2013 - 2014 ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS
Classics Meet and Greet
On Tuesday, September 17, students gathered over free pizza to talk about all things
Classics: the spring schedule, upcoming events, and life as students of antiquity.
Led by our Academic Council reps, Kat Smith and Marion Stack, the meet-and-greet was
a great way to start the year.
Classics Luncheons
Classics students & faculty gather for food and conversation in the Test Kitchen of the Murray-Aikins Dining Hall once a month for a Classics lunchtime symposium. Lunch tickets provided if requested.Dates:
- Fri. 9/13/13, 12:20 – 1:15 PM
- Fri. 10/23/13, 12:20 – 1:15 PM
- Wed. 11/20/13, 12:20 – 1:15 PM
- Wed. 2/26/14, 12:20 - 1:15 PM
- Wed. 3/26/14, 12:20 - 1:15 PM
Guest Speakers
Guest speaker: Professor Paolo Asso from the University of Michigan
Title of lecture: Africa & Africans in Ancient Roman Literary Imagination
Prof. Asso's in-progress monograph, Africa in the Roman Literary Imagination, examines the ways in which ancient Greek and Roman literary sources treat Africa, her gods, peoples, animals, plants, and inanimate entities. His presentation will examine the portrayal of Africaness in two Latin epics: Virgil's "Aeneid" and the longest poem in ancient Latin literature, Silius Italicus's Punica. In both the Aeneid and Punica Africans were described with as much awe as fear. Yet, as Prof. Asso will explain, racism did not exist in the modern sense of the word. Romans were both fascinated by and frightened of the African war and African physique, but they were never prejudiced against Africans. Romans saw themselves as a part of a nation defined by the territories it conquered, not by the race of its people. Asso's focus will be on this unique perception of Roman identity that included both the conquerors and the conquered.
Date: Monday October 14, 2013
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Palamountain Hall - Room 202
Guest Speaker: Dr. Patrice Rankine, Dean of Arts & Humanities at Hope College
Title of lecture: In nova…mutates…formas
corpora: Modernity, Performance, and the
Persistence of the Past
Naomi lizuka's Polaroid Stories is testament to the resilience of classical myth in
modern contexts, a reception of Ovid's Metamorphoses in company with Mary Zimmerman's
well-known adaptation. The play brings to life the first lines of Ovid's epic: "I
am moved to sing of figures fashioned into new bodies" (cited in the title in Latin).
How do these "new bodies" of Ovid's transformations work on the modern stage? The
critical models of performance theory and classical reception studies provide a rich
framework for discussing some of the issues
raised when a classical work takes shape in the context of today's concerns, which
might include questions of race, gender, or urban decay. Professor Rankine will incorporate
theories and ideas from his book Aristotle and Black Drama and his forthcoming Greek
Drama in the Americas (co-edited volume with Fiona Macintosh and Justine McConnell)
into a discussion of Iizuka's play.
Date: Thursday October 31, 2013
Time: 5:30
Location: Davis Auditorium
Guest Speaker: Professor C. Brian Rose
Title of Lecture: "Troy Through the Ages"
More information about Professor Rose can be found on the UPenn website: .
Read the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø story about this presentation: /news/2014/0224-classical-world-lecture-scheduled.php
Date: Thursday, Feb. 27th, 2014
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Davis Auditorium
Homerathon
Annual marathon reading of Homer. Food and drink will be served. Bring your Homers
and any other poetry you'd care to read. It's going to be epic!
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014
Location: TBA
Time: 6:00 - 9:00 PM
Annual Classics bus trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Each spring students in CC200 The Classical World travel to NYC to study and present objects in the Greco-Roman galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Date: Sat. April 5, 2014
Departure time: 7:30 AM
Bus departing from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø (Case Parking Lot)
Returning to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø: 11:00 PM
Annual Classics BBQ
Please join us for the annual Classics Department BBQ and festivities. This is our opportunity to celebrate the year, to wish our graduating seniors well, adn to welcome new students to our departmental community.
Date: Spring 2014, TBA
Time: TBA
Location: TBA