Call for Papers – Boethius and His Afterlives

“Boethius and His Afterlives”
Organizers: Flannery McIntyre (UC Berkeley) and Victoria Lansing (Williams College)
6 March 2027, University of California, Berkeley
Boethius defies categorization. A polymath writing across an extraordinary range of topics, he occupies a liminal space between the end of the classical past and the dawn of the Middle Ages. With his rare knowledge of Greek in the sixth century, he had mastered the classical philosophical tradition, seeking to translate and reconcile the works of Plato and Aristotle. His engagement with Latin literature spanned from Republican poetry through Augustine and Macrobius. As an authority of culture on both sides of the late antique divide, he became the transferrer of essential knowledge to countless medieval thinkers. His two quadrivial texts, De arithmetica and De institutione musica, shaped music theory and thought through the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Despite the breadth of Boethius’s literary impulse and his diffuse influence, approaches to this multifaceted figure have tended to stress his contributions in only one field at a time.
In response to this tendency toward fragmentation, this conference brings together scholars from a variety of backgrounds to consider Boethius’s multifaceted nature and ask what an interdisciplinary view makes possible. What do philosophy and music theory illuminate in each other when read together? What does situating Boethius within literary and cultural history add to our understanding of his reception? Can we build bridges between distinct Boethian studies, and what new avenues might those connections open? We welcome papers examining Boethius through literary, musical, cultural, historical, and philosophical lenses, and we particularly encourage work on Boethius’ reception and the many afterlives of his texts, both medieval and modern. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to boethiusafterlives@gmail.com by 1 October 2026.