On 7 November Dr Katherine Harloe will be taking part in a public panel discussion in Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre with James Ivory (of Merchant Ivory Pictures), Professor Richard Parkinson (Oxford/British Museum), and Professor Jennifer Ingleheart (Durham) on the topic of ‘Tales of Love and History’. The event is organised by The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities as part of a week of showings of Merchant Ivory films in Oxford, in the context of the ‘No Offence’ LGBT history exhibition, which has just arrived in the Ashmolean on tour from the British Museum. A link to the page to reserve free tickets is here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tales-of-love-and-history-james-ivory-in-conversation-tickets-50785170813.

Dr Harloe’s participation in this event relates to her current, British Academy-funded research project on ‘Winckelmann’s love letters’, as well as to two UROP projects she has recently supervised: the digital exhibition on Winckelmann and gay history (available at www.curiosi.org) completed by student Connell Greene, and the more recent ‘Offences against the person: tracing hidden LGB histories through the Berkshire County Archives’, which she worked on with students George Stokes and Amy Hitchings.

In the early 20th century suffragettes and suffragists—many of whom were Classicists or had received a Classical education—adapted Classical themes, especially imagery, in their campaigning magazines Votes for Women and Common Cause. In response to the the suffrage movement magazines also used classical parodies—for example Antigone saving her sister rather than her brother. Now you can learn all about the important role Classics played in women’s suffrage through a display just launched in the Classics hallway, opposite the entrance to Edith Morley room 40 (appropriately enough because Edith Morley herself was a suffragette!). Professor Barbara Goff has created this exhibit, in celebration of the centenary of the women’s vote, based on the research of Rebeca Bird-Lima and Anna Godsell (who have just completed their BA’s at Reading). Ure staff Jayne Holly-Wait and Claudina Romero Mayorga have added some artefacts to the display while Ure volunteer Matthew Knight has designed it.

All seminars start at 4 p.m., except for the one on the 10th October, which is this term’s Reading Classical Association talk; this starts at 5 p.m.
All seminars will take place in Edith Morley G25 (except for that on 10th October, which will be in EM 127), and all will be followed by light refreshments in Edith Morley G40.
The Percy Ure Lecture is at 5 pm on 23rd November, and is held in the Van Emden Lecture Theatre, Edith Morley Building.

Everyone welcome!

10th October (5 p.m., EM 127) – Llewellyn Morgan (Oxford): ‘Death and Redemption in Aeneid 10.’ Reading Classical Association talk.
17th October – Daniela Colomo (Oxford): ‘Two recent discoveries in literary papyrology: Homer and Euripides.’
24th October – Jen Grove (Exeter): ‘From EP Warren to Alfred Kinsey: Collecting Classical Erotica and Theorising Sexuality in the first half of the 20th century.’
31st October – Amanda Wrigley (Reading): ‘Oral Poetry and the Aural Imagination: Homer, Modern Poets and Radio.’
7th November: no seminar
14th November – Peter Wilson (Sydney): ‘A Potted Political History of the Sicilian Theatre (to ca. 300)’
21st November – Thomas Kiely (British Museum), ‘The Iron Age sanctuary of Salamis-Toumba in Cyprus. Re-excavating the excavations of 1890.’
23rd November (5 pm, EM Van Emden Lecture Theatre) – Eighth Annual Percy Ure Lecture. Greg Woolf (ICS, London): ‘The Empire of Things and the Empire of People.’
28th November – Naoise Mac Sweeney (Leicester): ‘Classics in contemporary political discourse – a global vision?’
5th December – Phoebe Garrett (Australia National University): ‘Running in the family: Ancestry narratives in Suetonius’ Caesars.’

The first call for papers has gone out for the conference ‘Keeping it in the Family? Exploring familial tension and rupture in the ancient and early-medieval Mediterranean.’ This is a postgraduate and ECR Conference, and will be held on the 24-25th April 2019, at the University of Reading. Confirmed keynotes: Prof. Edith Hall (KCL); Prof. Kate Cooper (RHUL).

Here is the CfP:

Family is a significant aspect of human interaction in the ancient world, shaping both public and private spheres. As a social unit the family is often taken for granted; but the boundaries, duties and expectations of familial relationships are not always clear, constant or consistent. These boundaries are often best understood through the moments when the family comes under pressure; when someone does not behave as expected or there is a break in the family line. Through examining these moments of crisis, we can analyse the underlying expectations that society had of the family in these eras.
Family studies has attracted attention from a broad range of disciplines and we want to build on this by inviting scholars with an interest in the ancient and early-medieval Mediterranean to join us and explore ways of approaching and interpreting tensions inside and on the edges of the family.

Suggested themes:
• Interaction between familial structures and social and political structures
• Tension between familial and social relations (enslaved parents, children, partners; citizens and non-citizens within the family; etc)
• In and out: tension at the boundaries of familial structures and relationships (adoption, disownment, marriage, divorce, concubinage)
• Taboos, intermarriage and the construction of good and bad interaction within the family
• Contesting and constructing legitimacy and illegitimacy
• Succession, heirship and inheritance
• Family law, disputes and legislation as plot devices in literature
• Visual and material representations of familial association or disassociation

We want this conference to bring together postgraduates and early-career researchers from a broad range of geographical, chronological and disciplinary areas. Accordingly, the suggestions above are not binding and we welcome any paper that addresses the titular theme.

We will endeavour to ensure this conference is as accessible and representative as possible. If you have any access concerns, or would require any further additional support to present, then please include this information in a separate attachment and we will contact you in confidence if your abstract is selected in anonymous review.

Abstracts of 300-350 words for a 20-minute paper should be sent as a PDF to readingancientfamily2019@gmail.com by 15/10/2018. Please include your name, university affiliation, programme and year of study (if applicable) in the body of your email and not in the abstract. To ensure that all papers can be understood by as many participants as possible, we request that abstracts and papers are in English.

Becca Grose, Doukissa Kamini, Rebecca Rusk (PhD students at the University of Reading)

Members and friends of Reading Classics will know about Professor Eleanor Dickey’s Ancient Schoolroom project, the painstaking reconstruction of an ancient classroom which brings the past to life for children and their teachers in 21st-century England. Now you can hear Professor Dickey talking about ancient education in the latest podcast from the British Academy’s series, ‘From Our Fellows’, described as ‘a regular podcast in which Fellows of the British Academy offer brief reflections on what is currently interesting them’.

In her talk, Professor Dickey addresses the fundamental question of what it was like to go to school in the ancient world. She conjures up an environment radically different from our own modern school experience, and reveals how school students in antiquity actually received a remarkably tailored and individual education. Listen to her podcast to have your preconceptions about school, and about pedagogical approaches, challenged by the evidence of the ancient world.

The podcast may be found at: https://www.britac.ac.uk/audio/from-our-fellows-13-eleanor-dickey-school-ancient-rome

For more information on the Ancient Schoolroom project, see https://readingancientschoolroom.com/

Rosie Mack and Una Markham recently undertook a week long research trip to Greece. Here is their account of their travels!

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We flew to Thessaloniki, collected a car, and made overnight stops in Vergina, Delphi, and Volos.

We began with a visit to the royal Macedonian tombs at Vergina which have been cleverly incorporated into the museum which also houses the artefacts from the tombs. Unfortunately, the ancient palace and theatre here are still not accessible. Nearby, the ancient capital of the Argeads at Pella, is a large and fascinating site (see photo: House of Dionysos). The layout of the Hellenistic public bath house, with drainage system and evidence of underfloor heating, was illuminating. From Macedonia we moved down the mainland to Boiotia, visiting the Museums of Thebes and Chaironeia. The Lion Monument at Chaironeia, the related battlefield, and the fourth century theatre carved into the hillside, were of great interest.

House of Dionysos, Pella

Delphi is one of the most beautiful sites, but best appreciated early in the morning before the hordes arrive! Una was delighted to examine the Treasury of the Boiotians, and after some surreptitious ‘gardening’, was thrilled to discover the Treasury of the Thebans. After Delphi, we drove to Volos by way of the Boiotian town of Orchomenos. Here, the Mycenaean tholos tomb, referred to by Pausanias as the ‘Treasure of Minyas’, was certainly very impressive. The roof of a side chamber is decorated with spirals, rosettes and papyrus flowers which are very well preserved. The fourth century B.C. theatre is undergoing restoration, and it was very useful to be able to question the on-site architect.

From our base in Thessaly, we headed for Larisa. Dr Emma Aston had kindly alerted the Ephor of Larisa at the new Diachronic Museum to our visit. Both the Ephor, Dr Sdrolia, and her assistant Asimina Tsiaka were extremely helpful, giving up their valuable time to answer our questions, and we gratefully thank them. The Museum houses important artefacts, including a large number of coins relating to Rosie’s current research. A special exhibition concerned the ongoing excavations at Kastro Kallithea conducted by the Ephorate at Larisa and the University of Alberta, Canada. The model of this Hellenistic polis, with a selection of finds, was very informative. While in Larisa, we also visited the Hellenistic theatre, which has recently been opened to the public after restoration (see photo).

Larisa, Hellenistic theatre

On our last day we visited Volos Museum, followed by a drive up Mount Pelion, the legendary home of the centaurs. A typical narrow Greek mountain road, Una was slightly perturbed by the lack of a barrier between the road and the sheer drop down to the valley below! However, the view was worth it. After 7 days, covering 1600 km, we flew back to the UK inspired. The trip was invaluable, not only for the evidence we found in the various museums, but also for deepening our perspectives. Actually experiencing the relationship between a site and its surrounding landscape, provided insights that cannot be otherwise conveyed.

C.W Götzloff, Antiquities by a Balcony Overlooking the Gulf of Naples, 1826

This term Professor Amy C. Smith is one of 18 international scholars (and 3 Classicists) selected as to be a Visiting Research Fellow at the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University (ANU), in that nation’s capital, Canberra.This week, however, she has been invited to Melbourne to deliver the prestigious Trendall Lecture, at the A.D. Trendall Research Centre for Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Latrobe University. She will deliver her lecture, entitled ‘1766 and All That! Winckelmann and the Study of Greek Vases’, in the State Library of Victoria at 6:30 pm on Thursday, 16 November.

The Trendall Centre is named for Professor A.D. (Dale) Trendall (1909-1995), around whose library, archives & collections it is built. A classical historian and archaeologist, with particular expertise in the Greek art of South Italy, Prof. Trendall amassed perhaps the finest library of Classical Archaeology in the Southern hemisphere. After a long and distinguished career as Professor of Greek and Chair of Archaeology at University of Sydney, then Master of University House at ANU, in 1960 he retired to Latrobe University (in Melbourne), where he worked as Resident Fellow for many years, continuing his groundbreaking work on the attribution of tens of thousands of vases made by Greeks in South Italy, and maintaining warm working relationships with international scholars including Annie Ure, Curator of Classics@Reading’s Ure Collection until her death in 1976. Professor Smith is the Ure Museum’s current Curator.

The Trendall Lecture is one of two annual lectures honouring and named for this influential scholar. The second, sponsored by the Australian Academy of the Humanities, of which Trendall was a Foundation Fellow, is delivered in conjunction with the conference of the Australasian Society of Classical Studies.