Ancient World Seminar

The Ancient World Seminar offers an opportunity for students and staff from all Groningen faculties and departments with an interest in the Ancient World (e.g. Classics, Ancient History, Philosophy, Religion and Theology, Archaeology, Law) to meet and discuss their research. The Ancient World Seminar gathers monthly during term time and invites early stage as well as advanced scholars: not only from the University of Groningen and other universities in the Netherlands, but also from abroad. Papers are given on a broad variety of subjects and from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives.

The Ancient World Seminar takes place every month on a Tuesday and starts at 16.15. After each lecture, we offer the opportunity to have drinks and dinner with the lecturer and all other interested parties.

Upcoming lectures

• 23 September: Jonathan Prag (Oxford)   
• 4 November: Emma Jayne Graham (Open University)
• 18 November: Martina Vercesi (Leuven)
• 16 December: Felix Budelmann (Groningen) and Saskia Peels-Matthey (Groningen)
• 20 January: Shiyanthi Thavapalan (VU Amsterdam)

Lecture 16 December

Unfortunately, our speaker for the next AWS seminar, Pauline LeVen, has had to pull out due to health issues. However, we are very fortunate to have found an excellent replacement. Please join us on 16th December for a talk by Felix Budelmann and Saskia Peels-Matthey on the topic of xxxx, followed by mulled wine and Christmas cookies. Please note the slightly earlier starting time of 16.00. All welcome!

Difficult poetry in performance: an empirical audience experiment with the parodos of the Agamemnon

Speaker: Felix Budelmann and Saskia Peels (Groningen)
Date: December 16, 2025
Time: 16:00–17:15
Location: Courtroom, Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society (Oude Boteringestraat 38)

We present joint work that we are currently doing together with Christoph Pieper and Sven Smeman. Our paper discusses the results of an audience experiment that we carried out in Groningen, Leiden and Nijmegen in 2024. The topic is responses to difficult poetry in performance. Audiences listened to performed readings of, variously, a literal or a simplified translation of the parodos of Aeschylus' Agamemnon and recorded their responses. We will discuss quantitative and qualitative findings relating to, among other things, understanding, enjoyment, gender and individual variation.

Past lectures 2025-2026 Academic Year

• Opening Lecture September 16: Confirmed speaker: Dr. Jitse Dijkstra(University of Ottawa)

Past lectures 2024-2025 Academic Year

• October 15th Ancient World Seminar: Sofie Remijssen (University of Amsterdam) (Time & Temporalities Network) "The introduction of clock time in the Hellenistic era"

• November 12th Ancient World Seminar: Katharina Schön (University of Groningen) 'Voces tacitae clamare videntur - Latin as a Literary Refuge in the 20th Century'

• December 10th Ancient World Seminar: Tesse Stek (University of Leiden) 'Roman Colonialism on the Ground. Historiographical and Archaeological Approaches to Republican Period Expansion'

• January 21st Ancient World Seminar: Dr. Phil Forness (KU Leuven): 'Translations and the Spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity.'

• March 25: Ancient World Seminar: Prof. dr. Caroline Vander Stichele (Tilburg University) 'Playing her Part: Herodias in the Gospels and Josephus.'
• April 15: Ancient World Seminar: Dr. Axel Frejman (Uppsala University) 'Translations and the Spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity.'
• May 14: Special edition: Professor Nicolas Purcell (University of Oxford)
• May 20: Ancient World Seminar: Prof. dr. Tom Harrison (British Museum)
• June 17: Ancient World Seminar : Dr. Sarah Cullinan Herring (University of Kansas)

For a full overview of the seminars of the last academic year, please take a look at the 2023- 2024 programme.

Organisation

The Ancient World Seminar is organised by CRASIS with the help of Phd and (under)graduate students from the different departments:

• Maya Xinyu Dong (Research Master Arts and Culture)

• Charlotte Nolan (Research Master Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Studies)
• Sara Hutchinson (Research Master Archeology)
• Friederike Brunzema (Research Master Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Studies)
• Nicholas Aherne (PhD)
• Thomas Faassen (Research Master Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Studies)

Contact

Please contact us at crasis.aws@rug.nl.