Boston Area Classics Calendar
October 2023
Harvard Classical Receptions Workshop, with Ross Clare (University of Liverpool) and
Kathleen Coleman (Harvard
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Wed., Oct. 25, 3 – 4:30 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Room 203, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138
Join us for a session of the Harvard Classical Receptions Workshop on “Ancient World,
Modern Media: The Afterlife of the Classical in the Entertainment Industry (Film,
Television, Videogames).” This will be a special format—a moderated discussion with the
authors of the assigned readings, Dr. Ross Clare (virtually) and Prof. Kathleen Coleman
(in person).
Join us as we discuss phenomena that inform the contemporary reception of ancient Greece
and Rome in mass media and the entertainment industry, along with everything that entails:
violence, spectacle, transmediality, commercialization, outreach, authenticity, gender,
genre, and the power of popular imaginaries in shaping how antiquity is repackaged for
mass consumption. A central aim will be to consider reception not just as inhered in
individual works of media, but as a process implicated in larger systems of production.
We’ll be discussing these readings:
Clare, Ross. (2021) Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames: Representation, Play,
Transmedia, chapter 2, pp. 35-79. IMAGINES—Classical Receptions in the Visual and
Performing Arts. Bloomsbury.
Coleman, Kathleen. (2004) “The Pedant Goes to Hollywood: The Role of the Academic
Consultant,” in Gladiator: Film and History (ed. Martin M. Winkler), pp. 45-52.
Those interested in attending should contact the organizer Kevin Wong
(kevinwong@g.harvard.edu<mailto:kevinwong@g.harvard.edu>) for the readings.
kevinwong@g.harvard.edu<mailto:kevinwong@g.harvard.edu>
Jordan Kodner (Stony Brook
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Fri., Oct. 27, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Room 305, Emerson Hall, 29 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA 02138
"Language Acquisition and a Process-Centered View of Language Change"
Abstract: I argue that the actuation of a diverse range of diachronic phenomena in
phonology, morphology, and syntax can be subsumed under the process of generalization
learning during child language acquisition. These include, among others, a secondary split
in 20th century Menominee and instance of phonemicization by phonological `rule
reversal' in Middle High German (Richter, 2021), the sporadic `irregularization'
of Early Modern English past tense forms (Ringe & Yang, 2022), the analogical
extension of minority inflectional patterns at the expense of statistically predominant
patterns in Late Latin past participles (Kodner, 2022) and Iranian Armenian aorists
(Kodner and Dolatian, in prep), `Dative Sickness' ongoing in Icelandic morphosyntax
(Nowenstein, 2021), and the proliferation of the to-dative construction (Kodner, 2020)
and argument structure change for psych-verbs (Trips & Rainsford, 2022) in Middle
English. But learning in itself is an insufficient explanation for population-level
change, both because one does not entail the other and because not every change is
apparently child learner-driven (cf. Labov, 1994; Labov, 2007). Combining insights from
competing grammar accounts (Kroch, 1994), the sociolinguistics of peer-oriented early
childhood interaction (e.g., Roberts & Labov, 1995; Nardy et al., 2014; Loukatou et
al., 2021), and experimentation on leveling and matching of variable input by children and
adults (e.g., Hudson Kam and Newport, 2005; Newport, 2020; Austin et al., 2022), this
yields insights (Kodner, 2023) into how and why some innovations may progress through
actuation and gain a foothold in a population while others may not. This in turn provides
a means for distinguishing instances of child-driven from adult-driven change in cases
where direct observation is no longer possible.
Taken together, this has broad implications for how we conceptualize language change: an
ontology of effects in language change will not line up with an ontology of processes. An
approach to the study of change which focuses on processes or mechanisms (including but
certainly not limited to generalization learning) rather than outcomes and effects stands
to bring clarity to a confusing tangle of descriptive phenomena. It reconceptualizes the
problem space in a way that cross-cuts and reduces traditional taxonomies of effects
(analogical leveling, extension, phonemicization, secondary splits, grammaticalization,
bleaching, etc.) and opens the door for new insights into when, why, and how language
change occurs.
Katherine Lu Hsu (College of the Holy
Cross)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?tr…
Mon., Oct. 30, 4:45 – 6:15 p.m.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, College of Arts & Sciences, Room B36, 725 Commonwealth Ave, Boston,
MA 02215
"Meet Me Outside: Mythological Courage and Cowardice Beyond the Hero"
Description: This talk will examine the representation of courage and cowardice beyond the
paradigmatic hero in early Greek myth. We will look at examples of courage on the
battlefield among foreigners and women and consider why non-elites seem to be excluded
from the kleos economy. This study reveals some of the “hard lines” that limit the
mythological imagination, suggesting an enduring anxiety about internal stasis.
Sponsors: BU Department of Classical Studies & The Boston University Center for the
Humanities
Boston University: New Approaches to
Classics<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bu.edu…
www.bu.edu…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bu.…
classics@bu.edu<mailto:classics@bu.edu>
[Katherine Lu Hsu (College of the Holy Cross)]
November 2023
Alexander Riehle (Harvard
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Fri., Nov. 3, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greece and
Rome<https://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/civilizations-ancient-gr…
Jorge Wong Medina (Harvard
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Thu., Nov. 9, 5 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Room 237, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138
"Contraction and Diectasis in Homeric Diction"
Niek Janssen (Amherst
College)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?…
Wed., Nov. 15, 4:45 – 6:15 p.m.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, College of Arts & Sciences, Room B18, 725 Commonwealth Ave, Boston,
MA 02215
"Making Fit: Parody and Decorum in Greco-Roman Literature"
Description: The concepts of decorum and to prepon pervade Greco-Roman ethical and
aesthetic thought. Yet ancient theorists from Plato to Dionysius, Cicero, Horace, and
Quintilian struggle to articulate what "appropriateness" is and how it is
grounded. By confronting these theorists with parodic and comedic texts, which stand in a
double, transgressive-yet-conservative relationship to decorum, I argue that this
inarticulability is a feature, not a bug, of the concept. Texts like Hegemon's
Parodies, Plautus' Asinaria, and the Pseudo-Virgilian Culex reveal the instability of
decorum as a basis for normative thought--as a principle for aesthetic judgment and social
inclusion/exclusion.
Sponsors: BU Department of Classical Studies & The Boston University Center for the
Humanities
Boston University: New Approaches to
Classics<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bu.edu…
www.bu.edu…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bu.…
classics@bu.edu<mailto:classics@bu.edu>
[Niek Janssen (Amherst College)]
December 2023
Activating Kore 670: Women's Voices and Greek
Tragedy<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?t…
Sat., Dec. 2
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON, Early Greek Art Gallery, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA
02115
In celebration of Kore 670, a stunning archaic Greek statue now on view in Gallery 213,
see live performances by Emerson College students and area high school students adapting
excerpts from ancient Greek tragedies. From Elektra and Antigone to Cassandra and
Iphigenia, women featured prominently in ancient Greek theater, yet their roles were
performed by men. In three 20-minute performances, students studying theater actively
disrupt that traditional practice, revealing how gender bias—both in the ancient world and
now—is hardly a new concept.
Saturday, December 2
11:00–11:20 a.m.
1:00–1:20 p.m.
2:00–2:20 p.m.
www.mfa.org…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.mf…
Danny Cashman | dcashman@mfa.org<mailto:dcashman@mfa.org>
[Activating Kore 670: Women's Voices and Greek Tragedy]
Benjamin Dunning (Harvard
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Fri., Dec. 8, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greece and
Rome<https://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/civilizations-ancient-gr…
February 2024
Tom Sapsford (Boston
College)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?…
Fri., Feb. 23, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greece and
Rome<https://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/civilizations-ancient-gr…
April 2024
Sarah Olsen (Williams
College)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?…
Fri., Apr. 12, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greece and
Rome<https://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/civilizations-ancient-gr…
Association of Ancient Historians 2024 Annual
Meeting<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?t…
Thu., Apr. 18 – Mon., Apr. 22
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138
associationofancienthistorians.org<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/…
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