CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE 2025
University of St Andrews
Friday 11 – Sunday 13 July 2025
Held in partnership with the CA and the Classical Association of Scotland, the School of Classics, University of St Andrews will host the 2025 Conference in the heart of historic St Andrews, in Fife from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 July.
The Conference is the largest annual Classics Conference in the UK and brings together everyone with an interest in the ancient world, from across the globe! Presenters include academics and authors, postgraduates and early-stage researchers, teachers and practitioners, and there will be two plenary lectures, one on Friday evening by Professor Lucy Grig (Edinburgh) and the other on Saturday evening by the CA President for 2024-25, Professor Stephen Halliwell (St Andrews). The Conference is open to everyone to attend, with discounted prices for CA members, CAS members and the unwaged.
You can also look forward to receptions, the Conference Dinner, a Ceilidh, publisher stalls, an author event, the awarding of the CA Prize and CA Teaching Awards, opportunities to visit the Cathedral and Castle sites in St Andrews, and much more!
Peruse the Conference website here for further information and updates.
Registration is now closed
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE AND ABSTRACTS
We are pleased to continue to subsidise prices to the Conference and to offer discounted access to the unwaged and to CA/CAS members. If you would like to join the CA then click here, or the CA of Scotland then click here. The Conference will close at 1.30pm on Sunday, with a takeaway lunch included, and we are pleased to provide online access to much of the Conference. Presenters and non-presenters must pay the day fee alike and we are afraid that travel bursaries are not available.
Day fees include access to all panels, performances, plenaries, lunch, refreshments throughout the day, the welcome drinks reception on Friday and the ceilidh on Saturday evening.
Superbly-priced accommodation cosrs just £98pp per night (including dinner, bed and breakfast). Accommodation is available at the Agnes Blackadder building, from where it is a short walk/taxi ride to the Conference venues. Please note that due to the summer season, externally-booked accommodation will be limited and expensive so we recommend booking your stay via the Conference. Double occupancy is available and if you choose to attend the Conference Dinner on Saturday evening, you can select the option to pay for B&B for that night only.
Programme
Please see below for the key timings of the weekend – the full abstract booklet and digital programme can be accessed here.
Keynote Speakers
Professor Lucy Grig is Professor of the History of Late Antiquity at the University of Edinburgh. Her research takes in both literary and material culture from across the Mediterranean world (for instance, having published on poetry and glassware, sermons and paintings) and her monograph ‘Popular Culture and the End of Antiquity in Southern Gaul, c. 400-550’ (Cambridge University Press, 2024), looked at the transformation of popular culture in its social and economic context with a particular focus on the city of Arles and its surrounding region. Lucy will present at 5.30pm on Friday 11 July on ‘Not so hidden transcripts: protest and its literature in the ancient world’.
Dr Emily Hauser (University of Exeter) will take part in a Q&A session with the CA’s Katrina Kelly at 6.15pm on Friday 11 July. Emily is a lecturer in Classics and Ancient History with research interests in authorship and gender in antiquity, classical reception in contemporary women’s writing and women in Homeric epic, the subject of her latest book Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It.
Professor Stephen Halliwell is an Emeritus Professor at the University of St Andrews, where he was Professor of Greek (1995-2014) and later Wardlaw Professor of Classics (2014-2020). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2011 and of the British Academy in 2014. Stephen has published monographs, commentaries and translations relating to texts and topics in Greek culture from Homer to late antiquity, including a verse translation of the complete plays of Aristophanes for Oxford World’s Classics, and his own work has been translated into nine languages. The CA Honorary President for 2024-25, he will deliver his Presidential Address at 5pm on Saturday 12 July, on ‘Interpretations and Values‘.
2025 Conference Themes
We welcome everyone to attend the Conference and aim to foster a friendly and inclusive environment, in the hope that panels will juxtapose speakers from different backgrounds, so that postgraduates, academics, teachers, students and non-specialists can all share ideas, challenges, and enthusiasms. The following themes form the basis of the Conference:
- Classical reception
- Late Antiquity
- Classics and the environment
- Working Class Classics
- The challenge of interdisciplinarity
- Classics and the heritage sector
- Ancient animals
- Classical pedagogies
- Scottish classics
Further Information
- Directions to St Andrews – please click here for further information
- There is information available about worship spaces here
- There will be a quiet space at the Conference, as well as luggage storage and information points
- Do ask our lovely volunteers for any assistance you may require!
An official photographer will be taking photographs throughout the Conference, including during some panel sessions and social events. If you do not wish to be photographed please let us know via CA2025@st-andrews.ac.uk or when you arrive at the Conference. There will be non-photography badges available.
We kindly ask that everyone is mindful of fellow attendees wearing a non-photography badge and we ask that if you would like to take a photo or video please ask your fellow attendee(s) for their permission.
Further Questions
If you have any further questions, please contact Jana at ca2025@st-andrews.ac.uk
