Seminar Series Hilary 2023
Convenors: Constanze Güthenke and Hindy Najman
Co-conveners: Henner Petin and Rebekah Van Sant
For the Seminar Programme, please click here.
Seminar Series Michaelmas 2022
The Invention of Tradition(s) in Roman Cultural History
As recent events have sadly confirmed yet another time, military and political conflicts are often accompanied and supported by cultural warfare, consisting e.g. in the manipulation of historical narratives, identity formation, mythical anchoring, and more generally in the invention of traditions, to be supposedly upheld and preserved. Although apparently conservative, traditionalism is in fact often subversive, if not patently aggressive and oppressive, as well attested in ancient Roman cultural history, with Augustanism and late antique declinism as just two of the many embodiments of this pattern. The seminar aimed to explore the invention of tradition(s) in ancient Roman culture, from the Republic down to late Antiquity, focusing in particular on the role played by literature in the process.
Speakers: Denis Feeney, Christopher Dowson, Matthew Leigh, Roger Rees, Consuelo Martino, Domenico Giordani, Neil Mclynn, Claudia Moatti