Current events

The events below are organised by the College of Humanities. You may also be interested in events in the general University of Exeter events.

When	Time	Description	Add to your calendar
4 October 2018	17:30	Portraiture and Risk Portraiture tends to be regarded as a conservative genre, its purposes being to reinforce the status quo, consolidate power and mitigate absence or death. Conversely this lecture considers ways in which portraits can disrupt social and aesthetic norms even within pre-modern systems of patronage. Risk-taking by sitters and artists is explored through a range of portraits, primarily from eighteenth-century France. At this time of Enlightenment the emergence of capitalist society coincided with new philosophical ideas on human agency. Full details	Add event
10 October 2018	16:30	Prof. Barbara Borg (Exeter) – "Peter and Paul ad catacumbas: a pozzolana mine reconsidered." Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar. The burial sites of the apostles Peter and Paul are among the most controversial topics in scholarship on early Christianity. Their cult site on the via Appia, set into and above a former pozzolana mine, is still seen by many as a temporary refuge for their relics during times of persecution, while a growing number of scholars has resorted to the assumption that there were rival traditions related to the Appia site on the one hand, and those on the via Ostiense and the Vatican on the other. I shall reconsider the evidence for the apostles’ burial, and the history of their cult on the via Appia, in the light of both the site’s development from quarry to basilica, and its wider context between the second and third milestone of the consular road. Full details	Add event
17 October 2018	17:00	CA Lecture: Dr James Robson (Open) 'Beauty, Sexuality and Desire in Classical Athens' CA Lecture at Exeter College. The art and literature of classical Athens provide plenty of rich material for scholars of ancient sexuality to explore: from erotic vase painting, to the highly sexualized portrayal of women on the comic stage, to more muted references to everyday attitudes about beauty, sex and desire. In this talk, James Robson will aim to paint a broad picture of what sexiness constituted for Classical Athenians, exploring topics such as physical characteristics, seductive behaviour and how appearance could be enhanced by clothing or personal grooming. While touching on topics such as sexual attraction, fantasy and taboo, this talk will take a risqué peek into the private bedrooms, whorehouses, drinking parties, wrestling schools and gymnasia of classical Athens in an attempt to add to our understanding of this culture’s often complex relationship with sex and sexual acts. Full details	Add event
24 October 2018	16:30	Luca Mazzini (Exeter) - "'Triggered identity': the use of Macedonian ethnicity by Blaundos in confrontation with the Roman Empire." Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar. The present paper analyses the importance of the Macedonian ethnic for the civic community of Blaundos, a Hellenistic settlement located in the ancient region of Phrygia, Asia Minor. The epigraphic and numismatic evidence indicates that the Macedonian ethnic started to be used in the civic coins and in the civic decrees by Blaundos only during the Roman imperial period and exclusively for political reasons. There is no trace of the Macedonian ethnic in the public inscriptions preserved, nor in the civic coins dated to the Hellenistic period. Moreover, the Macedonian ethnic seems to be claimed by civic institutions of Blaundos only in response to a Roman official authority that intervened directly in the administration. The initial settlers of Blaundos were likely Macedonian soldiers who arrived at the end of the IVrd century BC after Alexander’s conquest, but the Greek and Latin inscriptions of the Roman period reveal that the inhabitants usually referred to Blaundos simply as “fatherland”, without any ethnic connotation. I argue that the use of the Macedonian ethnic in Blaundos represents a case of “triggered identity”. The intervention of the Roman administration in the minting and in the building activity compelled the local authorities to affirm an ethnic that did not actually correspond with the components of Blaundos’ civic community at that time. Did Blaundos become proud of being Macedonian as a direct consequence of the Roman Imperial power, in order to symbolically claim its political autonomy?. Full details	Add event
31 October 2018	16:30	PhD Workshop Our new PhDs will each present a brief introduction to their work. Full details	Add event
6 November 2018	10:30	Digital Humanities Workshop: Text Encoding in TEI XML for Beginners The TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) standard is widely used to encode primary source texts for critical editions and web archives and resources, allowing editorial and descriptive features to be captured for preservation, display and analysis. This introductory hands-on training will cover the basics of using TEI to encode textual materials. The workshop is intended for Exeter staff and postgraduates who are involved in text encoding projects or who are interested in gaining these skills. No prior experience is necessary. SIGN UP HERE: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-humanities-workshop-text-encoding-in-tei-xml-for-beginners-tickets-48449419518. Full details	Add event
7 November 2018	16:30	Dr Maxine Lewis (Auckland/Oxford) - TBC Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar. Full details	Add event
14 November 2018	16:30	PhD Workshop Our new PhDs will each present a brief introduction to their work. Full details	Add event
21 November 2018	16:30	Prof. Leif Isaksen (Exeter) - "The Ends of the Earth: the western section of the Peutinger Map and implications for its origin" Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar. Full details	Add event
28 November 2018	13:30	Digital Humanities Workshop: Text Encoding in TEI XML for Intermediates The TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) standard is widely used to encode primary source texts for critical editions and web archives and resources, allowing editorial and descriptive features to be captured for preservation, display and analysis. This intermediate hands-on training will look in greater depth at using TEI to encode textual materials, for those who have already had some exposure to TEI or attended our Text Encoding for Beginners workshop. The workshop is intended for Exeter staff and postgraduates who are involved in text encoding projects or who are interested in gaining these skills. SIGN UP HERE: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-humanities-workshop-text-encoding-in-tei-xml-for-intermediates-tickets-48449576989. Full details	Add event
28 November 2018	16:30	Prof. Tim Whitmarsh (Cambridge) - "The Invention of White? Skin Colour in Ancient Greece" Classics and Ancient History Research Seminar. Full details	Add event
12 December 2018	17:00	CA Lecture: Dr Kathryn Tempest (Roehampton) 'The Art of Faking It: The Letters of Marcus Brutus and Mithridates' CA Lecture at Exeter College. Full details	Add event
17 January 2019	17:00	CA Lecture: Máirín O’Hagan (Barefaced Greek Productions) 'Barefaced Greek' CA Lecture at Exeter College. Full details	Add event
20 March 2019	17:00	CA Lecture: Prof. Greg Woolf (ICS) Title TBC CA Lecture, Exeter College. Full details	Add event