New Directions in Classics 2019-20
The Department of Classics’ highly successful public lecture series, New Directions in Classics, concluded its early in 2020.
In 2019-20, we were fortunate enough to host three visiting and two local speakers, with great thanks to the Laird Lecture Series, the Society for Classical Studies , and donors to our University of 丁香园AV Foundation . Sadly, three of our lectures at the end of the season needed to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though most lectures take place in 3D01 on the main campus, we were pleased to partner with our friends in the Department of Urban and Inner-City Studies to host a special talk at the Merchant’s Corner Campus (541 Selkirk Ave). Dr. Matthew Sears (UNB) examined absences in ancient and modern war memorials. Dr. Rebecca Kennedy (Denison University) was scheduled to deliver a talk which compared the experiences of immigrant and refugee women in antiquity and today, but unfortunately this lecture was one which we had to cancel.
If you’d like more information on New Directions in Classics, please download the poster [PDF, image below], , or email Dr. Peter J. Miller.
September 27, 2019
Prof. Katherine Blouin, University of Toronto
Colonial Fantasies and Occluded (Hi)Stories: The Case of Early Alexandria
Duckworth Centre, 3D01| 3:30-4:30PM
According to some historians, ancient Alexandria was a completely new - and Greek - settlement on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. But, Dr. Katherine Blouin stresses that this foundation story severs Alexandria from Egypt, its landscapes, and its native populations. In this talk, she explained that this environmental, socio-cultural, and economic disconnection is rooted in colonial fantasies that testify to the imperial entanglements of classics, Egyptology, and papyrology.
October 25, 2019
Prof. Matthew Sears, University of New Brunswick
Presence and Absence in War Memorials, Ancient and Modern
Merchant's Corner, 541 Selkirk Ave | 3:00-4:00PM
Far from simply recording or preserving history, war memorials should be considered part of history, both reflecting and shaping how a society expresses itself. War memorials honour the dead, but also the ideals for which they supposedly fought. By the same token, what is left out of memorials is also telling. Today, ancient and modern war memorials are being mobilized by the far-right to advance exclusionary ideas about the "West" and its values. In this talk, Dr. Matthew Sears advocated for a new and critical evaluation of war memorials and their myriad uses.
Watch Prof. Sears' lecture
Sponsored by the Society for Classical Studies Classics Everywhere Initiative
November 8, 2019
Prof. Daryn Lehoux, Queen's University
The Antikythera Mechanism: An Ancient Technological Marvel
Duckworth Centre, 3D01| 3:30-4:30PM
The Antikythera mechanism is one of the most remarkable technological devices from the premodern era. Originally found in the debris of an ancient shipwreck in 1901, the device was little studied and little understood until much later in the twentieth and even into the twenty-first century. Then, its most important secrets began to be unveiled by advanced imaging techniques. This lecture looked at the remarkable technological and astronomical knowledge embedded in the ancient machine, and the efforts that it took to uncover them in the modern era.
Watch Dr. Lehoux's lecture
Part of the Laird Lecture Series
January 24, 2020
Natalie Swain, University of Bristol
Narrative Fragments, Fragmented Lovers: Reading Latin Elegy through Comics
Duckworth Centre, 3D01| 3:30-4:30PM
How are Latin poems like comics? Although these texts seem far removed in time and place, Natalie Swain explained how comics can bring a new perspective on ancient poetry. In this talk, she showed how a highly ornate collection of Latin love poetry can be read as a connected sequence - and, how reading comics today can provide the tools and help us understand these intricate ancient narratives.
Watch Natalie Swain's talk
February 7, 2020
Dr. Victoria Austen-Perry, University of 丁香园AV
#WCCWiki: Using Wikipedia for Public Engagement and Social Change
Duckworth Centre, 3D01| 3:30-4:30PM
Wikipedia, the fifth most visited website in the world, is one of the most influential sources of information available. However, gaps and prejudice remain: out of the 1.5 million biographies available, only 17% focus on women. This talk examined the targeted online activism of the #WCCWiki project, the Women's Classical Committee's project to rectify Wikipedia's stark gender imbalance, beginning with Classics and Classical scholarship.
This talk was followed by a #WCCWiki Wikipedia Editing Workshop on Monday, February 10.
Watch Dr. Austen-Perry's talk
March 13, 2020
Prof. Greg Anderson, Ohio State University
Classics After the Ontological Turn: New Horizons of History and Critique
Duckworth Centre, 3D01| 3:30-4:30PM
This talk would have introduced the idea of “pluriversal history,” an approach to history where the past is lived in many different worlds of experience, not just in one. Using Classical Athens as a case study, this talk intended to show how this exciting new paradigm would transform how we think about an ancient Greek polis and all its constituent elements by understanding them on their own terms. Prof. Greg Anderson advocates for a fresh and critical approach, where Classics and other disciplines are aligned with radical social movements which question the wisdom of modern life.
March 20, 2020
Prof. Rebecca Kennedy, Denison University
Fears of Foreign Women: Women's Experiences as Refugees and Immigrants in Antiquity and Today
Room 115, Merchant's Corner, 541 Selkirk Ave | 3:00-4:00PM
Prof. Rebecca Futo Kennedy would have discussed the literary and archaeological evidence on immigrant, enslaved, and refugee women's movements in the ancient Greek Mediterranean and the prejudices and stereotypes they experienced. In this talk, she would have reflected on how these phenomena have endured in our own communities and public discourses surrounding non-white immigrants, refugees, and indigenous women.
Sponsored by the Society for Classical Studies Classics Everywhere Initiative
March 21, 2020
Prof. Max Goldman, Denison University
New Research on the Eurysaces Monument in Rome
University Club, Wesley Hall | 3:30-4:30PM
Most historians of ancient Rome have interpreted the tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces in reference to his status as a freedman - a freed slave - or his profession as a baker. In this talk, Prof. Max Goldman would have introduced the research of a team made up of a philologist, archaeologists and art historians, who are re-evaluating the meaning of this unusual monument. He intended to illustrate the problems with the traditional views and places the monument within the memorial practices of its time.