<\/h2>\nPresenters for 2025-2026 include:<\/h2>\n
Professor Patrick Finglass <\/span><\/strong>(University of Bristol<\/span>) Description: This paper is focused on the organization of Alexandrian editions of Archaic lyric poetry. After examining how these editions were organized, and how we can tell, it argues that significant connections can be drawn between different editions in terms of the placement of particular poems \u2013 connections which themselves generate meaning and reveal the editor as a participant in the creative process.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Professor Melissa Mueller <\/span><\/strong>(University of Massachusetts Amherst<\/span>) Description: In offering asylum to the Danaid chorus in Aeschylus\u2019 Suppliants, the Argives exercise their public decision-making power, a cornerstone of democratic ideology. But democracy requires more than the will of the people. In this talk I explore both the form of this tragedy, with its extended parodos, and the autochthony myths that are reactivated around the Danaids\u2019 appeal for protection, and I argue that the grant of metic status in Argos to the women speaks to the interdependence, vital to democracy both ancient and modern, between the land (earth as environment) and the polis. The Danaids\u2019 presence in Argos, I suggest, not only reminds the male citizens of their earthly origins and democratic commitments, but also prompts the earth\u2019s intervention, activating collective memories of the exile of their bovine ancestor, Io.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Professor Jared M. Hudson <\/span><\/strong>(Brandeis University<\/span>) Description: Pomponius Mela\u2019s first-century CE geography (De Chorographia) offers a unique portrait of what purports to be the entire world articulated in highly artistic rhetorical Latin prose. Once a central text in antiquity and beyond, this detailed geographical handbook has since become practically forgotten. Tracing some of the historical causes for this neglect, this paper examines some of the distinctive features of this fascinating and unclassifiable text, arguing that Pomponius Mela\u2019s written geography represents an important cultural shift in unofficial Roman representations of the layout and knowability of global space.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Professor Olaoluwatoni A. Alimi <\/span><\/strong>(Princeton University<\/span>) Description: Augustine is typically interpreted as having denied that there are natural slaves. Against the common interpretation, I argue that Augustine affirmed three separate natural slavery theses (and rejected only one). Aspects of Augustine\u2019s accounts of natural slavery were central to 17<\/span>th<\/span>-century English rationalizations for slavery. However, they also left open several lacunae that these pro-slavers turned to Aristotle to fill. The methods for filling these lacunae were in turn central to the legal codification of some modern notions of race, including three familiar features: first, that race is immutable; second, that race is inheritable; third, that blacks are deficient to whites.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Professor Anthony Corbeill<\/strong> (University of Virginia) Description: How did Romans communicate along the expanding edges of empire-on the verbal, physical and visual levels-when Latin was unavailable? The lecture will treat four different periods and locations;<\/span><\/p>\n Professor Victoria Wohl<\/strong> (University of Toronto) Description: Plutarch’s Gryllus (“Grunter”) stages a dialogue between Odysseus and one of his men who was turned into a pig by Circe about whether animals are more virtuous than humans. This humorous treatise raises serious questions about the place of the other in philosophy: must philosophy exclude the other in order to constitute the proper domain of reason (logos) or does it require the other for its practice of intellectual inquiry (dialogos)? This paper examines how the treatise thinks through these questions and the implications for Plutarch’s philosophy.<\/span><\/p>\n Professor Mark Thatcher\u00a0<\/strong>(Boston College) Description: The Sicilian Expedition, one of the most famous events in Greek history, has usually been understood from an Athenian perspective, as a disaster of epic proportions. What if we flipped the script and instead foregrounded Sicilian perspectives? Drawing on a wider range of sources and digging deeper into the Sicilian background and context of this period can help us rethink the expedition’s origins and its place in history.<\/span><\/p>\n Professor Lauren Donovan Ginsberg<\/strong> (Duke University) Description: The anonymous imperial tragedy, Hercules Oetaeus, opens with a bombastic Hercules asserting his right to divinity because of his imperial project of monster killing and world pacification. But directly next comes an unprecedented choral ode by the women who recently experienced this peace-making: the women of Oechalia. As these women look for a final time at their wasted homeland, they sing an angry lament about their country\u2019s future. This lament, I argue, is markedly engaged with the Roman pastoral mode and, through this engagement, presents the pastoral genre as complicit in Hercules’ imperialist violence.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n Professor Stephen Hinds<\/strong> (University of Washington) Description: A try-out of material from my soon-to-be-completed Latin Poetry across Languages: Adventures in Allusion, Translation and Classical Tradition <\/em>(working title), framed with remarks on the book\u2019s era-straddling plan. \u00a0I will lead off with some observations about the poetic interaction of Latin and Greek in the ancient Roman world (from Part I of my book), focusing on paradoxical elements in that much-studied relationship. Then, moving forward in time, I will sample two early modern case studies from Part II, \u2018Readings between Latin and vernacular\u2019:\u00a0 (a) \u2018Du Bellay in Rome, between Latin and French\u2019 (drawing on that poet\u2019s French\u00a0Antiquitez de Rome<\/em> and his Latin elegy\u00a0Romae descriptio<\/em>, both from the 1550s), and (b), more briefly, \u2018Reverse-engineering Milton\u2019 (in which, against the background of Milton\u2019s 1645 double book of Poems English and Latin<\/em>, I conjure up a virtual Latin \u2018twin\u2019 for the great epic which Milton did not write in Latin, Paradise Lost<\/em>.\u00a0 Poetic conversations throughout will be driven by close engagement across space and time with (especially) Horace, Ovid and Virgil.<\/p>\n Professor Victoria Pagan<\/strong> (University of Florida) Description: When read through the lens of Karl Popper\u2019s The Open Society and its Enemies<\/em>, 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\u2019s formulation of the \u201cconspiracy theory of society\u201d sheds light on both the form and the content of Sallust\u2019s monograph.<\/p>\n Professor Katherine Lu Hsu<\/strong> (College of the Holy Cross) 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\u00a0<\/span>kleos<\/i>\u00a0economy. This study reveals some of the \u201chard lines\u201d that limit the mythological imagination, suggesting an enduring anxiety about internal\u00a0<\/span>stasis<\/i>.<\/p>\n Professor Niek Janssen<\/strong> (Amherst College) Description: The concepts of\u00a0<\/span>decorum\u00a0<\/span><\/i>and\u00a0<\/span>to prepon\u00a0<\/span><\/i>pervade\u00a0Greco-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\u00a0<\/span>decorum<\/i>, I argue that this inarticulability is a feature, not a bug, of the concept. Texts like Hegemon’s\u00a0<\/span>Parodies<\/i>, Plautus’\u00a0<\/span>Asinaria<\/i>, and the Pseudo-Virgilian\u00a0<\/span>Culex<\/i> reveal the instability of decorum as a basis for normative thought–as a principle for aesthetic judgment and social inclusion\/exclusion.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n Jenny Clay\u00a0<\/strong>(University of Virginia) Laurie Hutcheson<\/strong> (Boston University) Abstract: Penelope’s thought process\u2014in contrast to male heroes’–has been described in turn as intuitive, irrational, inaccessible, and unresolved. The Odyssey represents Penelope deliberating 4 times, more than any other character except Odysseus. I argue that the typical scene of deliberation in the Odyssey is tightly coordinated and differs from the Iliadic model, and that Penelope’s deliberations need to be read in light of this. In particular, Penelope’s choice in book 19 resonates both within this context of Odyssean deliberation and within the Iliadic context of heroic soliloquys; she both aligns with and inverts typical heroic patterns. While she makes decisions amid deep instability, Penelope’s thoughts are articulated clearly and legibly in the reverberative frame of Homeric representations of thought.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong>Timothy Clark<\/strong> (Boston University) Abstract: In recent years, events at home and abroad have demonstrated the urgent need to highlight and uproot structures of racism and inequality that dominate American life. Academic complicity in these structures has also come under increased scrutiny. Scholars within Classics and ancient history have used new methodologies to expand our views of ancient societies and render the ancient world relevant to the 21st<\/sup> century. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In support of these efforts, Professor Timothy Clark will show in this lecture how comparing the ancient and modern worlds sheds new light on the conceptual frameworks that underpin racism and othering. Professor Clark will show how Roman officials under the emperor Nero and the American legal system in the 21st<\/sup> century situated eastern \u201cothers\u201d in conceptual and legal positions where their exact status was left ambiguous. He will explain why this form of Orientalism persists and how it personally impacted ancient eastern nobles and modern Iranian-Americans alike. This lecture will show the dangerous consequences that result when the categories we create for different ethnic and racial groups are taken for granted. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kristina Chew<\/strong> (Rutgers University) <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n Patrick Finglass<\/strong> (University of Bristol) Abstract: P.Oxy. 5283, originally from a second-century papyrus roll, contains ancient prose summaries (\u2018hypotheses\u2019) of five tragedies by the classical Greek dramatist Euripides, including of two lost plays depicting the hero Perseus, Dana\u00eb<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Dictys<\/i>, previously known only from meagre fragments. Since its publication in 2017, however, it has been overlooked by scholarship. This paper examines the light which the papyrus sheds on\u00a0Dana\u00eb<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Dictys<\/i>, whose narratives, centred around ultimately successful female resistance to abusive male tyrants, speak as powerfully to us today as they did to their original ancient audiences. It proceeds to investigate Euripides\u2019 tragic trilogy of 431 BC, which ended with\u00a0Dictys <\/i>and began with what today is probably Euripides\u2019 most famous play,\u00a0Medea<\/i>, whose brilliance now stands in sharper focus given our significantly improved understanding of the context in which it originally appeared. Building on this analysis, the paper further considers what impact this papyrus has on our picture of the tragic trilogy more generally, demonstrating the range of approaches taken by tragic poets to this inherited literary form. Finally, it ponders the purposes which such a document served in the Roman empire, and why readers in the second century AD should have wanted a summary of plays written more than half a millennium before.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah Spence<\/strong> (University of Georgia) Caitlin Gillespie<\/strong> (Brandeis University) Kendra Eshleman<\/strong> (Boston College)
\nMonday, March 23rd, 2026.\u00a0 5:30-7:30pm
\nCAS B18, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: Chariots of Song: Editing Lyric Metaphor at the Great Library of Alexandria<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2026\/02\/Your-paragraph-text-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nFriday, October 3, 2025.\u00a0 5:30-7:30pm
\nCAS B18, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: Democracy and the Earth in Aeschylus\u2019 <\/span>Suppliants<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2025\/09\/Democracy-and-the-Earth-in-Aeschylus\u2019-Suppliants-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nFriday, November 7, 2025.\u00a0 5:30-7:30pm
\nCAS B18, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: Pomponius Mela on The Periphery: Latin Geography and the Roman Empire<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2025\/10\/NAC-Lecture-Prof.-Hudson-2025-3-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nMonday, December 8, 2025.\u00a0 5:30-7:30pm
\nCAS B313, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nOr Join us On Zoom Here!<\/span> <\/strong>https:\/\/bostonu.zoom.us\/meeting\/register\/zW5QpAXuRIOWOY3Hsr4UMA<\/a>
\nTitle: Augustine’s Varieties of Natural Slavery<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2025\/10\/NAC-Lecture-Prof.-Almi-2025-4-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\nPresenters for 2024-2025 include:<\/h3>
\nMonday, March 24, 2025.\u00a0 5:30-7:00pm
\nCAS B18, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: Communicating on Rome\u2019s Edges: Tongues, Gestures, and Art<\/span><\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2025\/03\/New-Approaches-to-Classics-Prof.-Corbeill-2-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nTuesday, November 12, 2024.\u00a0 5:30-7:30pm
\nCAS 313, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: Of Pigs and The Proper: Philosophy and The Other in Plutarch’s Gryllus<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2024\/10\/NAC-Lecture-Prof.-Wohl-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nMonday, October 21, 2024. 5:00-7:30pm
\nCAS 224, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: When the Athenians Came: <\/span>Rethinking the Sicilian Expedition<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2024\/10\/NAC-Lecture-Prof.-Thatcher-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nTuesday, October 1, 2024. 5:00-7:30pm
\nCAS 313, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: Lament for Oechalia: Pastoral\u2019s Imperialist Complicity in the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Hercules Oetaeus<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2024\/09\/NAC-Lecture-Prof.-Lauren-Ginsberg-8.5-x-11-in-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\nPresenters for 2023-2024 include:<\/h3>
\nFriday, March 1, 2024. 5:00-6:30pm
\nCAS B36, 725 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: Latin poetry across languages:\u00a0 micro-negotiating classical tradition, with Joachim Du Bellay and John Milton<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2024\/01\/New-Approaches-to-Classics-Prof.-Stephen-Hinds-1-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nThursday, October 5, 2023. 5:00-6:30pm
\nSTH B19, 745 Commonwealth Ave
\nTitle: Sallust and the Open Society<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2023\/09\/NAC-Flyer-Fall-2023-Pagan-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nMonday, October 30, 2023. 4:45-6:15pm
\nCAS B36, 725 Commonwealth Ave.
\nTitle: Meet Me Outside: Mythological Courage and Cowardice Beyond the Hero<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2023\/10\/NAC-Flyer-Fall-2023-Hsu-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nWednesday, November 15, 2023. 4:45-6:15pm
\nCAS B18, 725 Commonwealth Ave.
\nTitle: Making Fit: Parody and Decorum in Greco-Roman Literature<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/classics\/files\/2023\/11\/NAC-Flyer-Fall-2023-Janssen-491x636.png\")
<\/p>\nPresenters for 2022-2023 include:<\/h3>
\nTuesday, April 11, 2023. 5:30-7:00pm
\nCAS 132, 725 Commonwealth Ave.
\nTopic: Last Tango in Ogygia: Gods and Men in Odyssey 5<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMonday, January 30, 2023. 3:30-5:30pm
\nCAS 533B, 725 Commonwealth Ave.
\nTopic: Penelope’s {A}typical Thinking<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThursday, October 6, 2022. 5:30 – 7:00pm
\nJSC 201, 147 Bay State Rd.
\nTopic: From Roman Geopolitics to American Law: How Classics Can Illuminate Historical Experiences and Structures of Racism and Othering <\/span><\/p>\n
\nTuesday, October 18, 2022. 5:00 – 6:30pm.
\nSTH B23, 745 Commonwealth Avenue.
\nTopic: Translating Catullus and Catullus Translating<\/span><\/p>\nPresenters for 2021-2022 include:<\/h3>
\nFriday, March 18, 2022. 4:30-6:15pm
\nCAS B18, 685-725 Commonwealth Ave.
\nTopic: Euripides’ Dana\u00eb<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Dictys<\/i>: a new papyrus<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTuesday, February 8, 2022, 4:30-6:15pm
\nCAS 116, 685-725 Commonwealth Ave.
\nTopic: \u201cReading Against the Grain: The Cultural Poetics of Roman Sicily\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMonday, November 8, 2021, 4:30-6:15pm
\nCAS B18, 685-725 Commonwealth Ave.
\nTopic: “The Mind, Once Manly, Now Effeminate: Gender and the Failure of Language in Sallust\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMonday, October 18, 2021, 4:30-6:15pm
\nCAS B18, 685-725 Commonwealth Ave.
\nTopic: “Unlettered in Paradise: Non-Readers in Early Christian Reading Culture\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nPresenters for 2020-2021 include:<\/h3>
\nMatthew Christ<\/strong> (Indiana University)
\nMonday, March 15, 2021, 4-6pm
\n<\/strong>via Zoom
\nRegister Here!<\/a>
\nTopic: Discussion of Chapter 6 (~ <\/span>Anabasis<\/i>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/i>of his new book on Xenophon and the Athenian Democracy: The Education of an Elite Citizenry”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n