Columbia University’s interdisciplinary and interdepartmental Classical Studies Graduate Program is delighted to announce the first Classical Dialogues talk of the 2022-2023 academic year.
Professor Maggie Popkin (Art History, Case Western Reserve University) will be on campus to discuss her recent book Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome (Cambridge UP, 2022) on Friday October 28, 11:00-1:00 in 603 Hamilton Hall.
This in-person only event has an author-meets-readers format. Thus, we are circulating in advance two of Prof. Popkin’s chapters: “Introduction: Souvenirs of the Roman Empire” and “Souvenirs of Cult Statues” Please email Lauren Palmer for a copy of the chapters
After an introduction by Prof. Francesco de Angelis (CU Department of Art History & Archaeology), Prof. Popkin will discuss her book, engage in dialogue with two graduate student respondents (Giulia Bertoni and Giovanni Lovisetto), and answer questions from attendees.
We look forward to seeing you there and to welcoming you to a short reception following the event.
About Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome
In this book, Maggie Popkin offers an in-depth investigation of souvenirs, a type of ancient Roman object that has been understudied and that is unfamiliar to many people. Souvenirs commemorated places, people, and spectacles in the Roman Empire. Straddling the spheres of religion, spectacle, leisure, and politics, they serve as a unique resource for exploring the experiences, interests, imaginations, and aspirations of a broad range of people - beyond elite, metropolitan men - who lived in the Roman world. Popkin shows how souvenirs generated and shaped memory and knowledge, as well as constructed imagined cultural affinities across the empire's heterogeneous population. At the same time, souvenirs strengthened local identities, yet excluded certain groups from the social participation that souvenirs made available to so many others. Featuring a full illustration program of 137 color and black and white images, Popkin's book demonstrates the critical role that souvenirs played in shaping how Romans perceived and conceptualized their world, and their relationships to the empire that shaped it.
– Cambridge University Press webpage https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/archaeology/classical-archaeology/souvenirs-and-experience-empire-ancient-rome?format=AR&isbn=9781009051347
About Maggie Popkin:
Maggie L. Popkin is Robson Junior Professor and Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of The Architecture of the Roman Triumph: Monuments, Memory, and Identity (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and numerous articles on Greek and Roman art and architecture. She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Organization and the National Endowment for the Humanities and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.