CLAIMING THE CLASSICAL

Mapping Workshop

Friday 9th November 2018

9:00-18:00

Room G22/26, Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London

This workshop will ‘map’ how Greco-Roman antiquity is being deployed in political rhetoric in the 21st century, identifying differences across national and continental boundaries as well as across the political spectrum.

Does invoking the Spartans mean something different in the banlieues of Paris from what it means in Charlottesville, Virginia? If Europa on the bull represents internationalism in Brussels, what does it signify in Beirut, Brisbane, or Beijing? Looking internationally, does the Right make more use of classical antiquity than the Left? And if so, why?

The workshop will feature a combination of formal papers and discussion sessions. The range, extent, and nature of politicised appropriations of antiquity during the twenty-first century will be mapped; considering geographical, social, and ideological variation.

Following the workshop, we will draft a short paper, offering a ‘snapshot’ of how classics is currently being used in political discourse globally. This will be made available freely online, to inform future research.

Programme

8:30     Registration

9:00     The Americas (Chair = Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Denison University)

• USA: Denise McCoskey (Miami University)
• USA: Curtis Dozier (Pharos Project and Vassar College)
• USA: Liz Sawyer (University of Oxford)
• USA-Mexico: Chiara Bonacchi (University of Stirling)
• Brazil: Juliana Bastos Marque (Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)

11:00   Coffee, tea, and biscuits

11:30   Africa and Asia (Chair = Barbara Goff, Reading University)

• Ghana: Michael Okyere Asante (Stellenbosch University)
• South Africa: Grant Parker (Stanford University)
• China: Michael Scott (Warwick University)

12:45   Lunch

13:30   The Mediterranean (Chair = Rosa Andujar, Kings College London)

• Italy: Sam Agbamu (King’s College London)
• Greece: Konstantinos Poulis (ThePressProject)
• Greece: Catherine Psilakis (Université Lyon 1)
• Turkey: Elif Koparal and Güneş Dürü (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University)
• Israel: Netta Schramm (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

15:45   Coffee, tea, and biscuits

16:15   Northern Europe (Chair = Gwladys Bernard, Université Paris 8)

• France: Anne-Sophie Noel (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon)
• Germany: Julia Müller (Technische Universität Dresden)
• EU: Neville Morley (University of Exeter)
• UK: Damjan Krsmanovic (University of Leicester)

18:00   Drinks reception