Gregg E. Gardner (University of British Columbia)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"How Matter Matters: Material Culture, Sabbath Lamps, and the Making of Rabbinic Judaism"Abstract: Kindling flames to mark the onset of the Sabbath is one of the most well-known Jewish rituals. Lighting a wick soaked with olive oil in a clay lamp at a prescribed time provides a case study for examining the roles of material culture in late antique Judaism. Drawing on early rabbinic texts from the second-third century CE (Mishnah, Tosefta), archaeology from Roman Galilee, and scholarship on material religion, ritual studies, experimental archaeology, and theoretical Roman archaeology, this talk demonstrates that the material culture that surrounded the early rabbis influenced how they formulated religious traditions that would later become central to Judaism.
Monday, December 8, 2025, 4:00 PM.
HARVARD MUSEUM OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, Room 201, 6 Divinity Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
New Approaches to Classics Lecture Series: Olaoluwatoni A. Alimi
"Augustine's Varieties of Natural Slavery."
Olaoluwatoni Alimi is an Assistant Professor in Religion and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.
This event is free and open to the public.
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’s accounts of natural slavery were central to 17th-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.
Event Series (if not listed): New Approaches to Classics Lecture Series.
Monday, December 8, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY; 725 Commonwealth Ave. B18 (basement).
77th Latin Carol Celebration
MOX EST CELEBRANDUM!
You are invited to the 77th Annual Brown University Latin Carol Celebration!
This joyful program features seasonal readings by President Christina H. Paxson and members of the Department of Classics. Musical prelude and accompaniment by University Organist, Mark Steinbach, plus the Chattertocks’ rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas and a special arrangement by the Brown Madrigal Singers.
Conducted entirely in Latin (with a bit of ancient Greek and Sanskrit). English translations are provided for those whose Latin is a little (or a lot!) rusty.
The Latin Carol Celebration is free and open to the public and lasts a little over an hour.
We are delighted to continue this time-honored tradition and look forward to seeing you there!
VENITE ~ AUDITE ~ CANTATE ~ OMNES.
Event contact to appear in listing: Classics_Department@Brown.edu.
Monday, December 8, 2025, 8:00 PM – 9:15 PM.
BROWN UNIVERSITY, Sayles Hall Auditorium. 81 Waterman St, Providence, RI 02912 & on Zoom.
For more info visit events.brown.edu. Simcha Gross (University of Pennsylvania)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"Jews on the Roman-Sasanian Frontier: The Politics of Belonging"Abstract: Late antiquity culminated in shocking episodes of violence both against and by Jews, accompanied by the spread of stories and rumors that would profoundly shape Jewish reputations among Christians and, in time, Muslims. This lecture situates these events within the longue durée dynamics of inter-imperial competition in the Near East and its deep insinuation into everyday social relations, intensifying long-standing intergroup hostilities and producing novel solidarities. Jews occupied a prominent place in both the lived realities and imaginative constructions of these encounters, decisively shaping their fortunes in late antiquity and their legacy in the centuries that followed. Speaker biography: Simcha Gross is currently an AvH Experienced Researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin, on leave from the University of Pennsylvania. He has published widely on the history of Jews in the Near East over the first millennium CE. His recent…
Wednesday, December 10, 2025, 4:00 PM.
HARVARD MUSEUM OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, Room 201, 6 Divinity Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Ishay Rosen-Zvi (Tel Aviv University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"Are the Rabbis Part of Wisdom Literature?".
Thursday, December 11, 2025, 2:30 PM.
HARVARD MUSEUM OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, Room 201, 6 Divinity Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138.
Walter Scheidel (Stanford University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"Ancient History as Universal History".
Event contact to appear in listing: Contact: classics@fas.harvard.edu. Event Series: Harvard Classics Departmental Seminar Series.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 133 (tentative), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Workshop: Scott McGill and Susannah Wright (Rice University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
Dr. Susannah Wright and Dr. Scott McGill will talk about their new translation of the Aeneid, published by W. W. Norton in August 2025, and lead a public workshop.
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Rethinking Translation.
Thursday, February 19, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:45 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu. Lecture: Scott McGill and Susannah Wright (Rice University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
Dr. Susannah Wright and Dr. Scott McGill will talk about their new translation of the Aeneid, published by W. W. Norton in August 2025.
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome.
Thursday, February 19, 2026, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu. Panagiotis Roilos (Harvard University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"The Cultural Politics of Imagination: From 'Paganism' to Christianity".
Event contact to appear in listing: Contact: classics@fas.harvard.edu. Event Series: Harvard Classics Departmental Seminar Series.
Tuesday, February 24, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 133 (tentative), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
I-Kai Jeng (Yenching Institute)
Harvard Classics Lectures
I-Kai Jeng, a fellow at the Yenching Institute, will give a lunchtime/brown-bag talk on his fellowship project, which features Plato and Aristophanes.
Thursday, February 26, 2026, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Boylston 203, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138.