Historical Studies Department hosts eighth annual Classics and the World Today event
The program included lectures from professors from the University of Oxford and California, Berkeley and a graduate research workshop and dinner.
Undergraduates, graduates, and professors gathered at the Kaneff Rotunda on October 2 to mark another exciting “Classics and the World Today” (CaWT) event, held by the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM).
This was the eighth event in the ongoing CaWT series, which began in 2017 to give the public and the U of T community a chance to hear from distinguished guest speakers who would give their insight into the ancient world and its relevance to our modern one.
The most recent installment featured lectures from Dr. Kathryn Stevens and Dr. Carlos Noreña, two international professors of classics who were invited to discuss the event’s theme: “Connecting Places in Greek and Roman Antiquity: The Role of Empires.”
Dr. Stevens is an Associate Professor and Tutorial Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and a former postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen and Trinity College, Cambridge. She has authored and co-authored articles and books for several publications, with a focus ranging from Hellenistic Greece and ancient Mesopotamia.
Dr. Noreña is a Goldman Distinguished Chair in the Social Sciences, Director of Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology, and Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Numerous books, articles, reviews, and translations on Roman history, culture and society are among Dr. Noreña’s repertoire of authored and co-authored works.
In the tradition of previous installments, UTM Department of Classics Professor Andreas Bendlin opened with a land acknowledgement and an introduction to the theme of this semester’s event, “The Role of Empire,” highlighting the spirit of the CaWT as a bridge between the ancient and modern worlds as well as the ever-present legacy of empire.
After an introduction to the two guest speakers, Professor Bendlin called on Dr. Stevens to begin the event. Her lecture tackled the complexity of identity in the ancient world, especially for people who resided within large and organized empires on the crossroads of vast and far-flung cultures.
Dr. Stevens focused on the Seleucid Empire—an ancient state that stretched from the Aegean Sea to the Hindu Kush at its greatest extent—and its Mesopotamian holdings as a case study for her lecture. Utilizing archaeological evidence within the context of the colliding Hellenistic and Near Eastern cultures, Dr. Stevens articulated how the intermingling and exchanging of material and culture was certainly increased by the existence of the vast state — yet processes of “Hellenization” were less than surely a centralized affair. It seems a mix of top-down and bottom-up was more likely the reality, the finer details of which we may never know.
Dr. Noreña’s lecture followed and served to propose a model of viewing complex ancient empires as active and impactful centralized states that played significant roles in the governance and prosperity of their constituent parts.
Pushing back on the “World-systems” model proposed by Immanuel Wallerstein, Professor Noreña used the eastern city of Palmyra—its ruins now in modern Syria—and its rise over two centuries of Roman rule to demonstrate the active involvement of the Roman state in civil and military infrastructure, taxation, and monetization.
Palmyra may have always been destined for some riches at least, given its placement at the crossroads of east-west trade. However, it reached its great heights, Dr. Noreña argued, as an active benefactor of the Roman Empire’s systems. The active policy of centralized states in administering their holdings was said to be the difference between prosperity and mundanity.
A customary Q&A period for the two speakers followed the lectures, after which the cohorts of undergraduates, graduates, and professors assembled somewhat clumsily into a column and marched their way to Maanjiwe nendamowinan (MN) for what some may have anticipated as the more tantalizing half of the event: the reception, with free food and drinks.
While students, faculty, and guests scrambled for servings, The Medium interviewed the two guest speakers for their insight regarding what they see as the benefits of studying the ancient world for learners today and what impact they hope to see CaWT has on the UTM community.
Addressing the larger themes of the CaWT event, the two professors offered encouragement to anyone looking to study the classics, no matter the reason.
In response to the first inquiry, Dr. Noreña, highlighting “practical” purposes, noted the question of if our modern world was an inevitability or the result of “random change and contingency,” the answer to which he states “hinges on what we think was happening in the ancient world.” Ultimately, this discussion speaks to our future and how we approach it, as the latter circumstance means that there is more scope moving forward for alternative arrangements than what the former situation allows for.
Dr. Stevens spoke about how studying the often “alien” variance that underpins historical studies can lead one to “encounter a lot of things which don’t seem natural to you, that maybe challenge some of your ideas about the world” and “makes you put all societies into a different perspective.”
Dr. Stevens also emphasized how the limits of studying ancient history mandate extreme attention being paid to every minute piece of evidence available—a practice of contextualization and critical analysis that we should strive to apply to any piece of information which comes our way in today’s modern world, “which is so flooded with information and opinions,” according to Dr. Stevens.
Both guests spoke of their pleasant reactions to the UTM community’s turnout at the event. Dr. Noreña believed that the event’s popularity “showed the continued relevance of the Classics,” while Dr. Stevens commented on the number of non-Classics students in the audience, a testament to the reach of Classics to so many at UTM, saying, “I hope that [the event] just sparks more interest and more conversations.”
CaWT concluded on October 3, with a graduate-focused workshop in the Collaborative Digital Research Space in room MN 3230, which was open to all students. The workshop was followed by an evening dinner in Toronto.
News Editor (Volume 51); Associate News Editor (Volume 50) — Samuel is a second-year student at UTM studying Politics and English. He previously worked with The Medium as an Associate News Editor and currently serves as the publication’s News Editor. Samuel is passionate about employing the power of writing to enhance our student community and hopes to help nurture a bright future for The Medium this year. In his spare time, Samuel can be found working out, creating music on the piano and drums, or exploring nature.