Since 1975, the department has sponsored a one- or two-day event focusing on a single theme of current interest in classical studies. Renowned scholars deliver public lectures and encourage dialogue about the ancient world.
Themes of past symposia:
“Divine Minds,” April 2021
“Epic Profanations: Conjuring Homer in the 21st Century,” October 2019
“Being There: Martial and Mythological Landscapes of Greece,” November 2018
“Breathing New Life into Old Paintings,” November 2017
“Engendering Dynasty: Female Bodies and Figural Traditions in Lycian Relief,” April 2017
“Bodies of Stability/Faces of ‘Crisis,'” March 2017
“Touching Distant Sands with Tales of Brave Ulysses,”* November 2015 (*Eric Clapton 1988, Crossroads)
“Ancient Deer: Hunted, Sacred, and Sacrificed,” April 2015
“Classics and Science Fiction,” October 2013
“Climate, Cattle, and Culture: Environmental Histories of the Ancient Mediterranean,” November 2012
“No Angel: Dido in Ancient Rome, Renaissance England, and Beyond,” April 2012
“Roman Ritual,” April 2011
“Renovating the School of Athens: Intertextual Encounters from Alexandria to Andalusia,” April 2010
“Death and the Hero,” March 2009
“Dangerous Liaisons: Women and Spectacle in Late Republican Rome,” March 2008
“Interpretation of Greeks Who Bear Gifts,” March 2006
“Caesar: The Man and the Myth,” March 2005
“Oratory and Education: Classical Rhetoric and the Liberal Arts,” October 2002
“What Goes on in the House Next Door? Panderers and Prostitutes in Plautus,” November 2001
“Meeting at the Crossroads: the Intersection of Judaeo-Christian and Graeco-Roman Worlds,” November 2000
