On 8 November 2024, a one-day workshop titled Women, Gender and Violence from Antiquity to the Middle Ages was organised by Dr Meaghan McEvoy with support from the ANU Gender Institute and the ANU Classics Endowment Fund. The event brought together historians of antiquity and the Middle Ages to showcase the University's research strengths in these areas and featured distinguished guest speakers.

The workshop opened with a keynote by Dr Eleanor Cowan (University of Sydney), who presented Uxoricide and Coercive Control: Methods and Questions for the Study of Domestic Abuse in the Roman World. Dr Cowan examined methodological challenges and approaches to understanding domestic violence in ancient Rome. The second keynote, delivered by Professor Megan Cassidy-Welch (University of Divinity, Melbourne), explored Violence, Gender and Homelessness in the Middle Ages, offering fascinating insights into the realities of homelessness and its different manifestations during this period.

ANU researchers presented a range of engaging papers, including:

• Silenced Voices? Reading Rapes in the Roman World (Dr Simona Martorana)
• Visibility as Vulnerability: Imperial Women and Political Violence in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD (Dr Meaghan McEvoy)
• The Barbarian’s Bitter Hands: Sea Raiders and Women in the Dark Age Mediterranean (Dr Romney David Smith)
• Secrecy, Loyalty, and Betrayal: Gendering Verbal Violence in Late Medieval France (Dr Tania Colwell)
• Expulsion, Exile, and the Trauma of Reform at the Convent of Wienhausen, c.1500 (Julie Hotchin)

Expert session chairs, including Dr Karen Fox, Dr Karen Downing, PhD student Zoe Smith, and Professor Caillan Davenport, facilitated vibrant discussions. The day concluded with the launch of Dr Simona Martorana’s acclaimed book, Seeking the Mothers in Ovid’s Heroides (Cornell University Press, 2024).

The workshop highlighted the enduring relevance of issues such as sexual violence, verbal abuse, religious and political oppression, and the effects of war on women and children. These are perennial issues relating to women's lives, and their voices in our historical accounts, which still resonate today. The wide appeal of these questions was confirmed by the large and diverse audience of over 40 participants, including students, academics from Gender Studies, History and Classics at ANU, and members of the public.

The organisers express their gratitude to the ANU Gender Institute and the Centre for Classical Studies’ Endowment Fund for their generous support.

This article was originally published on the School of History website, access here