Department Homepage
The College of Arts & Sciences
Gregory Vlastos, University of California, Berkeley, delivered four Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 1986 on "Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher."The dates and titles of his four lectures were:February 25, 1986 - "Socrates' Contra Socrates' in Plato"Vlastos claims that there are two different Socrates, one which might be called "...
Marcel Detienne, Ecole des Hautes Etudes (Paris), delivered seven Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 1987 on "The Gods of Writing."The dates and titles for the talks were:February 17, 1987 - "The Scribes of Greece"Professor Detienne explores the origins of writing with relation to the gods of ancient civilization, placing special emphasis on...
G.E.M (Geoffrey Ernest Maurice) de Ste. Croix, fellow and tutor of New College, Oxford University, delivered seven Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 1988 on "Early Christian Attitudes Towards Women, Sex and Marriage."The dates and titles of his seven lectures were:February 16, 1988 - "Saint Paul"De Sainte Croix argues that St. Paul was not a...
Walter Ralph Johnson, University of Chicago, delivered seven Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 1989 on "Askesis and Caprice: Freedom in Horace's "Epistles"."The dates and titles of his seven lectures were:February 14, 1989 - "Mirrors for Proteus: Some Versions of Horace"Johnson addresses the autobiographical and fictional aspects of Horace's "...
Erich S. Gruen, University of California, Berkeley, delivered seven Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 1991 on "Culture and National Identity in Mid-Republican Rome."The dates and titles of his seven lectures were:February 12, 1991 - "The Making of the Trojan Legend"February 19, 1991 - "Cato and Hellenism"February 26, 1991 - "Art and Civic...
Richard Sorabji, Kings College, University of London, delivered seven Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 1992 on "Animals: Mind and Morals in Ancient Philosophy."The dates and titles of his seven lectures were:October 1, 1991 - "The Crisis: Perception Versus Reason"October 8, 1991 - "The Mental Powers of Irrational Animals"October 22, 1991 - "...
Nicole Loraux, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 1993 on "Voice of Mourning in Attic Tragedy."The dates and titles of her seven lectures were:February 16, 1993 - "Political Drama or Oratorio: Sartre Confronts Euripides' Trojan Women"Loraux compares Sartre's 1965 adaption of...
Timothy D. Barnes, Professor of Classics at the University of Toronto, delivered seven Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 1994 on the "Representation and Historical Reality in Ammianus Marcellinus."The dates and titles of his seven lectures were:September 27, 1994 - "The Representation of Reality"Barnes details the life of Ammianus Marcellinus, a...
Jerome Pollitt delivered threeTownsend Lectures in the Spring of 1997 on the "Art and Ideology in Periclean Athens."The dates, titles, and descriptions of the lectures were:February 13, 1995 - "The design of the Athenian Acropolis"Pollitte reviews various Athenian historical events and how they illustrate cultural and religious values of the...
Julia E. Annas, Regents Professor at the University of Arizona, delivered the Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 1997 on "Platonic Ethics, Old and New."The titles and dates of her seven lectures were:February 11 - "Many Voices: Dialogue and Development in Plato"February 18 - "Transforming Your Life: Virtue and Happiness"February 25 - "...
David. N. Sedley, Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, delivered the Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2001 on "Plato's Cratylus."The dates and titles of his seven lectures were:September 25 - “Author, Cast, and Plot”October 2 - “Plato the Etymologist”October 16 - “Linguistic Science”October 23 - “...
François Lissarrague, Directeur d'Études à l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, delivered a lecture series on "Image and Ritual in Athens" for the Spring 2002 Townsend Lectures.The dates and titles of his three lectures were: Friday, February 22 - "The Function Of Images"Monday, February 25 - "Visual Space And Ritual Space:...
Natalie Boymel Kampen, Professor of Women’s Studies, Barnard College, delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2002 on “The Image of Manhood: Roman Representations of Mas-culinity in the Art of the High and Late Empire.”The dates and titles of her three lectures were:Tuesday, October 22 - “Antinoos The Beautiful: From Queer to Kin”...
Katherine Dunbabin, McMaster University, delivered the Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 2005 on "Spectacular Images: Performance in the Art of the Later Roman Empire."The dates and titles of her seven lectures were:March 29 - "Greek Festivals in Roman Art"April 5 - "The Traditional Theatre"April 12 - "Pantomime and Mythological Spectacle"...
Robert C. T. Parker MA, DPHIL, FBA, Fellow, New College, Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford, delivered seven Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2008 on “Approaching Greek Religion.”The dates and titles of the seven lectures were: Wednesday, October 1 - “Why Believe Without Revelation? The Evidences of...
Raffaella Cribiore, Professor of Classics, New York University, delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2010. The title for the series was "Studies on Libanius: Rhetoric, Reality, and Religion."The dates and titles of the three lectures were:Friday, October 15 - "Libanius: Rhetoric and Reality"Monday, October 18 - "A Rhetor and His...
Stephen Halliwell, Professor of Greek, University of St. Andrews, delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2012 on "Greek Aesthetics."The dates and titles of the three lectures were: Monday, September 17 - "Philosophers in the Theatre"Wednesday, September 19 - "The Philosophy of Music and the Music of Philosophy"Friday, September 21...
Jörg Rüpke, Professor of Comparative Religion and Classical Philology at the Universität Erfurt, delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2013 on "Lived Religion and the Individual: Roles and Rituals in the Ancient World." The dates and titles of the three lectures were:Friday, September 27 - "Individual Appropriation of Religion"...
Josiah Ober, Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics Stanford University, delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2014 on "The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece."The dates and titles of the three lectures were: Wednesday, September 17 - "Greek Exceptionalism: Measuring Development"Lord Byron described ancient Greece as...
Isabelle Bochet, CNRS, Institut des Études Augustiniennes (Paris), delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 2015 on "Fides as Assent According to Augustine: Philosophical Tradition and Scritpure."The dates and titles of the three lectures were: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - "Consentire Sapientiae: Going Beyond Skepticism in the Contra...
Jennifer Trimble, Associate Professor of Classics at Stanford University, delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2016 on "The Visual Culture of Roman Slavery."The dates and titles of the three lectures were:Friday, September 9, 4:30 PM - "Seeing Roman Slaves: Conditions of Visibility"Monday, September 12, 5:30 PM - "Slaves, Gladiators...
Albio Cesare Cassio, Professor at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza', delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Spring of 2018 titled "En Route to Athens: Cultural Contacts and Dialect Variation in the Latest Phases of the Homeric Epics." The dates and titles of the three lectures were:Friday, April 13 - "Rare Pronouns & Crucial...
Greg Woolf, Director of the Institute of Classical Studies, delivered three Townsend Lectures in the Fall of 2018 titled "Classic Roman." The dates and titles of the three lectures were:Wednesday, September 12 - "Oh Brave New Romes!"Friday, September 14 - "Post-Classical"Monday, September 17 - "Cultural Creativity in an Age of Empire"This...
The Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory and members of the Cornell Classics community hosted a dendrochronology workshop for 7th-8th grade girls for a fourth straight year as part of the Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) conference held at Cornell on April 27th. EYH is a one-day, student-led conference for middle school girls that stimulates participants’...
For archeologist and Humanities Center fellow Astrid Van Oyen, objects have a story to tell.Astrid Van Oyen is assistant professor in classical archaeology at Cornell University. Her focus has been on storage in the Roman empire, as a point of redefinition of objects and their social relations. She is the author of How Things Make History (2016...