American Academy in Rome

Role Models Conference:
Statement of Purpose


Co-sponsored by The American Academy in Rome and The British School at Rome

ROLE
in the Roman world and
MODELS
in Early Modern Italy

17-19 March 2003

An interdisciplinary conference in Rome

The conference is a three-day event that will address the appearance, function and influence of role models in the ancient and late antique Roman world and in Early Modern Italy. Speakers will discuss the nature of role models employed in society and how they influence the creation of distinct Roman identities.

The concept of 'identity', and the ways in which it is constructed and negotiated at both the individual and group levels, has assumed a central place in humanities scholarship over the past decade. In studies of Roman art, for instance, scholars have explored the self-perceptions of citizens who chose divine guises for their funerary portraits. In recent work on Renaissance society there has been an interest in the imagery of absolute power and in the creation of models for the outsider - artists, women, philosophers. The conference seeks to build on this research by focussing on how Romans, ancient and pre-modern, fashioned identities for themselves by invoking particular role models.

Examples of role models can be drawn from a broad range of sources, including:

In particular, the organisers seek to look at the interrelationship between the construction of a persona and the social context of its reception. To what extent does the choice of model aid in identifying the intended audience of the message? Does the choice of role model and the form of its realisation reflect self-consciousness on the part of the assimilating individual or group? How does the individual or group constructing a new identity differentiate itself from the model?