Boston Area Classics Calendar
October 2023
Victoria Pagán (University of
Florida)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?…
Thu., Oct. 5, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, School of Theology, Room B19, 745 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215
"Sallust and the Open Society"
Description: When read through the lens of Karl Popper’s The Open Society and its Enemies,
Sallust's Bellum Catilinae becomes a unified meditation on the nature of change, the
conditions of leadership, and ultimately, the difference between tyranny and democracy.
But, of course, it is also the prototype of conspiracy narratives in Roman literature, and
Popper’s formulation of the “conspiracy theory of society” sheds light on both the form
and the content of Sallust’s monograph.
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>
[Victoria Pagán (University of Florida)]
Naomi Weiss (Harvard
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Thu., Oct. 5, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker Center, Room 316, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA 02138
"Seeing Theater: An Evening with Naomi Weiss"
Please join the Theater and Performance Colloquium and the Harvard English Department next
Thursday, October 5, 5:30–7:00 p.m. in Barker 316 for an evening with Professor Naomi
Weiss, who will be discussing her new book Seeing Theater: The Phenomenology of Classical
Greek Drama.
[Naomi Weiss (Harvard University)]
Johannes Haubold (Princeton
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Tue., Oct. 17, 3 – 4:15 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138
Ancient Studies at Harvard Visitors
Series<https://ancientstudies.harvard.edu/visitors-series>
Erika Valdivieso (Yale
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Fri., Oct. 20, 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…
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…
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
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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