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AI and Neo-Latin Drama: Two Case Studies
Online, 12 November 2026, 5-6.30 pm (UK time)
Nicholas De Sutter, KU Leuven: From Stage to Page to the Digital Age: Exploring AI as a Neo-Latinist
Andrea Peverelli, Syddansk Universitet: 'Words that Betray a Confession: Detecting Faith in Neo-Latin Drama, from Classifiers to Large Language Models'
Abstracts of the talks are below. If you would like to attend, please email Alison Shell (a.shell@ucl.ac.uk) for a link.
Nicholas de Sutter, 'From Stage to Page to the Digital Age: Exploring AI as a Neo-Latinist'
As a Neo-Latinist rather than a digital humanities specialist, I have approached AI primarily as a practical research tool, exploring how recent developments can support more traditional forms of scholarship. In this presentation, I reflect on my experiences using AI within my research on manuscript drama from the Southern Low Countries.
One area in which AI has already had a profound impact is the transcription of early modern texts. Advances in both Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) have greatly accelerated the production of working transcriptions of Neo-Latin printed books and manuscripts. Drawing on examples from my own research, I will discuss the combined use of specialised platforms such as Transkribus and more general AI tools in the process of transcribing and preparing early modern theatre texts for further study.
The presentation will also consider the next stage in the workflow: the transformation of digitised texts into structured, machine-readable research data. In the context of the ongoing development of NeoLatDraCor, a new Neo-Latin subcorpus within the DraCorLink opens in a new window ecosystem, I am experimenting with ways in which AI can assist in converting manuscript and printed playtexts into TEI-encoded texts suitable for digital publication and analysis.
Rather than offering a technical showcase, this talk provides a practitioner’s perspective on the opportunities, limitations, and challenges of integrating AI into the daily work of a humanities researcher. It asks what these emerging technologies can realistically contribute to the study of Neo-Latin literature and theatre, and where human expertise remains indispensable.
Andrea Peverelli, 'Words that Betray a Confession: Detecting Faith in Neo-Latin Drama, from Classifiers to Large Language Models'
Neo-Latin drama rarely addresses theology directly, and yet its language carries the fingerprint of its author’s faith. Two plays built on the same classical models, one written by a Catholic and one by a Protestant, can differ sharply in vocabulary, the choice of a word for love, judgement, or duty already carrying an underlying confessional weight. Working from a large corpus of early modern Catholic and Protestant drama, I show that a computational model can learn to tell the two confessions apart from word choice alone with great precision. The vocabulary that marks each side reveals that Catholic drama clusters around kingship, militancy, and sacred space (Caesar, rex, templum, Christus), while Protestant drama favours doubt, moral rectitude, and inward struggle (dubius, crimen, recte).
In the second part of the talk, I turn to a general-purpose AI system (a language model with no training specific to this material) and ask whether it reaches similar conclusions when faced with the same texts, and why. The comparison is a way into a broader question for Neo-Latin studies: what does a tool built and trained for one text and one question see that a general, all-purpose model does not, and vice versa?
New Research in Neo-Latin Literature
Warburg Institute, 28 October 2026, 17:00 - 19:00
Following the publication in 2026 of a number of volumes in the Bloomsbury Neo-Latin SeriesLink opens in a new window this event will present these new books in the context of ongoing developments in research on Neo-Latin literature. There will be a brief introduction by the series editors on the context of these new publications and the aims of the series in the field, followed by brief characterisations of several of the new volumes by their respective authors.
This will be a hybrid event. For those attending in person, there will be the chance to speak to authors over drinks at the end.
PROGRAMME TO FOLLOW SHORTLY.
ATTENDANCE FREE IN PERSON OR ONLINE. PLEASE BOOK IN ADVANCE.
For more information, visit https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/events/new-research-in-neo-latin-literature-2026
The King’s College London Latin Play returns after a five-year hiatus
Teaching with Ovid: An online symposium, 12-13 June 2026
SNLS Postgraduate Student and Early Career Scholars Event 2026
This year’s event for postgraduate students and early career scholars will take place on Friday, 20 March 2026 (online and kindly organized by Luke Houghton). This will be an opportunity for presenters from these career stages to share their latest research and receive feedback and for others to hear about recent research in Neo-Latin studies. Everyone is welcome! For registration and Zoom details please email the organizer Luke Houghton (at lhought2@ed.ac.uk).
Programme for 20 March 2026, 2–5pm GMT
Latin responses to Horatian lyric, 1150 to the present
The inaugural event of the Canons of Latinity network will take place in Oxford in April. The topic of the conference is Latin responses to Horatian Lyric, 1150 to the present.
Dates: 16–17 April 2026.
Venue: Faculty of Classics, 66 St Giles', Oxford, OX1 3LU.
The full timetable may be found below; this will be an in-person event only and is free to attend. For further details and to register, please visit this link:
We hope that many of you will be able to join us.
With warmest wishes,
Tristan Franklinos and Stephen Harrison
TT Asst. Prof. of Latin, Ghent University
"We are looking for a motivated, dynamic colleague with a broad view on classical studies to strengthen our education and research capacity in later Latin literature (medieval and/or early modern period). At Ghent University, the study of Latin literature, alongside Ancient Greek and several modern European languages and literatures, is housed within the department of Literary Studies. We teach Latin literature from the classical period through late antiquity to the Middle Ages, the humanist period and the later periods. Ghent’s thriving Latin studies are part of the departments of Literary Studies, History, Linguistics, Philosophy and Moral Sciences, and Archaeology. Four research groups are actively cooperating in various specialisations: GIKS (Classical Studies), GCLA (Late Antiquity), Henri Pirenne Institute (Medieval Studies) and GEMS (Early Modern Studies)."
"The position, funded by the Special Research Fund, is granted the privilege of focusing primarily on research for a period of 5 years. During that period the teaching load will be limited to no more than 8 ECTS credits per semester on average over a period of 3 years."
Society for Neo-Latin Studies Postgraduate and Early Career Research Event, March 2026: Call for Contributions
Call for Papers: Psalms and Paraphrases
The Book of Psalms is a little Bible, as Martin Luther famously wrote. It is also a rich poetry collection that has inspired authors and composers alike. The Psalms offered a model for private prayer, a prism for theological enquiry, the vehicle of scientific and encyclopaedic knowledge. Their enduring literary force challenged translators, poets and scholars to rework and revise their verses into different languages and formats.
This conference studies the ways in which paraphrases and translations of the Psalms functioned as literary exercises, interpretive statements, and educational tools. We invite contributions that explore the poetic, religious and intellectual negotiation of meaning in these texts, where Jewish poetics, Christian worldviews and classical forms come together. We also solicit insights in the original Hebrew text for a better understanding of the subsequent versions.
We welcome perspectives from transnational languages such as Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, and Byzantine Greek, as well as vernacular languages until 1800. Interdisciplinary approaches which discuss, for example, musical settings of or book historical questions related to relevant texts are equally welcome. Given the conference’s longue durée perspective, we encourage papers that deal with long-distance reception or cross-linguistic comparisons.
PRACTICAL
The conference takes place at KU Leuven, from 12-13 May 2026; accommodation costs will be covered by the organisation and (partial) compensation for travel costs is foreseen, especially for students and scholars with limited funds. Abstracts on the text, the translation and the rewriting of Psalms from their original composition until early modern times can be submitted to simon.smets@kuleuven.be by 15 January.
The conference is supported by KU Leuven Institute LECTIO and the FWO-funded Scientific Research Network Literatures without Borders.
Local organising committee: Dr Simon Smets, Prof. Dr Raf Van Rooy, Prof. Dr Reinhart Ceulemans, Prof. Dr Pierre Van Hecke
Call For Papers: Teaching with Ovid
Friday 12th - Saturday 13th June 2026
Multiple time zones: 9am-1 pm ET / 2-6pm BST
Online
The International Ovidian Society and the Societas Ovidiana welcome proposals for papers (15-20 mins), panels (1hr), or roundtables (1 hr) for an online pedagogy symposium.
We invite proposals on any aspect of teaching Ovid in the university or school classroom.
Proposals might consider, but are not limited to the topics of:
- Classroom exercises based on Ovidian texts and themes (e.g. love; exile; epic; tragedy);
- Teaching with Ovidian intermediaries (e.g. medieval moralised Ovids; early modern translations);
- Using modern editions and or translations in the classroom;
- Ovidian retellings in the classroom;
- Teaching with the material text, archives, or library resources;
- Language teaching with Ovid (e.g. Latin; medieval languages);
- Producing creative responses to Ovidian texts and ideas.
The CFP deadline is Friday 16* January 2026.
Please send abstracts of c. 200 words with a brief author bio to rebecca.menmuir@lincoln.ox.ac.uk.
The symposium will be free to attend, but membership to the International Ovidian Society will be required. Visit https://ovidiansociety.org.