CRASIS Annual Meeting & Masterclass 2026
The CRASIS Annual Meeting took place on the 6th of March 2026, on the theme ‘The Materiality of Texts’ with our keynote speaker being Prof. Roberta Mazza.
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09:30-10:00
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Coffee, tea, and registration
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Session 1
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10:00-10:10
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Opening remarks and Welcome
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10:10-11:10
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Keynote lecture by Prof. Roberta Mazza (University of Bologna): ‘The Materiality of Texts’
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11:10-11:35
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Coffee and tea break
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Session 2
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11:35-12.20
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Dr. Kim Fowler (University of Groningen): “Scribes, Readers, and Tradition Building in a New Testament Manuscript: Codex H and its Colophon”
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12:20-13:05
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Dr. Paul Michael Kurtz (University of Ghent): “How Tablets Became Texts in British Assyriology, 1850–1890”
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13:05-14:15
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Lunch
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Session 3
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14:15-15:00
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Dr. Ayhan Aksu (University of Groningen): “Scribal representation in the Nabataean Dead Sea Scrolls from Nahal Hever”
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15:00-15:45
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Dr. Willemijn Waal (Leiden University): “Relations between scripts and writing materials: case studies from the Aegean, Anatolia and Egypt”
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15:45-16:00
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Coffee and tea break
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Session 4
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16:00-16:45
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Dr. Daria Kohler (KU Leuven): “The look of the book: the ideal and the reality”
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16:45-17:30
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Dr. Bettina Reitz-Joosse (University of Groningen): “Building Metaphors and Ancient Roman Text Production”
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17:30-17:40
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Closing remarks by chair
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17:40-18:25
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Drinks and reception, open to all
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18:30
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Dinner (for registered participants)
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About the Keynote Speaker
Roberta Mazza is a papyrologist at the Department of Cultural Heritage at the University of Bologna. An expert on Egypt during the Roman and Byzantine periods, she has worked closely with the papyri at Manchester’s John Rylands Library, co-curated an exhibition of papyri, portraits and Egyptian contemporary art in 2012, and publishing papyri held in the collection. Her most recent book, Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2024) brings issues facing ancient historians, textual scholars, and those working in cultural heritage institutions into spotlight. The book examines the purchase of a 2nd century CE papyrus fragment containing part of the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Galatians from the New Testament by the billionaire owner of the craft chain Hobby Lobby. Sold without its owners’ consent from the holdings of Oxford University, the fragment is one example of the shadowy goings on in the ancient artifact trade.