Latin Language, Literature & Culture Research Laboratory (ΣΤΕΛΑ/LARES)

Ecocriticism in Latin poetry

Online Conference, 16–17 October 2025

The Faculty of Classical Philology of the Department of Philology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Latin Language, Literature & Culture Research Laboratory (LARES) of the Department of Humanities at the Democritus University of Thrace are co-organizing an international conference entitled “Ecocriticism in Latin Poetry.”.

The conference will take place online, on 16–17 October 2025..

The program, speakers, and abstracts are available here

The online attendance link (the same for both days) is the following: https://tinyurl.com/yw7wasct

A few words about the conference

In recent years, the escalating environmental crisis has challenged the anthropocentric perspective of the world and deepened the need for a more sustained engagement with environmental concerns. The dichotomous relationship between humanity and nature has collapsed, making it increasingly clear that all entities are involved in reciprocal evolutionary change in constant interaction with their environment.

In the face of these changes, the rapid development of ecological thinking has spread across various disciplines, with environmental studies emerging as a separate interdisciplinary field employing tools and theories from both natural sciences and humanities. Classics, along with other pre-modern disciplines, already acquires a substantial role and could potentially become even more crucial in the discussion of ecocritical thought, the theorisation of environmentalism, and the reconsideration of modern societies’ values.

This conference aims to explore Latin poetry through the lens of ecocritical thought, thus fostering the ongoing dialogue and the development of the theoretical underpinning of ecocriticism as both a reading theory of classical texts and a means pushing for renewed consideration of the dynamic boundaries of nature and culture today.