Old Ideas in New Minds: Strategies of ‘Autonomy’ from Antiquity to the Renaissance
International Conference
Jena, 14-16 September 2026
Deadline for submissions: 29 March 2026 NEU: 15 April 2026
heteronomy, autonomy, dependence, reception, interpretation, transformation, re-use, commentaries, compendia, collections, translations, encyclopaedias, re-narration, re-creation, imitation, improvement, authority, authorship, materiality
When engaging with ‘pre-texts’ – the source texts used in the composition of new texts – authors employed various adaptive strategies, from faithful translation to wholesale reinterpretation.
All the above textual strategies have one thing in common: they consciously rely on a pre-text or source. We refer to this phenomenon as heteronomy. Our Research Training Group focuses on heteronomous texts that still are original, autonomous products through their commentary, continuation, compilation, or adaptation. Building on our first international conference, ‘(Re)Create. Towards a Theory of Heteronomous Texts’, we seek to explore the concept of ‘autonomy’ through interdisciplinary examination of texts from various fields of research.
We invite contributions from (but not limited to) the following fields:
Theology and Biblical Studies, Latin, Middle and Neo Latin Studies, Greek and Byzantine Studies, Syriac Studies, Ancient and Medieval History and Philosophy, German Medieval Studies, and Roman Law.
Proposals may take the form of either:
• a 30-minute presentation followed by 15 minutes of discussion, with the possibility of publication in the conference proceedings, or
• a 10-minute project pitch followed by a short discussion (especially encouraged for early career researchers).
In your abstract (max. 300 words) please specify your chosen presentation format and include, on a separate page, your name, profession, affiliation, short academic CV, and email address or equivalent contact information. Please submit your abstracts to Daniele Bonino and Jonathan Trächtler via email at: oldideasinnewminds@uni-jena.de
We very much look forward to your proposals and will aim for gender parity in our selection. The language of the conference is English. Reimbursement for hotel and travel costs can be made available.
Find further information on the conference’s topic and the application process on our website: Conference Website
Contact
Daniele Bonino and Jonathan Trächtler
oldideasinnewminds@uni-jena.de
The complete Call for Papers can be found here as PDF-Download.
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