News Archive
News and Events 2006
Report: 'Close Relations' Conference
A cross-disciplinary conference called Close Relations; the Spaces of Greek and Roman Theatre was held at the University of Melbourne, September 19-23, 2006. Both the University of Melbourne (Theatre Studies and Classical Studies) and Monash University (Classical Studies) hosted the conference, with financial support from the University of Melbourne, the Classical Association of Victoria, and the Australasian Society of Classical Studies. The convenors for the conference were Paul Monaghan, Jane Montgomery-Griffiths and Frank Sear.
The conference aimed to bring together scholars from diverse fields (Classical Studies including Reception Studies, Theatre Studies, LIterary Studies, History, Archaeology ... ) as well as theatre practitioners, to examine the phenomenon of Greek and Roman theatre from the perspective of 'space' (physical, performance, cultural, textual, memory and so on). We were blessed by the quality of our International keynote speakers, Professors Lorna Hardwick and Richard Beacham, and Dr. Dmitry Trubotchkin, who opened up these interrelated fields in so many interesting ways. During the conference delegates were able to consider our focus through conventional papers, performances and a competition at a local pub for the most inspiring expression of what Greek tragedy meant to us in 2006 (won by James McCaughey). Overall the conference was felt by many delegates to have been a huge success in terms of the range of diverse but complementary perspectives, but perhaps most importantly in terms of the respect for each other's approaches across what are sometimes such oppositional disciplines. Abstracts and program can be viewed on the conference website: http://www.cca.unimelb.edu.au/close/. Enquiries can be directed to me at pmonag@unimelb.edu.au
A collection of papers from the conference will appear as a focused issue of Didaskalia, and we are also negotiating a book deal with an established publisher.
Paul Monaghan
Theatre Studies
University of Melbourne
American Philological Association Annual Meeting, San Diego 4-7 January, 2007
This year's APA conference (San Diego 4-7 January, 2007) features more reception panels than ever before. For a guide to what's available in classical reception scholarship at the conference, check out the link under Conferences.
Lectures on Pre-Raphaelite Paintings and Ancient Jewish Coins
 Dr Nicholas Hardwick, Honorary Associate, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney, gave two lectures in September entitled ‘Ancient Jewish coins in William Holman Hunt’s works: a consideration of the artistic and the historical approaches of the artist’, at the Barrack Gallery, Art Equity, 16-20 Barrack Street, Sydney.
The lectures revealed fascinating detective work about two works by the leading Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt, produced while working on The Triumph of the Innocents, The Bride of Bethlehem (1879-1884) (formerly in the collection of John Schaeffer and exhibited in the Art Gallery of NSW) and Nijimi, a Bethlehemite woman, study for 'The Triumph of the Innocents' (1877), in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, which show the intriguing use of ancient Jewish coins as women’s jewellery. One of the coins was the silver shekel from the 1st Jewish Revolt (AD 66-70), associated with the siege of Masada. The lectures considered the artistic and the historical approaches of the artist in the representations of Jewish coins in these works.
Dr Hardwick was interviewed about the discovery by Julie Copeland on ABC National ‘Exhibit A’ on 15 October 2006.
Picture: William Holman Hunt, 'The Bride of Bethlehem'.
Private Collection, courtesy of Nevill Keating Pictures.
Report: Humanism and Medicine
From 20-22 September, 2006, an international symposium on 'Humanism and Medicine in the Early Modern Era' was held at the University of Western Australia (supported by the ARC Network for Early European Research, the Cassamarca Foundation, and the Institute of Advanced Studies, UWA).
The proposal was to explore the complex, and sometimes troubled, relationship between humanism and medicine from the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries. The father of humanism, Francesco Petrarca, famously attacked the medical profession in his invectives 'Against a Certain Doctor' (1352). Humanism spoke a new language - theoretically a natural, classical Latin, as opposed to the 'barbaric' scholastic idiom of the philosophers and physicians. But the Renaissance also saw the rise of the so-called 'humanist doctor', and newly recovered classical texts were assimilated into the canon of learned medicine. Papers at our conference ranged over learned and non-learned traditions, from the perspectives of intellectual, social, and literary history. Click here for the full program.
A volume arising from the conference will be published as a special issue of Intellectual History Review (Routledge).
Yasmin Haskell
School of Humanities, University of Western Australia
ACRSN Website Launch
The ACRSN website was officially launched by Professor Lorna Hardwick at the 'Close Relations' conference on Friday, 22 September at the University of Melbourne.
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