12th Congress of the International Organization for Qumran Studies
IOQS Call for Papers, Berlin, 11−14 Aug 2025 (in connection to IOSOT 11−15 Aug):
Manuscripts and Materiality
Recent scholarship has increasingly emphasized the significance of the Qumran scrolls as material objects. New conversations have highlighted a wide range of ways in which materiality and material context matters, from the physical features of manuscripts and the specific scribal choices made by particular writers to the various spaces occupied by the manuscripts in the course of their ancient production, use, and deposition and their modern rediscovery, publication, preservation, and display. The Twelfth Meeting of the IOQS in Berlin will continue these conversations by focusing on the theme of Manuscripts and Materiality.
We welcome proposals for papers related to this theme, broadly construed. Specific questions might include (among others): any aspect of manuscripts’ material, paratextual, or scribal features; connections between these features and other issues such as performance, literary genre, linguistic choices, or textual fluidity; the interaction between materiality and interpretive dimensions; archaeological context and issues pertaining to collection, libraries, or cave deposition; the modern treatment of manuscripts as material objects, with regard to editing, cataloging, acquisition and display, etc.; or new digital tools for approaching the manuscripts. Papers that put evidence from the Qumran scrolls into dialogue with evidence from other ancient contexts or with scholarship in related disciplines are especially welcome.
IOQS wishes to encourage scholars and PhD candidates at all levels to propose a paper for the meeting. Papers that are directly related to the theme may be considered for publication, most likely in a corresponding volume of the STDJ series. In addition, those working on other topics are encouraged to submit papers on any area of Qumran studies for one or more open sessions.
Paper proposals should be sent to IOQS Secretary Molly Zahn by email (molly.zahn@yale.edu) with the following information: name, academic institution, country, email address, paper title, and an abstract of no more than 250 words. Abstracts should include a clearly formulated hypothesis, argument, or research question, and an explicit mention of the sources that will be discussed. Proposals should be submitted before Dec 31, 2024. Proposals will be reviewed and accepted or rejected by the IOQS Executive Committee. To present a paper, you are required to first register for the IOSOT/IOQS. IOQS will have a business meeting at the conference to select a new Executive Committee.