Public Events 2021-2022

At present, all events including the talks’ QA are open live on Zoom to members, but you can sign up to the talks via their Eventbrite links, which will be made available. Here, you will also find the YouTube recordings of our talks.

You can download a shortened PDF of the programme here.

Tuesday 28th September 5pm

A Conversation with…Dr Emma Southon     

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. ‘True Crime’ and the Ancient Past

This event is part of an In Conversation With… series for the Manchester Classical Association. Dr. Emma Southon has a PhD in Ancient History from the University of Birmingham, and a version on her thesis was published in 2017 as Marriage, Sex and Death: The Family and the Fall of the Roman West. After a few years teaching Ancient and Medieval history, followed by some years teaching academic writing, Dr Southon became a public historian. Her first book is a biography of the much maligned Agrippina the Younger, the sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius and mother of Nero. 

Her second book A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, an exploration of murder and homicide in the Roman world. She is also co-host of a history/comedy podcast with Janina Matthewson called History is Sexy and has featured alongside Greg Jenner on his You’re Dead to Me podcast, as well as having written a number of articles in prominent history publications. You can read more about Dr Southon’s work, and support her, here: https://www.emmasouthon.com/ 

(Jointly with Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage)

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Tuesday 19th October 6pm

Dr Heba Abd el Gawad (University College London) 

Our Decolonisation is Nothing but a Tick-Box! Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage and UK Museums’ Distressing Decolonisation Turn.     

    

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Wednesday 17th November 6pm

Dr Emma Jayne Graham (The Open University)

Disability in Ancient Rome: Discovering the Lived Experience of Ancient Mobility Impairments

*** Link to media page and recording on MMUTUBE****

In this talk Emma-Jayne Graham uses archaeological evidence from Ancient Rome to explore disability in the classical world. She uses votives – models of the human body made as offerings to the gods – to ask what it was like to have a physical impairment in Roman Italy. This is a joint paper with the Manchester Classical Association and Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage.

(Jointly with Cultures of Disability & Greater Manchester Combined Authority)

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Tuesday 14th December 6pm ​

Dr Elizabeth Gloyn (University of London, Royal Holloway)        

Meeting Medusa: Why Does the Ancient Monster Survive in the Modern World?​

Tuesday 25th Jan 6-7.30pm

Dr Joanne McNamara (Liverpool College), Mr Bobb Fairbairn, and Mr Jacob Duncan (Kendrick School, Reading)

Want to Teach Classics and Ancient History in the North-West? A Workshop for Students 

         This talk is for students at Manchester Metropolitan and University of Manchester who are potentially interested in a career in teaching Classics, Ancient History, History, or Religious Studies. The talk will introduce you to teachers who have trained through various routes after their degrees, and how to go about finding out more information. Dr McNamara will also introduce the opportunities at Liverpool College for training and development in Classics teaching, and students will have opportunities to ask questions and find out more from these teachers.

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Wednesday 16th February 2022 1pm

Prof Susan Deacy (Roehampton University)

‘It Sounds Like Being Autistic’: Why Classical Myth Can Chime with Autistic Experiences

Prof Susan Deacy on her work with young people with autism, using classical mythology and the experiences and perceptions it highlights. This talk is free, online, and open to all. Register on the Eventbrite link below.

This event is a joint event with the Manchester Classical Association and the Cultures of Disabilities, Past and Present Network. The Network explores the cultures of disability and the experiences of disabled people throughout history and in the present. Based at Manchester Metropolitan University, we include academics, activists and practitioners from different disciplines. We share our research with the public, through public lectures and working with local partners including Greater Manchester Council.

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Tuesday 22nd March 2022 6pm

Prof Jackie Murray (University of Kentucky)

Racing Greek Epic: Ancient and Modern Racecrafts in Contra-Tension

This talk will explore the contrasting ways in which race is constructed in ancient epic and its modern cinematic representations. In particular, Professor Murray will analyse the way the modern representations contribute to the false notion that race must be manifested in physical differences, such as skin colour or eye shape, etc., and how it encourages not only racist readings of ancient epic themselves but also misses altogether the way race actually functions in these texts. What is lost is the ancient perspective on race and the ability to see new racial structures emerging today.

This event is a collaboration between Manchester Classical Association and Manchester Centre for Public History and heritage (MCPHH)

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Tuesday 28th April 2022

Dr Katherine Blouin (University of Toronto)          

Doing Classics in a Climate Crisis

Dr Blouin will speak about how we can approach ancient climate and environment studies, in particular in the context of our modern day climate crisis. And why, and for whom, this is important. 

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Tuesday 3rd May 2022

Dr Sarah Bond (University of Iowa)

The Epigraphy of Women, Work and Labor Unions (collegia) in the Roman Mediterranean

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In this online public lecture, Dr Bond will talk to us about her ground-breaking work: “The Epigraphy of Women, Work and Labor Unions (collegia) in the Roman Mediterranean”

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Monday 13th June 2022

Dr Jo Stoner (University of Kent, Canterbury)

       Red in Roman Egypt: Researching personal objects in the UCL Petrie Museum

Dr Jo Stoner is an archaeologist of the Roman world, with particular expertise in everyday lives and cultures, and especially organic materials. In this talk she presents some of her recent work into the colour red and its religious, cultural and other associations in materials of everyday life from the collection at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL, London.