The Penn Public Lectures on Classical Antiquity and the Contemporary World

The Penn Public Lectures on Classical Antiquity and the Contemporary World aim to reimagine the discipline of Classical Studies. They will be delivered by visionary scholars of ancient Greece and Rome, who will present public lectures, visit classes, run workshops, and contribute to the life of the department during their residence.

Collaborator, Translator, Constructor

This third lecture in the series lays out several ways the study of antiquities may still be understood as mattering for the public today, focusing on the process of scholarship and specifically the acts laid out in the title and tackling some of the most pressing challenges to the construction of “classics” now. The Penn Public Lectures aim to advance the public good in the United States through lively, rigorous, and timely engagement with the classical past.

The Skills of World-Making

The second lecture in the series considers the development of expert skills required to invest in rebuilding the deep past — philology, dialogue and dialectic, understanding through migration, the preservation and interpretation of evidence, the creative imagination of past lives — as a humanistic ethic of care. The Penn Public Lectures aim to advance the public good in the United States through lively, rigorous, and timely engagement with the classical past.

Public Matters: Prompts for the Study of Ancient Cultures

The first lecture in the series examines several moments in the ancient and early modern scholarship of antiquity when scholars framed their research questions in response to current sociopolitical needs and aspirations. The Penn Public Lectures aim to advance the public good in the United States through lively, rigorous, and timely engagement with the classical past.