Call for papers:
4th Amici Populi Romani Workshop
(Beijing 19-20 Oct. 2027)

We, Altay Coskun, Oliver Bräckel, Jean Coert, and Hendrikus van Wijlick, would like to warmly invite you to the workshop “Amici Populi Romani – Diplomacy, Networking, Legitimacy, and Digital Opportunities,” which will take place on 19 and 20 June 2027 at Peking University in Beijing. Our aim for the upcoming workshop is to build upon the discussions and ideas developed during the previous three workshops in order to further advance the conceptual and substantive development of APR as well as the broader scholarly debate on the phenomenon of amicitia populi Romani.

The reason for hosting this edition in Beijing reflects our aim to create a platform that facilitates the exchange of ideas as well as the expansion of the APR-network. Although future workshops will primarily be held in Germany, we do intend to organize them occasionally at venues outside Europe.

For the upcoming workshop, we welcome papers in English on any aspect related to Rome’s friendly kings and dynasts. Participants may either present a paper on individual amici who do not yet have an entry in APR or submit proposals addressing the development of a related theme. Possible topics include, but are not confined to, diplomatic relations, networks of amici, strategies of legitimation employed by amici, or digital methods to the study of Rome’s foreign friends.

Papers should be approximately 20 minutes in length and will be followed by a 10-minute discussion. While we particularly welcome participation in person, we will also accept presentations via Zoom from contributors for whom travel to Beijing is not feasible. Unfortunately, we are unable to cover travel and accommodation expenses.

We would appreciate it if you could let us know by 8 October 2026 whether you would like to present a paper at the workshop. If you intend to participate, please send the following information to our email addresses, hamvanwijlick@pku.edu.cn and altay.coskun@uwaterloo.ca :

-        Your name

-        A title of your paper

-        An abstract of approximately 200 words in English

-        A short CV containing information about your education, current and past positions as well as a selection of up to five publications

-        A brief indication of whether you currently intend to participate in person or remotely via Zoom. Please note that this is not a binding decision, but merely intended to help us estimate the expected proportion of in-person and online presentations.

We will inform those who have submitted this information as soon as possible after the 8th of October whether their title and abstract have been accepted.

To those who intend to deliver a presentation online from a different time zone we shall make an effort to assign humane hours.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to welcoming you to Beijing or to seeing you online.

With best wishes,

Altay Coskun,

Oliver Bräckel,

Jean Coert,

Hendrikus van Wijlick