News and Events

Part of the CAMS Lecture Series 2018-2019: "Wisdom in the Ancient World". Presented by Philip Horky, Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient History, Durham University

Thurs., Sept. 13, 2018
Thoth is My Co-Pilot: Seeking Wisdom and the God of Wisdom in Graeco-Roman Period Egypt
Richard Jasnow, Professor of Egyptology, Johns Hopkins University
4:30–6:00 P.M., 102 WEAVER BLDG

Wed., Oct. 24, 2018
The Figure of the Sage in Early Jewish Wisdom
Benjamin G. Wright, University Distinguished Professor, Lehigh University
4:30–6:00 P.M., 102 WEAVER BLDG.

Tues., Nov. 6, 2018
Towards a Definition of sapientia: Philosophy in Cicero’s Pro Marcello
Katharina Volk, Professor of Classics, Columbia University
4:30–6:00 P.M., 102 WEAVER BLDG.

Mon., Jan. 14, 2019
Philosophy’s Second Coming
Philip Horky, Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient History, Durham University
4:30–6:00 P.M., 102 WEAVER BLDG.

Thurs., Feb. 7, 2019
Sophia on Stage
Josh Billings, Assistant Professor of Classics, Princeton University
4:30–6:00 P.M., 102 WEAVER BLDG.

Thurs., April 11, 2019
New Men for a New Rome
Susanna Elm, Sidney H. Ehrman Professor of European History, UC Berkeley
4:30–6:00 P.M., 102 WEAVER BLDG.

September 12, 2018 6:00 p.m., Penn State location Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library

Professor Nicholas Rauh, Professor of Classics, Purdue University
"Prostitution Ancient and Modern, A Tell-All Confession”

In this presentation, Rauh discusses the available archaeological evidence for venues of prostitution in ancient trading ports such as Delos and the limitations of modern scholarly modes of analysis for investigating these.

Lectures are free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, with the support of
the departments of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Anthropology, the Program in Jewish Studies and
the Tombros Librarian for Classics and Humanities at the Pennsylvania State University.
This publication is available in alternative media on request.
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce. U.Ed. LBA 08-55
Penn State encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please consult Ann E. Killebrew at aek11@psu.edu, in advance of your participation or visit.

On September 7 and 8, 2018, the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Penn State University will be hosting:

"Vitruvius' Homo bene figuratus inter disciplinas:
Methodological Variations on a Single Passage
(Vitruvius, De architectura III.1)."

This two-day conference--generously supported by the Classical Association of the Atlantic States (CAAS)--will bring together scholars from a number of different fields (Classics, Rhetoric, Art History, Architecture, Renaissance Studies, etc.) for a wide-ranging conversation about the methodological future of the discipline of Classics centered on the "Vitruvian Man" passage in De architectura.

Students, teachers, scholars, and all with an interest in the subject are invited to attend. Please feel free to contact the organizers if you plan to join us and/or would like advice on your travel arrangements.

The program is posted below.

We hope to see many of you in early September.


Vitruvius' Homo bene figuratus inter disciplinas:
Methodological Variations on a Single Passage
(Vitruvius, De Architectura III.1)

An experimental two-day workshop at
Penn State University
September 7-8, 2018


Friday, September 7th

9.00-9.30 Welcome and Introduction (Mathias Hanses, Giovanna Laterza, Elena Giusti)


1st Session (9.30-11.30)

9.30-10.00 Marden Nichols (Georgetown)
Concealed Beneath the Breast: Buried Strains of Rhetoric in De Architectura 3.1
[Rhetorical Criticism]

10.00-10.30 Michele Kennerly (Penn State) and Jen Buchan (Penn State)
Vitruvius in Dystopia; Or, When Humans Don't Measure Up
[Visual Rhetoric, Iconographic Tracking, Posthumanism]

10.30-11.00 Discussion

11.00-11.30 Coffee Break


2nd Session (11.30-1.00)

11.30-12.00 Daniel Anderson (Coventry)
Man is the Measured in All Things: Greek Analogies of Proportion
[Genealogy, Intellectual History]

12.00-12.30 Marcie Persyn (UPenn) 
"That Which the Greeks Call...": Greek Code-switching in Vitruvius' De Architectura 3.1
[Bilingual Code-Switching]

12.30-1.00 Discussion

1.00-2.30 Lunch Break


3rd Session (2.30-5.15)

2.30-3.00 Kathrin Winter (Heidelberg)
FIGURE IT OUT: Thinking (with) the Body of Vitruvius' Homo bene figuratus
[Philology and Close Reading, Cognitive Literary Studies]

3.00-3.30 Tom Geue (St Andrews)
Man Made (to) Measure: the Vitruvian Individual, Invention, and 'Interdisciplinarity'
[Ideology Critique, Philology]

3.30-4.00 Coffee Break

4.00-4.30 Jared Hudson (Harvard)
Vitruvius, Varro, and the Rhetoric of Analogy
[Intertextuality, Philology, New Historicism]

4.30-5.15 Discussion


6.00 Reception


8.00 Conference Dinner



Saturday, September 8th

4th Session (9.00-11.45)

9.00-9.30 Deborah Chatr Aryamontri (Montclair)
A Simple Matter of Proportion
[Mathematical Theories, Comparative Architecture, Evolutionary Aesthetics]

9.30-10.00 Megan Goldman Petri (Princeton)
Between Aspiration and Pragmatism in Postwar Architecture: Reading the homo bene figuratus through the Modulor
[Architectural History, Urban Studies, Reception Studies]

10.00-10.30 Coffee Break

10.30-11.00 Elizabeth Merrill (MPIWG)
Perfection in Rule or a License to Innovate? Renaissance Architects Read Vitruvius
[Contextual Architectural History]

11.00-11.45 Discussion 


Concluding Remarks

11.45-12.30 Mathias Hanses (Penn State)



Organizers:

Mathias Hanses (Penn State) mhanses@psu.edu
Giovanna Laterza (Heidelberg) giovanna.laterza@uni-heidelberg.de
Elena Giusti (Warwick) e.giusti@warwick.ac.uk