Panagiotis Roilos (Harvard University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"The Cultural Politics of Imagination: From 'Paganism' to Christianity"
This lecture focuses on the ways in which ancient Greek philosophical conceptions of phantasia (imagination) were adjusted to early Christian and later Byzantine discursive contexts. Emphasis is placed on the exploration in such discourses of 1). the inherent liminality of phantasia as a cognitive faculty, and 2). the conceptual/theological/moral binary opposition Christ=Logos (truth) vs. Satan=phantasia (falsity). The lecture will illustrate pivotal aspects of the methodological model of “cognitive historical anthropology” that the speaker has put forward in his research on the specific topic.
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, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Matthew Gabriele (Virginia Tech)
Abstract: At the end of the 8th century, the Franks under their new Carolingian kings built an empire that spanned Europe and inspired the respect of both emperor(s) in Byzantium and caliphs in Baghdad. But by the middle of the next century, the empire was in tatters. In June 841, a field outside Auxerre (in modern France) lay drenched in blood, as old friends killed one another, as brother fought brother. This talk will focus on the fateful battle of Fontenoy in June 841 and particularly the account of 1 participant – a warrior named Angelbert and the poem he wrote about the battle, detailing how an empire that seemed so secure, so tightly bound in its political and cultural consensus, could be destroyed so quickly by greed and vengeance over a disputed succession to power.
, Bio: Matthew Gabriele is a professor of medieval studies at Virginia Tech,. His research and teaching cover the European Middle Ages, ideas of religion and violence, as well as nostalgia and apocalypse. He has written for The…
Event contact to appear in listing: ams-events@mit.edu. Event Series: MIT Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium Series.
Tuesday, February 24, 2026, 5:15 PM – 6:45 PM.
MIT; 160 Memorial Drive, 14E-304, Cambridge, MA 02139
Directions: From the Lewis Music Library stairs, take the third floor of Building 14, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor, navigate to the o.
For more info visit ams.mit.edu. Justine McConnell (King's College London)
Playing the Myths: Zora Neale Hurston and the Ancient Greek World
Part of the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Weekly Colloquium Series.
Event Series (if not listed): W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Weekly Colloquium Series.
Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Hiphop Archive & Research Institute at the Hutchins Center, 104 Mount Auburn Street, Floor 2R, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu. Christelle Alvarez (Brown University)
Monumental Ritual Texts in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids
Hybrid Lecture
Monumental Ritual Texts in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids
Wednesday, February 25, 6:00–7:00 pm ET (advance registration recommended for online and in-person attendance.)
Speaker: Christelle Alvarez, Assistant Professor of Egyptology, Brown University
The earliest large-scale records of ancient Egyptian religious literature come from Saqqara, an important royal cemetery from Egypt’s Old Kingdom period. For nearly two centuries, the subterranean chambers beneath some of Saqqara’s pyramids were inscribed with hundreds of ritual texts carved in hieroglyphs. In this lecture, Christelle Alvarez will discuss the final Old Kingdom pyramid to bear such inscriptions: the tomb of King Qakare Ibi. Smaller than its predecessors, badly damaged, and marked by architectural and textual idiosyncrasies, this monument has often been dismissed as marginal to the main Pyramid Text tradition. Alvarez argues that Qakare Ibi’s pyramid actually provides a rare…
Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit hmsc.harvard.edu. I-Kai Jeng (Yenching Institute)
Harvard Classics Lectures
Justice in Wasps, Assembly Women, and Acharnians: An (Anti-)Platonic Reading
This talk belongs to part of a project to complicate what Plato calls "a sort of age-old quarrel (παλαιὰ μέν τις διαφορά) between philosophy and poetry" in Republic 607b5. Both the context and the τις suggest that the conflict or opposition between the two is not absolute but subtle. In the first part of my talk, I argue that Plato aims to replace the poets' exhortations with an aspirational and idealistic vision of personal and political justice. But this suggests that, contrary to what Plato said about poetry, tragedies in general share a similar outlook. Even while their respective notions of justice might differ, tragic poetry and philosophy both teach us to admire and emulate heroes who have something larger than themselves to live and die for. Where philosophy and poetry are truly at odds, I suggest, might be discerned in the portrayal of justice in comedy. In the second half of my talk I turn to three of Aristophanes'…
Thursday, February 26, 2026, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Boylston 203, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Opening Conversation for Celtic Art Across the Ages
Harvard Classics Lectures
Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is encouraged. Register here.
We invite you to the opening conversation for the special exhibition Celtic Art Across the Ages, on view from March 6 through August 2, 2026. Susanne Ebbinghaus, Laure Marest, Penny Coombe, and Catherine McKenna will take a close look at elaborate Celtic bronze objects and gold coins, examine religious imagery from Roman Gaul, and highlight moments of Celtic revival in modern times.
Celtic Art Across the Ages offers an unprecedented opportunity to explore masterful metalwork, including exquisitely decorated weaponry, jewelry, and horse and chariot trappings of the first millennium BCE Iron Age and early medieval times, all brought to light through archaeological discoveries of the last 200 years. See how imagery transformed under Roman rule, and trace the revival of Celtic art and identities in the modern era. From shape-shifting ancient ornaments to the more well-known Celtic iconography of medieval Ireland and Scotland,…
Thursday, March 5, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, Lower Level
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA , Enter at Broadway for evening programs.
For more info visit harvardartmuseums.org. Kimberly Cassibry (Wellesley College)
Harvard Classics Lectures
Influence, Fame, and Infamy: Legacies of Classical Celts in Ancient Art.
Event contact to appear in listing: Contact: classics@fas.harvard.edu. Event Series: Harvard Classics Departmental Seminar Series.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 133 (tentative), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos (St. Joseph's University)
"1956 is Greek to Filmmakers": Recreating the Ancient Battlefield in Cold War Hollywood
This lecture examines the sociohistorical conditions that led to the emergence of Greek antiquity as a cherished theme in American cinema during the early Cold War years. It traces Hollywood’s fascination with armed conflict in the classical world and explores how cinematic re-creations of ancient warfare reflect, and refract, the geopolitical tensions of the modern era.
Sponsored by the Hellenic Studies Program at UMass Lowell, the History Department, and the generosity of the Zamanakos Family.
Event contact to appear in listing: Jane Sancinito, Jane_Sancinito@uml.edu. Event Series (if not listed): Zamanakos Annual Lecture.
Thursday, March 26, 2026, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL; Coburn Hall 255, 850 Broadway St, Lowell, MA 01854.
For more info visit www.uml.edu. Dan Smail (Harvard University)
"Practices of Slavery in Mediterranean Europe, 1250-1500”
Abstract: Everywhere in late medieval Mediterranean Europe, it was possible, at least in theory, to purchase and hold an enslaved individual. The traffic in slaves began a noteworthy period of growth in the thirteenth century. In the second half of the fourteenth, the rise of the Black Sea trade led to a significant acceleration. Yet the practice of slavery was never uniform across the region. In some cities, as much as 15 percent of the population may have been enslaved. Elsewhere, the presence of enslaved individuals is scarcely detectable. The significant variation in the degree to which slavery implanted itself in the cities and towns of Mediterranean Europe is a historical phenomenon in search of explanation. Through a survey of practices of slavery in Marseille, a city located in the borderlands of the practice, this lecture seeks to frame a set of questions that could guide research in coming decades.
Bio: Daniel Lord Smail is Frank B.…
Event contact to appear in listing: ams-events@mit.edu. Event Series: MIT Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium Series.
Monday, March 30, 2026, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM.
MIT; Building 14, Room 14E-304
From the Lewis Music Library stairs, walk to the third floor of Building 14, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and walk to the end of the hall.
For more info visit ams.mit.edu. Greg Woolf (NYU ISAW)
Harvard Classics Lectures
"The Resilience of Empire and the Weakness of the Emperors".
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: classics@fas.harvard.edu. Event Series: Loeb Classical Lecture.
Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Margaret Andrews (Harvard University)
Solving a Problem like the Sabines in Mid-Republican Rome.
Event contact to appear in listing: Christopher Cochran (Christopher.Cochran@umb.edu).
Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM.
UMASS BOSTON, Campus Center, 3rd Floor, Room 3545.
Public Symposium: Celtic Art Up Close
Saturday, April 11, 2026.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Harvard Art Museums, TBA, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Brian Krostenko (University of Notre Dame)
TITLE TBD
Krostenko’s research centers on the culture and law of the Late Roman Republic, Cicero, rhetoric, and Latin linguistics. He is the author of Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance (Chicago, 2001), which discusses the problem of aestheticism in Roman culture by means of historical semantics. He is also the author of The Voices of the Consul: The Rhetorics of Cicero's de lege agraria I and II (Oxford, 2024), the first book-length study of the rhetoric of those speeches, which uses the techniques of discourse analysis to reveal how and why Cicero lays claim to contested political slogans and ideologies in the turbulent late Republic.
Thursday, April 16, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; LOCATION TBD.
Rebecca Moorman (Boston University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
Event Series: Methods and Practice in Classics Workshop.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Boylston 237, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA.
Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture, David G. Wigg-Wolf (Leicester University)
Harvard Classics Lectures
Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture: "Gods? Beasts? Warriors? Interpreting the Imagery of Celtic Coinages"
Speaker:
David G. Wigg-Wolf, Honorary Professor, Leicester University
Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is encouraged. Register here.
Celtic coins present a remarkable world of varied, often fantastic images. The earliest coinages were generally close copies of Hellenistic coins from the Mediterranean world, but gradually they developed a distinct visual language. Elements of the original prototypes were adapted or became disjointed; because these were combined with new elements, the resulting designs can be difficult to understand today. Different regions also followed different iconographical traditions, leading to a wide variety of designs. In a later phase, the arrival of Rome on the political stage led to the re-appearance of coinages with a classical look, particularly in Britain. In this lecture, David G. Wigg-Wolf, of Leicester University, will trace the iconography…
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
For more info visit harvardartmuseums.org. Conference—Past and Present: Cultural Politics in Byzantium and Beyond
Harvard Classics Lectures
TBD.
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: roilos@fas.harvard.edu.
Friday, May 1, 2026 – Saturday, May 2, 2026.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge MA.
Brettman Memorial Lecture Reception: Jacopo Tabolli (Università per Stranieri di Siena)
...But the Past: When Everything Changes in the New Discoveries of Bronzes at San Casciano dei Bagni
Jacopo Tabolli is associate professor of pre-Roman Archeology and Etruscology at the Università per Stranieri di Siena and director of the Center of Archeology for Diversity and Mobility in Pre-Roman Italy. Jacopo—who currently directs the archeological excavations at San Casciano dei Bagni and at Isola del Giglio, both in Italy, as well as the excavation at the tumulus of Laona in Palaepaphos, Cyprus—delivers this year’s Estelle Shohet Brettman Memorial Lecture, titled "...But the Past: When Everything Changes in the New Discoveries of Bronzes at San Casciano dei Bagni.".
Event contact to appear in listing: A.
Saturday, May 9, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON; 465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115; ROOM TBA.
For more info visit www.mfa.org.