyond
مصر والاستشراق والدراسات الكلاسيكية (اللقاء الثالث)
تلقي الثقافة والتراث المصري قديمًا وحديثًا في المجتمع الأكاديمي وما سواه
Monday, 11 March 2019
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Main Entrance, Auditorium
https://www.bibalex.org/en/events/eventdetails?id=68349
following the campaign remains limited. The aim of the conference was to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia at that time. It takes as much as possible a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers. As in the previous meetings of HCARN group in Reading 2016 and Berlin 2017, the Prague conference brings together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of the Hellenistic Central Asia.
The aim of the conference is to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia. It will take a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers.
As in the previous meetings of HCARN group, the conference will bring together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of Hellenistic Central Asia.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
Locating the events of Alexander´s campaign: Combined analysis of archaeological and textual sources
Settlement patterns and dynamics in the late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods
Structural changes in the local society
Elites and their adapting to the new reality
Material culture: local or introduced?
New fieldwork at relevant archaeological sites
The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have reconstructed the history of the following centuries. However, our understanding of the (mutual?) acculturation following the campaign remains limited.
The aim of the conference is to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia. It will take a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers.
As in the previous meetings of HCARN group, the conference will bring together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of Hellenistic Central Asia.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
• Locating the events of Alexander´s campaign: Combined analysis of archaeological and textual sources
• Settlement patterns and dynamics in the late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods
• Structural changes in the local society
• Elites and their adapting to the new reality
• Material culture: local or introduced?
• New fieldwork at relevant archaeological sites
We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers on relevant topics, from both established scholars and early career researchers. Abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with the author’s name, title and institutional affiliation, should be submitted to
hcarn3@ff.cuni.cz
no later than 31 May 2018.
Thanks to the generosity of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, we anticipate being able to offer some travel funding to participants, on a case by case basis.
Ladislav Stančo (Charles University)
Gunvor Lindström (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut)
Rachel Mairs (University of Reading)