Classical Religious Events

Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. 4:10 pm. Cohen 203. This talk will examine Roman ideas about the ethically and emotionally fraught position of the bystander as explored by Ovid in the Metamorphoses. The figure of the bystander raises questions about responsibility, identification, trauma, and complicity. Ovid’s treatment implicates the reader by… Read More

Wednesday, March 26th, 2025. 4:10 pm. Cohen 203. What role did Mediterranean powers, particularly Venice, play in the new world order created by the Mongols? This talk will explore the motivations, challenges, and achievements of the Venetians who lived, traded and died in Mongol lands. The Mongol conquest offered unprecedented… Read More

The Vanderbilt Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies is excited to Benjamin Folit-Weinberg, Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at The Ohio State University, to present A History of Air: The First Centuries as part of the Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies 2024/2025 Lecture Series. This lecture will… Read More

The Vanderbilt University Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies is pleased to present the 2023-2024 distinguished lecture, Book Panel in Honor of Peter R.L. Brown’s Journeys of the Mind. Over the course of six decades, the work of Peter Brown, the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, emeritus at Princeton University,… Read More

On Tuesday, March 5th Adjoint Assistant Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies, Katherine D. Van Schaik, will be hosting a reading of her new book, “How to be Healthy: An Ancient Guide to Wellness“. Assistant Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies, James Zainaldin, will be joining Assistant Professor Van… Read More

The Vanderbilt Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies is excited to welcome Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies at Brandeis University, to present Remind Me of Anactoria: Models for Meaning from the Structure(s) of Early Greek Poetry. This event is the second of the department’s 2023/2024 lecture series. Professor Christensen… Read More

James Zainaldin, Assistant Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies, delivered a presentation on December 15th, 2023, entitled "Between Mourning and Consolation: The Greco-Roman and Chinese Philosophical Traditions on Grief and Loss,” in the distinguished Guangqi Classics Lecture and Seminar Series hosted by the Guangqi International Center for Scholars of… Read More

The Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies welcomes Professor Jackie Murray to present the lecture, Epic Racecraft and the Race of Heroes, as part of the Classical and Mediterrranean Studies 2023/2024 Lecture Series. Jackie Murray is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at University of Buffalo. This… Read More

The Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies Lecture Series presents Sacral topography of the Archbishopric of Ohrid from its founding in the beginning of the 11th to the mid-13th century, a lecture by Dr. Ljubomir Milanović of The Institute for Byzantine Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. This… Read More

The Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies is excited to present “The Blues of Achilles”, a 17-song adaptation of the Iliad by modern bard, Joe Goodkin! For over two decades, Chicago-based musician and Classics degree holder Joe Goodkin has traveled the world as a modern bard… Read More

The Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies will be hosting a workshop with several speakers from both within and outside of Vanderbilt to encourage dialogue between text-critical methods in Jewish Studies and Classics. The Text-Critical Methods in Classical Studies & Jewish Studies workshop will be hosted from March 26-28, 2023. Read More

The Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies Lecture Series presents Self-Harm and the Death Drive: A history through Antiquity, a lecture by Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek Literature and Culture at King’s College, University of Cambridge. This event will be held in 203 Cohen Memorial Hall on Thursday, March… Read More

This academic year, the Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies is honored to host an esteemed group of lecturers for its 2022/2023 lecture series: October 6, 2022: Professor of Religion at Colgate University, Georgia Frank, presented Unfinished Christians – Ritual Objects and Silent Subjects in Late Antiquity. November 10, 2022: Associate… Read More

The Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies Lecture Series presents Ordinary Christians on the Eve of Islam, a lecture by Jack Tannous, Associate Professor of History and Hellenistic Studies at Princeton University. This event will be held in 203 Cohen Memorial Hall on Friday, February 17, 2023 at 2:30pm… Read More

The Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies Lecture Series presents The Spaces for Poor Relief in Rome, a lecture by Gregor A. Kalas, Associate Professor of Architectural History and Rigsby director of the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This event will… Read More

The Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies at Vanderbilt University welcomes Georgia Frank, Charles A. Dana Professor of Religion, Department of Religion at Colgate University to present Unfinished Christians: Ritual Objects and Silent Subjects in Late Antiquity. This event will be held in 203 Cohen Memorial Hall… Read More