A University Taster Day of Mini Lectures and interactive Experiences for School Students
10.30am: Registration and welcome
10.40am - 11.25am: Love, Money, Friendship: marginal voices in Roman love poetry
Dr Efi Spentzou, Reader in Latin Literature and Classical Reception
In this session we turn to Propertius, the Roman love poet and his beloved Cynthia. Focusing on images of the female body we explore information about the age, social status, and economic and domestic realities of the poetic characters so we can peer into the lived experiences and relationships of marginalised Roman women of the 1st century BCE, whose perspectives stay largely hidden in the elite, man-made literature of the period.
11.25am - 11.45am: Refreshments
11.45am - 12.30am: Making Slaves in the Roman World
Prof. Richard Alston, Professor of Roman History
We recognize slavery as one the great abominations of human history, replicated across any number of cultures and continuing in forms of modern slavery. In this session, we consider how we approach slavery as historians. The problem is not legal or institutional but humane: how did Romans and Greeks conceptualise slavery and justify the enslavement of another person. The problem is also ethical: how do we recognise and honour the slaves' experiences? In this session, we focus on the continual and repeating processes of enslavement in the Roman world, using the techniques of historical fiction to reconstruct these processes and the relational damage that followed them.
12.30pm - 1.45pm: Lunch break
You can bring a packed lunch, or purchase sandwiches and drinks from a variety of venues across the campus. Student ambassadors will be on hand to show you around our impressive campus.
1.00pm - 1.45pm: Mini Campus Tour with Student Ambassadors (optional)
1.45pm - 2.25pm: How to Make a Woman: Early Greek Cosmic Constructions of Gender
Dr Susannah Ashton, Senior Teaching Fellow in Greek Literature
In this talk, we explore some of the earliest surviving Greek accounts that seek to answer the question of where human beings - and specifically women - came from. From Hesiod's narrative of the threatening creation of Pandora, to Empedocles' dizzying evolutionary account of hybrid and earth-born women, we will examine what these early Greek cosmic accounts reveal about early conceptions of gender.
2.25pm - 2.30pm: Comfort break
2.30pm - 3.30pm: Studying the classical world at University & its Career Opportunities: a Q&A session
Dr Richard Hawley, Senior Lecturer in Classics
This session explains the wide variety of pathways that students can opt to follow if they choose to study classical culture at university level. It also explores the wealth of career opportunities for those with classical culture degrees. It gives students an opportunity to ask questions of Dr. Hawley and the student ambassadors - for example about application procedures, degree course content, and student experience - and to hear personal testimonies and stories offered by current undergraduates in our department. The main session will end at 3.15-20 and in the remaining time Dr Hawley will be available for short one-to-one exchanges.
NO prior Classics-related study is required to attend this Taster Day.
