Classical Antiquity and Local Identities: from Newfoundland to Nigeria and Ghana

This conference, based on the collaboration of classicists at Memorial University (Canada), the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), and the University of Ghana, explores the presence of classical antiquity in different cultural traditions and geographical settings at the intersection of the local and the global. While Classics has become more global in perspective, scholarly networks on the practical level still remain highly constrained by regional, and sometimes national, boundaries. One major focus of this project will be to generate dialogue around ways of confronting those boundaries with the goal of creating a truly global Classics through the interchange of ideas and the mobility of students and researchers. The conference, supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Connection Grant, as well as internal funding from the Scholarship in the Arts and the Memorial University Conference Fund, is part of a larger project entitled, “The Place of the Classics: Receptions of Greco-Roman Antiquity from Newfoundland to Nigeria” (Collaborators: Folake Onayemi, Department of Classics, University of Ibadan; Greg Walsh, Rooms Provincial Archives).

Keynote presenters: Justine McConnell, King’s College, London; Folake Onayemi, University of Ibadan

For all inquiries, please contact Luke Roman, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Classics, Memorial University: romanl@mun.ca

Program

Thursday March 7: Nexus Centre, Central Campus

9:00 – 10:30 Panel 1: Classical Adaptations and Migrations

1. Olakunbi Olasope (Ibadan): With oppression is always a clamour for justice: unmasking Antigone in Nigeria
2. Brad Levett (Memorial): Gadamer and Classical Reception
3. Bosede Adefiola Adebowale (Ibadan): Fate in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not to Blame: A Socio-Cultural Perspective
4. Luke Roman (Memorial): The Mobility of the Classics

11:00 – 12:00 Visit to Exhibition in Queen Elizabeth II Library: Classics in Newfoundland

1:00 – 3:30 Panel 2: Places and Traditions

1. David Stephens (Memorial): Masterless Men and Irish Princesses: Newfoundland’s Classical Mythology
2. Jonathan Asante Otchere (Ghana): Summum Bonum: A Study of its Reception in Ghanaian Socio-Cultural Discourses
3. Milo Nikolic (Memorial): Architecture as an Expression of Convergent Evolution: Large-scale Building Projects in Newfoundland and Ancient Rome
4. Mark Joyal (Manitoba): “A lovely place”: A classical topos in portrayals of Newfoundland

4:00 – 5:30: Keynote: Folake Onayemi (Ibadan): Yoruba Adaptations of Classical Literature

5:30 – 7:00 Reception

Friday March 8: Signal Hill Campus

10:00 – 12:00 Panel 3:  Teaching, Learning, Books, and Objects

1. Tana Allen (Memorial): A Particular Sense of Place: Teaching the Classics in Newfoundland
2. Michael Okyere Asante (Ghana, by video link): Towards a Revival of Latin Language Learning in Ghanaian Schools: A Vocabulary-Based Approach
3. Mercy Owusu-Asiamah (Ghana): The Reception of the Classics in Ghana: The Use of Latin Mottoes in Formal Educational Institutions
4. Agnes Juhasz-Ormsby (Memorial): The Classical Collection of John Mullock and the Intellectual Culture of Nineteenth Century Newfoundland

1:00 – 1:30 Classics in Newfoundland: some highlights of paired exhibitions at the QE2 and the Rooms (Karen Gill, Kara Hickson, Morgan Locke, Marina Schmidt, Luke Roman)

1:30 – 3:00: Discussion of future international collaborations in Classics

3:30 – 5:00: Keynote: Justine McConnell (King’s College London): At the Crossroads: Euripides, Wole Soyinka, and Femi Osofisan

Saturday March 9: Downtown St. John’s

Tour of St. John’s and Visit to the Rooms Provincial Museum and Archives