The Boston Area Classics Calendar for November 4, 2016

PLEASE NOTE: * = new entry, ** = alteration or addition to an existing entry

Imagine No Religion: A Discussion with Carlin Barton and Daniel Boyarin
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Divinity School, Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religion, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138
Mon., Nov. 7, 2016, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
“Religion” is widely recognized as a modern Western category. What emerges if we refuse to force cultures into its distorting frame? Join Carlin Barton and Daniel Boyarin as they present one way to perceive the cultural complexities that are obscured when words like religio and thrêskeia are mistranslated “religion.” Their new book, Imagine No Religion: How Modern Abstractions Hide Ancient Realities, contains nuanced readings of writings by people we call "Jews, Christians, and Pagans," and offers startling insights about the myriad meanings of these words and their worlds.
Sponsored by Early Christianity/New Testament Faculty and the Office of Academic Affairs at Harvard Divinity School.

Joseph Howley (Columbia University)
MIT, Building 14E, Room 304 whereis.mit.edu
Mon., Nov. 7, 2016, 5:15 – 7:15 p.m.
“Setting (and binding) the table: Ancient Roman paratext in the age of print”
Event Series: MIT Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium Series

*Conference: "The Italian Roots of Modernity: Machiavelli and Galileo"
TUFTS UNIVERSITY, Center for the Humanities at Tufts, 48 Professors Row, Medford MA 02155
Thu., Nov. 10, 2016, 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Day 1 of 2-day Conference
Morning session: MACHIAVELLI AND THE PAST
9:30 Coffee and light breakfast
10:00 Talks. Chair: Riccardo Strobino (Tufts)

James Hankins (Harvard): "Machiavelli the Traditionalist"

Gabriele Pedullà (Roma Tre): "Machiavelli: The Ancient, the Modern"

Michelle Tolman-Clarke (Dartmouth): "Machiavelli on the Legacy of Roman Imperialism"

Mario De Caro (Roma Tre & Tufts): "Machiavelli’s Free Will"

11:40 Coffee break
12:00 General discussion
13:00 Lunch
Afternoon session: GALILEO AND THE PAST
14:30 Talks. Chair: James Zainaldin (Harvard)

Eileen Reeves (Princeton): "Missing Macrobius, Invisible Vitruvius"

Mark J. Schiefsky (Harvard): "Galileo and the Aristotelian Mechanical Problems"

Marco Romani Mistretta (Harvard): "Platonic Hypotheses: Galileo on First Principles"

15:45 Coffee break
16:00 General discussion
17:00 End of session
Organizing committee: Mario De Caro (Roma Tre & Tufts), Ioannis Evrigenis (Tufts), Erin Kelly (Tufts), Marco Romani Mistretta (Harvard), Vickie Sullivan (Tufts), James Zainaldin (Harvard)
Sponsors: Philosophy Department, Tufts University; Political Science Department, Tufts University; Toupin Bolwell Fund, Tufts University; Department of the Classics, Harvard University; Dipartimento FILCOSPE, Università Roma Tre.
More info: as.tufts.edu…

*Conference: "The Italian Roots of Modernity: Machiavelli and Galileo"
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138
Fri., Nov. 11, 2016, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Day 2 of 2-day Conference
Morning session: MACHIAVELLI AND THE MODERN AGE
10:00 Coffee and light breakfast
10:30 Talks. Chair: Jeffrey McConnell (Tufts)

Harvey Mansfield (Harvard): "How Machiavelli Paved the Way to the Scientific Revolution"

Vickie Sullivan (Tufts): "Machiavelli’s Literary Self-Portraits: A Name, a Reputation, and a New Epoch"

Ioannis Evrigenis (Tufts): "Fortune, Virtue, and Risk: Machiavelli’s ferma scienza"

11:45 Coffee break
12:00: General discussion
13:00 Lunch
Afternoon session: GALILEO AND THE MODERN AGE
14:30 Talks. Chair: Christiana Olfert (Tufts)

George Smith (Tufts University): "Galileo's Contribution to Mechanics"

Antonio Clericuzio (Roma Tre): "After Galileo: A Reappraisal of Natural Philosophy in Early Modern Italy”

Isabella Lepore (Roma Tre): "Galileo and Newton: the Exegesis of the Two Books"

Verity Platt (Cornell University)
BROWN UNIVERSITY, Rhode Island Hall, Room 108, 60 George St., Providence, RI 02912
Fri., Nov. 11, 2016, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
"Of Sponges and Stones: Matter and Ornament in Roman Painting"
More info: www.brown.edu…

Donna Zuckerberg (Paideia Institute)
BROWN UNIVERSITY, Rhode Island Hall, Room 108, 60 George St., Providence, RI 02912
Mon., Nov. 14, 2016, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
"Arms and the Manosphere"
More info: www.brown.edu…

Joel Christensen (Brandeis University)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Plimpton Room (Barker 133), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mon., Nov. 14, 2016, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
"The Therapy of Oblivion: The Odyssey’s Open End"
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greek and Rome
More info: mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu…

Christina Skelton (Harvard University)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Harvard Yard, Boylston Hall 303, Cambridge, MA 02138
Thu., Nov. 17, 2016, 5 – 7 p.m.
Title TBA
Event Series: GSAS Workshop "Indo-European and Historical Linguistics”

43rd New England Medieval Conference
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, Haldeman Hall, Room 041, Hanover NH 03755
Sat., Nov. 19, 2016, 9 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.
"Lives and Afterlives in the Middle Ages"
The program will explore the theme “Lives and Afterlives in the Middle Ages.”
Keynote by Paul Freedman (Yale University)
Program and registration: newenglandmedieval.org….
More info: nemc.2016@dartmouth.edu.

Rafael Pascual (Harvard University)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Harvard Yard, Boylston Hall 335, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mon., Nov. 21, 2016, 5 – 7 p.m.
Title TBA
Event Series: GSAS Workshop "Indo-European and Historical Linguistics”

Dariusz Piwowarczyk (Jagiellonian University)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Harvard Yard, Boylston Hall 105, Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Dec. 7, 2016, 5 – 7 p.m.
Title TBA
Event Series: GSAS Workshop "Indo-European and Historical Linguistics”

Johanna Hanink (Brown University)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Mon., Feb. 13, 2017, 5 p.m.
TBA
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greek and Rome
More info: mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu…

Hellenistic Sardis Project
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
Thu., Feb. 23 – Fri., Feb. 24, 2017
TBA

*Carlos Noreña (UC Berkeley)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA
Mon., Feb. 27, 2017, 6 p.m.
"Romanization in the Middle of Nowhere: The Case of Segobriga"
This paper addresses the problem of historical change in a small town in the provincial backwater of a large, premodern empire. It examines the evidence for urban form, cultural identity, political organization, and social hierarchy in Segobriga, an insignificant Roman municipality in central Spain (in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis), during the period c. 200 BCE to 200 CE. Emphasis is placed not on local particularism in Segobriga, but rather on the town’s adherence to empire-wide patterns in urbanization and urbanism; its assimilation to Roman cultural norms; and its incorporation into a supraregional sociopolitical order. Drawing upon insights from historical sociology and cultural anthropology, and focusing on questions of motivation, agency (both individual and collective), and causation, the paper argues that changes in the politics, society, and culture of Segobriga all went together in a recursive manner, and that they were ultimately triggered by what I call a “general convergence” of social power in the Mediterranean world near the end of the first millennium BCE. The transformation of Segobriga, the paper concludes, should be seen as a case study in the process of “Romanization”—not, however, defined as an index of acculturation, but rather as an umbrella term for the making of a distinctively Roman configuration of power. The goals of the paper, then, are both substantive and conceptual, and are meant to contribute to a wider discussion of the intersection between (asymmetric) power and (translocal) culture in the premodern world.
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Interdisciplinary Graduate Workshop: New Approaches to Ancient Evidence

Christelle Fischer-Bovet (Univ. of Southern California)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mon., Mar. 20, 2017, 5 p.m.
TBA

Paolo Visoná (University of Kentucky)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Menschel Hall, 32 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Mar. 29, 2017, 6 – 8 p.m.
The Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture
Title: TBA on Carthaginian Coins
Event Series: Mildenberg Lecture

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