54th Annual Conference of the Israel Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies
June 3rd-4th, 2026
The University of Haifa, Mount Carmel
Eshkol Tower, 30th floor
First Day, June 3rd, 2026
09:00-09:30 Registration
09:30-10:00 Greetings
10:00-11:00 1st Session: Greek Politics and Literature
Chair: Iris Sulimani (The Open University of Israel)
Asya C. Sigelman (Bryn Mawr College)
Absent Spectacle in the Second Stasimon of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus
Michele Solitario (Göttingen University) [presenting remotely]
The Politics of Motherhood in Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-13:15 2nd Session: Student Session
Chair: Stéphanie Binder (Bar-Ilan University)
Dmitry Ezrokhi (Princeton University)
The Perils of “Wellness:” Plato’s Political Critique of Hippocratic diaita
Gilad Hesse (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
“As Far as Possible”: The Model of the Philosopher and Assimilation to God in the Theaetetus
Ella Perry (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Female Bacchic Leadership and the Making of Religious Role Models
Leoran Vizner (Tel Aviv University)
Reading Ovid on the Wall: Myth, Sexual Violence, and Meaning in Pompeian Domestic Painting
Marie-Laure Rebora (Aix-Marseille University)
My daughter, you have acted like Rebeccah (Midrash Eikhah Rabbah 1,19): Portraits of Girls in Rabbinic Sources and Inscriptions from the Jewish Communities of Rome and Venosa (2nd-6th centuries CE)
13:15-14:30 Lunch
14:30-16:00 3rd Session: Epigraphica Israelica: Marking the Publication of Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae VI (CIIP)
Chair: Ofer Pogorelsky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Ofer Pogorelsky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Presentation of the CIIP Project
Sofia Andreeva (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Charles Clermont-Ganneau: The Scholar and the Detective of Antiquities
Michal Bar Asher-Siegal (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) & Jacob Ashkenazi (Kinneret Academic College)
Public Scripture, Public Law: Biblical Verses on Walls and the Making of Norms in Late Antiquity
Avner Ecker (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Visions in the Desert: A Newly Discovered Paraphrase of Psalms in a Monastic Inscription from Hyrcania
16:00-16:15 Coffee Break
16:15-18:15 4th Session: Archaeology and Art in the Eastern Mediterranean
Chair: Avner Ecker (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Alan Shapiro (Johns Hopkins University)
Political Personifications on Athenian Vases
Sonia Klinger (University of Haifa)
Bronze Dedications from the Ancient Greek Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Corinth
Rivka Gersht (Tel Aviv University) & Peter Gendelman (Israel Antiquities Authority)
Eros in Caesarea Maritima
Emmanuel Nantet (University of Haifa)
The Late Byzantine Fortifications of Tiberias: The Lake-Side Extension of the City Wall
19:00-20:30 Dinner
Second Day, June 4th, 2026
09:00-11:00 5th Session: Classical Archaeology around the Mediterranean
Chair: Michael Eisenberg (University of Haifa)
Ioannis Nakas (University of Haifa) [presenting remotely]
The Harbours of the Greco-Roman World as Heterotopias. Plato vs Foucault
Jessica Schellig (Tel Aviv University)
The Organization of Coin Production of Akko-Ptolemais During the Roman Period
Adi Erlich (University of Haifa)
Two Heads are better than one: Dioskouroi and Other Twins in Hellenistic Maresha
Mechael Osband (University of Haifa & Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee)
Public Buildings and Their Archaeological Visibility in Rural Golan During the Roman Period
Ayala Zilberstein (Israel Antiquities Authority)
Hellenistic Jerusalem, ‘First Wall’, the Akra, and Seleucid Instability
Arleta Kowalewska (University of Haifa) & Michael Eisenberg (University of Haifa)
The Elders House at Hippos of the Decapolis
11:00-11:15 Coffee Break
11:15-12:15 6th Session: Law and Literature
Chair: Rachel Zelnick-Abramovitz (Tel Aviv University)
Juan Lewis (The Open University, Scotland, UK) [presenting remotely]
Undeclared Nations, or Why Declaring the Ethnic Origin of Slaves was not a Legal Obligation
Harvey Yunis (Rice University) [presenting remotely]
The Politics of Proof in Aristotle’s Rhetoric
12:15-13:00 General Assembly
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:00 7th Session: Keynote Lecture
Chair: Yulia Ustinova (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (University of Göttingen)
From Pleasure Girls to Political Leaders: The ‘Evolution’ of Women in Aristophanes
15:00-15:15 Coffee Break
15:15-16:45 8th Session: Jewish Culture and Classical Reception
Chair: Ayelet Peer (Bar-Ilan University)
Daniela Dueck (Bar-Ilan University)
From Athens to Jerusalem: The Hebrew Reception of Thucydides
Donna Shalev (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Γυμναστική and μουσική at Alkinoos’ “tish”: Scenes from Odyssey 8 through a Yiddish Lens
Giacomo Loi (University of Haifa)
Competing Antiquities: Jewish Temporality and the Destabilization of the Genealogy of Classical Reception
16:45-17:00 Concluding Remarks
Yulia Ustinova (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), ISPCS President
