Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology, and Oriental Languages
Sixth Edition
Law and Lawlessness in Antiquity
August 31 – September 5, 2026
Potsdam (Germany) and Online
The Levant Institute of Advanced Studies for the Culture of Peace, in partnership with the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin and the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Bucharest, is organizing the sixth edition of the Annual Interdisciplinary School of Ancient Greek, Egyptology, and Oriental Languages from August 31 to September 5, 2026.
The event's scientific director is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maria Luiza Oancea (Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest), and the coordinators are Dr. Cătălin-Ștefan Popa and Dr. Ana-Maria Răducan (The Levant Institute of Advanced Studies for the Culture of Peace)
Specialists delivering lectures include: Prof. Dr. István Perczel (Central European University, Vienna), Prof. Dr. Pablo Argárate (University of Graz), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mădălina Vârtejanu-Joubert (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations – INALCO, Paris), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maria-Luiza Oancea (Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Bucharest), Dr. So Miyagawa (University of Tsukuba, Japan), Lecturer Dr. Andra Stoiculescu (Faculty of History, University of Bucharest), Dr. Andreea Ștefan (National History Museum of Romania), Dr. Ștefan Zară (University of Bucharest), PhD Candidate Elvira Dinu (Université Jean Moulin – Lyon III), Antonio Pio di Cosmo (The Levant Institute of Advanced Studies for the Culture of Peace and the University of Modena), PhD candidate Ovidiu Achim (The Levant Institute of Advanced Studies for the Culture of Peace), Elena Andra Midache Cicarma ("Ovidius" University of Constanța).
True to his vocation to transmit a global understanding of the historical processes, mentalities and power representations that underpinned these civilisations’ evolution over seven millenia of challenging dynamics – essential elements for the modern identification of solutions for peaceful coexistence, collaboration and development, the Levant Institute supports through this event the knowledge and the transmission of the source languages and of modern methodologies by which to approach them, and also the promotion of the Classical and Oriental languages in the Romanian academic milieu.
These are the previous editions of 2020-2025:
Cosmogony or the Myth about the Act of Making the World in Classical and Oriental Literatures
For this new edition, the Levant Institute of Advanced Studies for the Culture of Peace proposes an exploration of representations of law and lawlessness in Antiquity—as viewed by ancient Greek thinkers such as Plato, Xenophon, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor, and as found in the New Testament as well as in Egyptian, Coptic, Byzantine, Syriac, and Hebrew literatures. The program will analyze the mentalities and power dynamics of the ancient world—centered on the moral, religious, and legal concepts that define a society—through the reading and translation of texts from the original Greek texts.
The School’s activities are free of charge and will be held via Zoom, in English and Romanian, and is addressed to the students, MA and PhD students, and also to other categories of interested persons. They will receive participation diplomas.
For registration and information regarding activities and other organizational details, please send an email to anamariaraducan1988@gmail.com by August 29, 2026.
