Boston Area Classics Calendar
February 2020
Erika Zimmerman Damer (University of
Richmond)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar…
Thu., Feb. 20, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WELLESLEY COLLEGE, Founders Hall, Room 120, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481
"Cynthia, Mimicry, and Slavery in Roman Elegy"
Dr. Zimmermann Damer’s research focuses on sexuality, gender, embodiment, and the urban
environment in Roman texts of the Augustan period. Her book, In the Flesh: Embodied
Identities in Roman Love
Elegy<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__uwpress.wisc.…
examines the many forms of human embodiment in the elegiac poetry of Propertius, Tibullus,
and Ovid, ranging from the poet-speaker and the puella, to wealthy rivals and the
marginalized and enslaved, and argues that elegy constructs identities that influence
shifting Roman ideologies of sexuality, gender, class, and status characterizing the
emergence of the Principate. This project weds feminist new materialist philosophical
thought with medical, legal, and philosophical texts contemporary with Roman elegy to see
the human body as a necessary precondition for elegiac identities.
https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5593.htm#pk<https://urldefense.proofpoint…
George Baroud (Emerson
College)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?…
Fri., Feb. 21, 4 – 6 p.m.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 409, Boston, MA 02215
"Tacitus’ Annals and the Aesthetics of History"
Sponsored by the BU Center for the Humanities
Study Group On Religion and Myth in the Ancient World at Boston
University<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bu.e…
[George Baroud (Emerson College)]
Conference: Beyond Translation: Vernacular Jewish Bibles, from Antiquity to
Modernity<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar…
Mon., Feb. 24, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Harvard Faculty Club, East Dining Room, 20 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA
02138
Panel I: The Ancient Period
Paul Kosmin, Harvard University (Chair)
Annette Yoshiko Reed, New York University
Steven Fraade, Yale University
Panel II: The Medieval Period
Nicholas Watson, Harvard University (Chair)
Meira Polliack, Tel Aviv University
Luis Giron-Negron, Harvard University
Panel III: The Early Modern and Modern Periods
Jon Levenson, Harvard Divinity School (Chair)
Marion Aptroot, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Abigail Gillman, Boston University
Panel IV: The Twentieth Century
Sandra Naddaff, Harvard University (Chair)
Naomi Seidman, University of Toronto
Lawrence Rosenwald, Wellesley College
Panel V: Concluding Panel
Jonathan Sarna, Brandeis University
Ruth Langer, Boston College
David Damrosch, Harvard University
Moderated by
Professor David Stern
Harry Starr Professor of Classical and Modern Hebrew and Jewish Literature, Professor of
Comparative Literature, and the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies
Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, Alan M. and Katherine W.
Stroock Fund for Innovative Research in Judaica
Co-sponsored with the Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University; the
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University; Center for the
Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School; the Jewish Cultures and Societies
Seminar and Rethinking Translation Seminar at the Mahindra Humanities Center
cjs.fas.harvard.edu…<https://cjs.fas.harvard.edu/events/>
Emily Mitchell (Harvard
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Tue., Feb. 25, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Boylston 237, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA
02138<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__maps.google.co…
"All Roads Lead to Rome: A Comparative Approach to the Behistun Inscription"
The Behistun Inscription of Darius I of Persia and the Res Gestae of the Roman emperor
Augustus are the only widely disseminated, multilingual narrative accounts of accession to
survive from the ancient world. Nevertheless, little work has yet been done comparing the
two. I will argue that, although the two inscriptions have the same goals (namely, to
assert their authors’ strength as autocratic rulers and articulate an imperial ideology),
they frequently use different strategies to fulfil these goals and thereby illustrate
integral differences between Achaemenid and Roman conceptions of empire. Three aspects of
Behistun will be examined: (i) its treatment of Darius’ accession and qualifications for
kingship; (ii) its engagement with peoples and territories outside the Persian heartland,
i.e. the Achaemenid ‘empire’ in the geographical sense; (iii) its handling of the
relationship between empire and the divine sphere.
Sponsored by GSAS Workshop "Methodologies in Egyptology and Mesopotamian
Studies," NELC department
GSAS Workshop "Methodologies in Egyptology and Mesopotamian
Studies"<https://nelc.fas.harvard.edu/methodologies-egyptology-and-…
Annette Yoshiko Reed
(
NYU)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?trum…
Wed., Feb. 26, 3 – 5 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Rabinowitz Room 311, 45 Francis
Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
Master class: "Angels, Archives, and the Prehistory of the Biblical Canon"
The recent renaissance of research on ancient Jewish scribalism has pointed to the
Hellenistic period as critical for the formation of the Hebrew Bible. This master class
will reconsider much-cited sources for this shift in relation to the full range of data
for Jewish scribalism, including Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls, early Enochic apocalypses and
related "pseudepigrapha," and early Jewish writings in Greek. Rather than taking
canonization as the sole telos, it will explore the rise of an archival impulse and
self-conscious bookishness in our Jewish sources in relation to shifts in Near Eastern
scholasticism and Hellenistic attitudes towards textuality.
Ancient Studies at Harvard Visitors Series
[Annette Yoshiko Reed (NYU)]
Annette Yoshiko Reed
(
NYU)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?trum…
Thu., Feb. 27, 5:15 – 6:45 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Robinson Hall, B21 Warren Center Conf. Room, 35 Quincy Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138
Lecture: "Reorienting Hellenistic Judaism: Aramaic Jewish Scribalism, Near Eastern
Nostalgia, and Ptolemaic Culture Politics"
The third century BCE has long been deemed a dark age in the historiography of Jews and
Judaism. This talk looks to the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls to open up new perspectives on
the shifts in Jewish literature in the wake of the conquests of Alexander, exploring their
resonance with broader cultural trends under the Ptolemies and across the Hellenistic Near
East. It will suggest that a focus on this neglected period can spark new conversations
across Biblical Studies, Jewish Studies, and Classics--and, in the process, perhaps help
us to recover a more capacious sense of “Hellenistic Judaism,” spanning Aramaic and Hebrew
as well Greek sources and engaging Near Eastern as well as Hellenistic comparanda.
Ancient Studies at Harvard Visitors Series
[Annette Yoshiko Reed (NYU)]
Mark Fisher (Georgetown
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Thu., Feb. 27, 6:15 – 8:30 p.m.
BROWN UNIVERSITY, Rhode Island Hall, Room 108, Providence, RI 02912
"Democratic Ideology in High Relief: Monument, History, and Self-Understanding in
Fifth-Century Athens"
The Classics Department cordially invites everyone to join us for Democratic Ideology in
High Relief: Monument, History, and Self-Understanding in Fifth-Century Athens, a lecture
presented by Mark Fisher from Georgetown University.
Mark Fisher is Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University and a Research
Fellow at the Berlin Thucydides Center (Freie Universität Berlin). He is broadly
interested in the history of political thought, the relation of history to political
theory, and questions surrounding democratic authority and discourse. Thus far, his
research has centered on Thucydidean political thought, and he is currently writing a book
manuscript about Thucydides’ use of the Greek heroic tradition to understand Athenian
democracy. Interests for future research and teaching include the ancient origins of
realist political theory, the history of equality as a moral and political concept, the
role of historical argumentation in political theory, and the ancient antecedents of
‘post-truth’ politics.
As always, this event is free and open to the public and a light reception will follow.
You can find more information on the Classics website and Classics Facebook page.
events.brown.edu…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__e…
March 2020
Timothy Joseph (College of the Holy
Cross)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?tr…
Mon., Mar. 2, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
"Lucan on the beginnings and ends of Latin epic"
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greek and
Rome<http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/civilizations-anc…
Adrienne Mayor (Stanford
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Tue., Mar. 3, 3:45 – 5:15 p.m.
WELLESLEY COLLEGE, Newhouse Center for the Humanities (Green Hall), Wellesley, MA 02481
"Gods and Robots: Myths and Ancient Dreams of Technology"
Who first imagined robots? As early as Homer, Greek myths envisioned automated servants,
self-moving devices, and AI—and grappled with ethical concerns about technology. This talk
explores how some of today’s most advanced innovations in robotics and AI were
foreshadowed in classical antiquity.
Adrienne Mayor is a research scholar in the Classics Department and the History and
Philosophy of Science Program, Stanford University. Her most recent book is Gods and
Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology. Other books include The First
Fossil Hunters; Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical
Warfare in the Ancient World; The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women; and a
biography of Mithradates, The Poison King (National Book Award finalist).
Sponsored by the Newhouse Center for the Humanities and Departments of Classical Studies
and Computer Science at Wellesley College.
Patrick Michel (Lausanne
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Wed., Mar. 4, 5:15 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
James Loeb Lecture
Adrienne Mayor (Stanford
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Thu., Mar. 5, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave.,
Cambridge, MA 02138
"Gods and Robots: Myths and Ancient Dreams of Technology"
Who first imagined robots? As early as Homer, Greek myths envisioned automated servants,
self-moving devices, and AI—and grappled with ethical concerns about technology. This talk
explores how some of today’s most advanced innovations in robotics and AI were
foreshadowed in classical antiquity.
Adrienne Mayor is a research scholar in the Classics Department and the History and
Philosophy of Science Program, Stanford University. Her most recent book is Gods and
Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology. Other books include The First
Fossil Hunters; Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical
Warfare in the Ancient World; The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women; and a
biography of Mithradates, The Poison King (National Book Award finalist).
Sponsored by the Harvard Divinity School Center for the Study of World Religions and the
Harvard University Department of the Classics.
cswr.hds.harvard.edu…<https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/upcoming-events?…
[Adrienne Mayor (Stanford University)]
Graduate Symposium in Ancient Near Eastern Studies
(
GSANES)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?t…
Fri., Mar. 6 – Sat., Mar. 7
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Harvard Semitic Museum, Third Floor Atrium Gallery, 6 Divinity Ave.,
Cambridge, MA 02138
"Engaging with Empires"
Keynote lecture by Seth Richardson (University of Chicago)
This is the second in a series of symposiums organized jointly by graduate students at
Yale, Brown, and Harvard universities.
The topic “Engaging with Empires” seeks to engage with contemporary study of empire in the
ancient Near East. Demarcation and terminology at current remains fuzzy in the study of
Empire in the ancient Near East, wherein topics of power, space, body, and economy, which
lay the forefront of majority historiography, analysis, and model, often fail to be
recognized within larger socio-political frameworks and systems. How we should understand
the concept of empire, how may empire have understood itself, and how we can wrestle with
our material outside, and within, its grasp through primary and secondary material is the
goal of this year’s assembly.
This event is open and limited to a first-come, first-serve basis. There is no conference
fee, but registration is required. Please RSVP at
gsanes2020@gmail.com<mailto:gsanes2020@gmail.com> or
adeloucas@g.harvard.edu<mailto:adeloucas@g.harvard.edu>.
scholar.harvard.edu…<https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/aandeloucas/files…
[Graduate Symposium in Ancient Near Eastern Studies (GSANES)]
David Ganz (Harvard
University)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calend…
Tue., Mar. 10, 5:15 – 6:45 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
TBA
David Ganz is a Visiting Scholar in Medieval Studies at Harvard University.
James Loeb Lecture
Paul Christesen (Dartmouth
College)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?…
Wed., Mar. 11, 5:30 – 9:30 p.m.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Faculty Club, 50 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA
02142<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__maps.google.co…
"Luxury at Sparta"
commentary by Graham Oliver (Brown University)
New England Ancient Historians
Colloquium<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.neah…
www.neahc.us<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.ne…
CANE Annual
Meeting<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?t…
Fri., Mar. 13 – Sat., Mar. 14
TRINITY COLLEGE, 300 Summit Street, Hartford CT
06106<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__maps.google.co…
Registration is now open. The program is available at
docs.google.com…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__do…xHCiHe5fXIN8p4Y2tZQ&e=>.
caneweb.org…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__canewe…
Ellen Oliensis (University of California,
Berkeley)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar…
Tue., Mar. 24
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
TBA
GSAS Workshop "Critical and Comparative Approaches to
Classics"<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/links/critical-and-compa…
Emily Wilson (University of
Pennsylvania)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-cale…
Wed., Mar. 25, 5:30 p.m.
BOSTON COLLEGE, Stokes Hall South 195, 160 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167
"Translating Homer's Odyssey Again: Why and How?"
The 2020 Heinz Bluhm Memorial Lecture
Emily Wilson is Professor of Classical Studies, a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and
the first woman to translate Homer's Odyssey, published in 2017. To be published this
spring is The Norton Critical Edition of Homer's Odyssey edited and translated by
Prof. Wilson. She is currently working on a new translation of Homer's Iliad.
For further information: Prof. Franco Mormando
(mormando@bc.edu<mailto:mormando@bc.edu>; 617-552-6346)
Directions and Parking:
www.bc.edu/bc-web/about/maps-and-directions.html<https://urldefense.proo…
The Boston College Heinz Bluhm Memorial Lecture
Series<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__events.bc.edu…
[Emily Wilson (University of Pennsylvania)]
Harvard Graduate Student
Conference<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calenda…
Sat., Mar. 28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
"Class before Capitalism?: Social Structure and the Ancient World"
Keynote speaker: Johanna Hanink (Brown University)
Call for
Papers<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/news/call-papers-biennial-gradua…ce>:
abstracts due January 1, 2020
Biennial Harvard Graduate Student Conference
classics.fas.harvard.edu…<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/news/call-pap…
April 2020
Leni Ribeiro Leite (Federal University of Espírito Santo,
Brazil)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?t…
Tue., Apr. 14, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
"New worlds through Classical lenses: Classical epideictic tropes in Maffei's
Historiarum Indicarum Libri XVI"
Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greek and
Rome<http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/civilizations-anc…
Vesta Curtis (British
Museum)<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?t…
Wed., Apr. 22
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
llse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture
July 2020
Classical Association of New England Summer
Institute<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar…
Mon., July 13 – Sat., July 18
BROWN UNIVERSITY, TBA, Providence, RI 02912
On the theme "The Empire and the Individual"
graduate credit available
For more information and registration details, go to
www.caneweb.org<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.…
Please direct questions to the CSI director Amanda Loud at
summerinst@caneweb.org<mailto:summerinst@caneweb.org>.
caneweb.org…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__canewe…
View the entire calendar
online<https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar>
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