Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Komission

 

On 24 June 2021 the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Komission der Philosophisch-Historischen Klasse) established the Commission “Transformationsprozesse und Imperium in den Alten Welten Afro-Eurasiens” (https://www.oeaw.ac.at/mitglieder/kommissionen) - the idea proposed by Professor Robert Rollinger.
The Academy appointed the following members of the Commission:

From among members of the Academy:
Michael Alram
Manfred Bietak
Bert Fragner
Michael Jursa
Melanie Malzahn
Bernhard Palme
Walter Pohl Sitta von Reden
Claudia Rapp
Robert Rollinger
Arnold Suppan
Sabine Landstätter
Florian Schwarz
Josef Wiesehöfer
Paolo Sartori

From outside of the Academy:
Touraj Daryaee
Mischa Meier
Krzysztof Nawotka
Giorgio Rota
Kai Ruffing
Rahim Shayegan

The inaugural meeting of the new Commission took place in Vienna in the seat of the Academy on 28 November the Commission, charred by Professor Oliver Jens Schmitt, President of the Philosophisch-Historischen Klasse. It elected Professor Robert Rollinger its Chair, Professor Bernhard Palme the Vice Chair and listened to a lecture of Professor Gianni Lanfranchi "The Sack of Nineveh in 612 BC: Fall of an Empire?".
The Commission plans to organize one major international conference per year:
June 2022: "Contextualizing Imperial Borderlands (9th c. BC – 9th c. AD)" in Bregenz
Spring 2023: "The Achaemenid Persian Empire and imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East (7th c. BC – 3rd c. BC)" in Obergurgl

Spring 2024: "Between and beyond empires: from the Seleucids to the Sasanians (3rd c. BC – 7th c. AD)" in Wrocław

Spring 2025: "The Achaemenid Persian empire and its non-western borderlands: a change of paradigm" in Vienna

The current horizon of the Commission culminates in Autumn 2025 with a discussion panel summarizing its work.