Metaphysics and Theology Workshop (Department of Philosophy, Harvard University)
Friday, December 5 | 8:30am - 4:30pm (Emerson 211)
Saturday, December 6 | 8:30am - 1:30pm (Robbins Library)
Speakers:
Julia Borcherding (Cambridge University), "Divine Minds: Leibniz on the imago Dei Thesis and the Commonwealth of Spirits"
Therese Cory (University of Notre Dame), "A Puzzle about Intellectual Memory: Three States of Mental Forms in Aquinas"
Sam Newlands (University of Notre Dame), "Panentheism, Idealism, and Monism"
Dominik Perler (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), "One Substance and Many Attributes: Spinoza and the Scholastic Background“
Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra (Oxford University), "What Kind of Trope Theorist Was Hume?"
Stephan Schmid (Universität Hamburg), "Spinoza’s Attributes as Ways of Being"
Organizers:
Clara Carus (Harvard University)
Jeff McDonough (Harvard University)
Co-Sponored by the Abigail Adams Institute and the Harvard Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities.
Friday, December 5, 2025, 8:30 AM – Saturday, December 6, 2025, 1:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Emerson Hall Rm. 211 & Robbins Library.
Homer Reading Group
Workshops
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: lkiriakidi@g.harvard.edu.
Friday, December 5, 2025, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM.
Boylston 203.
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.
Classics Department Meeting
Harvard Classics Department Meetings
Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
TBD.
Department of the Classics Holiday Party
Please join us after the faculty meeting for our holiday party! Drinks and light refreshments will be served!
Please RSVP here.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Boylston 2nd floor.
Fall Term Final Examinations Period
Registrar's Calendar
Wednesday, December 10, 2025 – Friday, December 19, 2025.
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.
Course Evaluation (Q Guide) closes.
Registrar's Calendar
Monday, December 22, 2025.
Spring Online Check-In Opens.
Registrar's Calendar
Tuesday, January 6, 2026.
Add/Drop Opens
Registrar's Calendar
Open Add/Drop begins, instructor consent not needed.
Monday, January 12, 2026.
University Holiday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Registrar's Calendar
Department offices closed.
Monday, January 19, 2026.
Check-In Deadline for All Students
Registrar's Calendar
Monday, January 26, 2026.
First meeting of spring term classes.
Registrar's Calendar
Monday, January 26, 2026.
Minimum Course Enrollment Deadline
Registrar's Calendar
Monday, January 26, 2026.
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, TBD.
Methods and Practice Workshop
Workshops
TBD.
Event Series: Methods and Practice in Classics Workshop.
Friday, January 30, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM.
Boylston 237.
Open Add/Drop deadline
Registrar's Calendar
Open Add/Drop deadline - After this date students must obtain permission from all instructors to enroll in courses.
Monday, February 2, 2026.
3rd Monday
Registrar's Calendar
Last day upon which students may drop or add any course without a fee.
Monday, February 9, 2026.
Classics Department Meeting
Harvard Classics Department Meetings
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
TBD.
Dissertation Writers Workshop
Workshops
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: classicsDGS@fas.harvard.edu.
Friday, February 13, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM.
Boylston 237.
For more info visit classics.fas.harvard.edu. University Holiday: President's Day
Registrar's Calendar
Department offices closed.
Monday, February 16, 2026.
Prospective Graduate Student Visit
GSAS Calendar
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 – Wednesday, February 18, 2026.
Hold for event
GSAS Calendar
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
TBD.
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. Methods and Practice Workshop
Workshops
TBD.
Event Series: Methods and Practice in Classics Workshop.
Friday, February 20, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM.
Boylston 237.
5th Monday
Registrar's Calendar
Last day upon which College students and students from other schools (not GSAS) may drop or add any course without a fee.
Monday, February 23, 2026.
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, TBD.
I-Kai Jeng (Yenching Institute)
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; TBD.
Department deadline for Graduate Society Summer Predissertation Fellowships
GSAS Calendar
Students should apply for GSAS Society Summer Predissertation Fellowships (intended for language study and preliminary dissertation research at the pre-prospectus stage) by this date.
Friday, February 27, 2026.
Submit applications in CARAT by noon.
For more info visit gsas.harvard.edu. Dissertation Writers Workshop
Workshops
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: classicsDGS@fas.harvard.edu.
Friday, February 27, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM.
Boylston 237.
For more info visit classics.fas.harvard.edu. FAS Faculty meeting
FAS Faculty Meetings
Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
For more info visit secfas.fas.harvard.edu.