New Directions in Classics X
The Department of Classics is hosting its tenth season of New Directions in Classics from September 2026 to March 2027.
Once again, we would like to thank donors to our University of Winnipeg Foundation “crowd-funding” campaign. If you would like to support the series, please consider visiting the campaign page.
If you’d like more information on New Directions in Classics, please email Dr. Peter J. Miller or find us on Facebook
Watch many of our talks on our YouTube channel
2026-27 Schedule
November 6, 2026
From Ruins to Research: Preserving, Restoring and Authenticating Ancient Artifacts
Laura Lipcsei, Senior Conservator, Royal Ontario Museum
4:00-5:00pm | 3D01
Ancient cultural artifacts face a myriad of threats through aging, environmental deterioration or damage during their lives both pre and post excavation. This talk will describe the work of a Museum Conservator whose mission is to preserve artifacts, while also carrying out treatments to repair and restore them, allowing them to tell their story. To study and authenticate objects, Conservators use a variety of forensic techniques to look at materials and methods of manufacture. Case studies will be presented to illustrate this work across cultures: from ancient Greek and Roman silver and copper coins, to a 6th century BCE ancient Greek red figure ceramic wedding vessel, to a 5th century CE Zapotec ancestral urn from Oaxaca Valley Mexico.
November 20, 2026
The Mesopotamian Renaissance
Braden Scott, Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba
4:00-5:00pm | 3D01
“The ancient near east,” Jane Grogan argues, “was alive and well in early modern Europe.” Despite this fact, it was mostly ancient Rome—and to some extent Greece—that captured the attention of historians who wrote about early modernity’s revival of antiquity: the so-called Renaissance. But fifteenth- and sixteenth-century artists and architects did not limit their imaginations to what is commonly referred to as the “classical” world. So, centuries before modern archaeological endeavours, and the invention of the concept of classical art and architecture, what did antiquarians think of the ancient near east and how did artists and architects imagine it? This paper focuses on the colossal reception of the Tower of Babel, not as myth or allegory, but as architectural history that captivated European attention. In the search for archaeological accuracy, the tower became an iconographic enigma that was believed to be entirely understood. Instead, it was absolutely elusive. However mistaken antiquarians were, the search for Mesopotamian antiquity was a core part of the period that we call the Renaissance.
January 22, 2027
Living with Soldiers in Roman Arabia
Conor Whately, Professor, University of Winnipeg
4:00-5:00pm | 3D01
At their peak, the Romans occupied an empire that stretched from the north of England to small islands off the coast of Saudi Arabia. What was it like for the civilians who lived in and around the soldiers that were based in the frontiers of that empire in the day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year? Drawing on the varied evidence - legal documents, epitaphs, physical structures, and more - from the cities and forts of Roman Arabia, largely modern-day Jordan, this presentation focuses on the lived experiences of the individuals who lived harmoniously, acrimoniously, and everything in between with the empire’s soldiers.
February 26, 2027
The Writings of C. Cassius Longinus
James Chlup, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba
4:00-5:00pm | 3D01
Roman political elites of the Late Republic often composed autobiographical, historical, and political texts. The aim of these texts was twofold: (1) to maintain or enhance one’s political standing, possibly with a view to securing additional elected offices or military commands; and (2) to provide a narrative that later historians could use as a source. In the latter case, the individual perceived the need to take an active role in creating a positive historical tradition to counteract a negative tradition that he may have expected to emerge. Sulla’s autobiography, Caesar’s Civil War, and Cicero’s treatises on his consulship and Philippics are especially well-known examples.
This paper considers two possible historical and political works produced by the Liberator murderer C. Cassius Longinus. The first is an autobiography or historical monograph on Crassus’ Parthian campaign, in which Cassius served as Quaestor, and his defence of Syria. The second is a political text defending his and his fellow conspirators’ actions in murdering Caesar and their subsequent military campaigns. One can perhaps detect traces of both texts, and thus analyse Cassius’ efforts at self-presentation, in several works: Plutarch’s Crassus and Brutus and Appian’s Civil Wars and Parthike.
March 10, 2027
Enslaved Within the Hippodrome: Slavery, Collective Action, and Charioteer Rebellions in the Later Roman Empire
Sarah E. Bond, Associate Professor, University of Iowa
4:00-5:00pm | EG Hall (3C00)
We know that charioteers were the star athletes within the late Roman world, but what was the legal status of charioteers within the hippodrome? Historians of ancient sport today continue to debate whether charioteers in the later Roman Empire were predominantly enslaved, freed, or freeborn, and whether they experienced the legal status of infamia (infamy). This talk looks at the status of charioteers and their role within larger associations akin to labor unions called circus factions, in order to explore the agency, leadership roles, collective actions, and political clout of enslaved and freed persons within late Roman factions from Diocletian in 284 CE until the death of Heraclius in 641 CE.
March 19, 2027
Prometheus and Modernist Theatre
Paul Monaghan, Instructor, University of Winnipeg
4:00-5:00pm | 3D01
The metaphysical resonance of the figure of Prometheus in Greek antiquity was taken up by quite a few Modernist theatre artists, including Josephin (le Sâr) Peladin, the fin de siecle French Symbolist Rosicrucian who recreated the two lost plays of the supposed Prometheid trilogy by Aeschylus (or some other ancient playwright); the Russian Symbolist playwright and philosopher, Vyacheslav Ivanov, and Reinhardt Sorge, the first German Expressionist playwright. All three found inspiration in the Prometheus figure and story in the service of their efforts to create a new kind of Modernist theatre. But none of their Prometheus works have been published in English translations. During my PhD research of 15-20 years ago, I had translations produced of both Sorge's and Ivanov's Prometheus plays into English, and I was able to translate Peladan's work myself. In this paper, I examine these three largely unknown works in the context of other contemporary theatrical creations based in the Prometheus story, and the widespread philosophical interest in the figure of Prometheus. I will use this presentation to kick-start a monograph that starts from but significantly expands upon the research I conducted for my doctorate (which I gained from the University of Melbourne in early 2011).