Classical Encounters: Receptions of antiquity in the long nineteenth-century

Classical Encounters: Receptions of antiquity in the long nineteenth-century’ will bring together scholars from a broad range of disciplines to explore encounters with the ancient world in nineteenth-century visual, material, literary and political culture and the implications of these encounters on discourses such as nationhood, colonialism, race, religion, gender, sexuality and death. A roundtable will offer interdisciplinary interventions on classical receptions to discuss the future(s) of reception studies.

Confirmed contributors include Abigail Baker (Warwick), Athena Leoussi (Reading), Carrie Vout (Cambridge), Charles Martindale (York), Daniel Hartley (Durham), Edmund Richardson (Durham), Laura Jensen (Bristol), Liz Prettejohn (York), Rachel Bryant-Davies (Durham) and Shelley Hales (Bristol).

Programme

DAY 1

12.00– 13.15    Lunch and registration

13.15 – 13.30   Welcoming remarks

Panel 1

13:30 – 15:00   Classics, Race and Nation

Chair: Seren Nolan (Durham)

Sarah Budasz (Durham) : ‘Archeological racialization in French travel writing to the Orient: exploratory thoughts’

Athena Leoussi (Reading) : ‘Citizens and Athletes: Classical Greek concepts of humanity in the making of modern European nations in the long 19th century’

Daniel Orrells (King’s College London) : ‘Visualising Antiquity in the Eighteenth Century’

15.00 – 15.30   Coffee

Roundtable

15.30 – 17.00 Interdisciplinarity and the Futures of Classical Reception

Chair: Blaz Zabel (Durham)

Charles Martindale (York), Daniel Hartley (Durham), Edmund Richardson (Durham), (Further contributors TBC)

17.00 – 18.00   Drinks reception

19.30   Dinner

DAY 2 

9.00 – 9.30   Coffee

Panel 2

9.30 – 11.00   Visual Encounters

Chair:  Liz Prettejohn (York)

Helen Slaney (Roehampton) : Title TBC

Carrie Vout (Cambridge) : ‘The classical and biblical in dialogue: a conversation in Victorian sculpture’

Thomas Couldridge (Durham) : ‘South Kensington Cupid: A New Chapter?’

11.00 – 11.15   Coffee

Panel 3

11.15 – 12.45   Deathly Encounters 

Respondent: Edmund Richardson (Durham)

Emily Dunn (Durham) : ‘Dr Price and the 1884 Cremation of the Christ Child’

Shelley Hales (Bristol) : ‘Mortal Remains and Immortal Ruins: Classical Archaeology and Cultures of Death in the Nineteenth Century’

12.45 – 14.00   Lunch

Panel 4

14.00 – 15.30   Archaeological Encounters

Chair: Sarah Miles (Durham)

Maddalena Ruini (Durham) : ‘The Prime Minister and the Archaeologist: retelling the Homeric Age’

Abigail Baker (Great North Museum) : ‘Troy in London: making sense of Schliemann’s first exhibition’

Rachel Bryant Davies (Durham) : ‘‘Little Archaeologists’: the Impact of Schliemann’s Excavations at Hissarlik in Victorian Children’s Magazines’

15.30- 15.45   Closing remarks followed by coffee and cake