Conferences, Lectures and Department Seminars

Conferences:

“Divine Epiphanies from Archaic Greece to the Christian Era” (April 5 – April 6, 2002)

• Albert Henrichs (Harvard University) “Blurred Vision: The Trouble with Epiphany”
• Fritz Graf (Princeton University) “Collective Epiphanies: Trick or Treat?”
• Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Enargeia and Epiphany”
• Anton Bierl (University of Leipzig) “Epiphanies in the Odyssey“
• Greg Anderson (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Epiphany and the Phye Episode”
• Kevin Clinton (Cornell University) “Epiphany at the Eleusinian and Samothracian Mysteries”
• Jorge Bravo (Berkeley) “Heroic Epiphanies: Narrative, Visual, and Cultic Contexts”
• Matthew Dickie (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Epiphanies in Lucian’s Alexander“
• Einar Thomassen (University of Bergen) “The Presence of the Gnostic Revealer”
• Alexander MacGregor (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Which Art in Heaven: the Celestial Sphere of Manilius”
• Hans Dieter Betz (University of Chicago) “God Concept & Cultic Image: The Argument in Dio Chrysostom’s Oratio XII (Olympikos)”
• Discussion: Margaret Mitchell (University of Chicago) and Hans-Joseph Klauck (University of Chicago)

“Pythagoreanism, Orphism, and Afterlife Beliefs” (November 2002)

• Christoph Riedweg (University of Zurich) “Pythagorean Beliefs about the Afterlife”
• Matthew Dickie (University of Illinois at Chicago) “The Conception of the Afterlife in Epitaphs by a Poet Initiated in the Mysteries”

Conferences:

“Religious and State Authority in the Eastern Mediterranean” (October 10 – 11, 2003)

• Cristiano Grottanelli (University of Florence) “From Golden Fetters to Silver Talents. The Specialists, the Palace and the Market”
• Raffaella Pretini (University of Milan) “The Greek Manteis: Charismatics and Professionals”
• William M. Calder (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) “Insight vs. Evidence: Wilamowitz and Nilsson on the History of Religion”
• Cornelia Isler-Kerenyi (University of Zurich) “Women’s Rituals and the God Dionysos”
• Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago) “The Social Persona of the Visionary and the Prophet(ess) on Minoan Rings”
• David Reisman (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Authenticity and Authority in Early Islam”
• Paul Griffiths (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Obedience, Authority, and Martyrdom: Comments on a Newly-Discovered Sermon by Augustine”

Conferences:

“Paradise – The Lexicon of Felicity in the Eastern Mediterranean” (November 2004)

• Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Exit from Paradise: a reading of Genesis in the light of Ancient Mediterranean Traditions”
• Sarah Isles Johnston (Ohio State University) “The Holy Meadows Once Again, New Reflections in Orphic Eschatology and Anthropogony”
• Rachel Havrelock (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Rivers of Paradise: The Juncture of History and Redemption”
• Robin Darling Young (University of Notre Dame) “Imaginal Ascent to Paradise in the Hymn of the Pearl, Ephrem’s On Paradise and Jacob of Serug’s the Chariot: The Development of Early Syrian Tradition”
• Danuta Shanzer (University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana) “Paradise: Yearning and Cogitation-the Later Roman West”
• Fritz Graf (Ohio State University) “The Vocabulary of Paradise”

Conferences:

“The Gospel of Judas and other Secret Gospels” (November 10, 2006)

• Hans Joseph Klauck (University of Chicago) “The Gospel of Judas and the Historical Judas Iscariot”
• Einar Thomassen (University of Bergen, Norway) “Is Judas Really the Hero of the Gospel?”
• John D. Turner (University of Nebraska) “The Sethianism of the Gospel of Judas”
• Guy Stroumsa (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) “Jesus’ Laughter and its Docetic Background: A New Hypothesis”
• Discussion: Jan Bremmer (University of Groningen, Holland), Gary Anderson (University of Notre Dame), Danuta Shanzer (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Conferences:

Recitation and Commentary, “Cavafy and Homer: the Greek Language and Hellenism” (November 2, 2007)

• Yannis Simonides (Actor)
• Katie Kretler (Hellenic Historian)
• Responses: Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Lectures:

• Richard Seaford (University of Exeter) “Money and the Beginning of Philosophy” (October 23, 2007)

Conferences:

“Minoan Civilization Outside Crete: Griffins and Royal Symbolism in Crete, Egypt & the Near East” (March 10, 2008)

• Clairy Palyvou (University of Thessaloniki, Greece) “Griffins in their Architectural Setting”
• Elizabeth Shanks (INSTAP) “Griffins in the Palaces of Pylos and Knossos”
• Adreas Vlachopoulos (Akrotiri Excavations, Greece) “Griffin, African palms and Monkeys in Thera”
• Lyvia Morgan (Harvard University) and Anne Chapin (Brevard College) “Response to the New Evidence of the Theran Fresco”
• Richard Wilkinson (University of Arizona) and Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Strange Creature in a Strange Land: The Griffin as an Agent of Order in Egypt and Crete”

“Revelation in Ancient Greek Religion?” (November 10, 2008)

• Robert Parker (University of Oxford) “Ignorance and Knowledge of the Divine”
• Roger Woodard (State University of New York at Buffalo) “Script as Sacrifice; Writing as Revelation”
• Albert Henrichs (Harvard University) “Self- Revelation, Power, Reciprocity: Why the Greeks Believed in their Gods”
• Respondents: Kenneth Dowden (University of Birmingham), Menelaos Christopoulos and Efi Karakantza (University of Patras)

Lectures:

• Nanno Marinatos, (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Is the Underworld in the Sky? The Beyond in the Odyssey and its Relationship to Egyptian” (September 19, 2008)
• Kenneth W. Goings and Eugene O’Connor, (Ohio State University) “Teaching the Forbidden Subjects: The Role of the Classics in African American Uplift and Resistance” (October 3, 2008)
• Roger Woodard (State University of New York at Buffalo) “Writing as Performance:  An Early Greek Conceptualization of the Alphabet” (November 12, 2008)
• Menelaos Christopoulos and  Efimia Karakantza (University of Patras) “On Oedipus and the Winkling of his Eye” (November 14, 2008)
• Ahmed Achrati (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Islamic Arts: An Epistemology of the ‘Ab-surd’ ” (November 21, 2008)

Seminars:

• Mustapha Kamal (University of Illinois at Chicago) “The Devil” (October 24, 2008)
• Vasileios Syros (University of Chicago) “Socrates’  Image: Medieval and Renaissance Arabic and Jewish Political Thought” (October 31, 2008)

Conferences:

“Fables and People: A Conference in honor of John Vaio” (November 7, 2009)

• Paul Keyser (IBM) “The Will of Ajax and His Last Testament”
• Kent Rigsby (Duke University) “Pericles’ Law Censoring Comedy”
• Danuta Shanzer (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) “Quick Brown Fox and Lazy Dog”

Conferences:

“Myth & Imagination” (October 1, 2010)

• Richard Buxton (Bristol University) “Lives and Deaths of Divinities and Hero(in)es in Ancient Greece”
• Mercedes Aguirre (University of Madrid) “The Continuing life of Greek Myths in Contemporary Fiction: The View of a Writer”
• Jennifer Tobin (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Myth and Monument at Xanthos: The Free-Born Loving Lykians”
• Sebastian Anderson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) “Tales from the Odyssey”

Lectures:

• Edith Hall (Royal Holloway, University of London) “Why Was the Iphigenia in Tauris So Popular in Antiquity?” (January 29, 2010)
• Constance Meinwald (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Mysteries of Eros: Diotima’s Speech in the Symposium” (February 13, 2010)
• John Briscoe (University of Manchester) “Nonius Marcellus and the Fragments of the Lost Roman Historians” (March 17, 2010)
• Menelaos Christopoulos (University of Patras) “Helen and Troy: Innocence, Guilt and Politics” (March 19, 2010)
• David Gilman Romano (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) “Altars of Zeus, Games for the Gods: Lykaion and Olympia in Early Greek Religion” (April 14, 2010)
• Stephan Heilen (University of Osnabrück, Germany) “Astrological concilia deorum in Late Medieval and Early Modern Latin Poetry” (September 10, 2010)
• John T. Ramsey (University of Illinois at Chicago) “The Jewish Revolt of Bar Kokhba (AD 132-135) and the Star of Antinous” (November 17, 2010)

Conferences:

“Thera, Knossos and Egypt” Sponsored by: The Department of Classics and Mediterranean Studies The National Hellenic Museum, The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Institute for Aegean Prehistory, and Anita and George Skarpathiotis (October 20 – October 22, 2011)

• Professor Christos Doumas (Univ. of Athens) “From Necessities to Delights: Eating Habits in Akrotiri Thera of the Bronze Age”
• Bernice Jones, PhD “Exhibition of Minoan/Theran Costumes”
• Nanno Marinatos, Jennifer Tobin, and Karen Ros (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Thera, Knossos, and Egypt. Old Teories and New Problematizations”
• Andreas Vlachopoulos (University of Ioannina) “Theran Frescoes”
• Robert Ritner and Nadine Moeller (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) “The Ahmose Tempest Stela”
• Guenter Kopcke (New York University) “Shaft Graves”

Lectures:

• Sander Goldberg (UCLA) “Comedy in Context: Seeing Plays the Roman Way” (April 1, 2011)
• Jennifer Tobin (University of Illinois at Chicago) “The Temple of Zeus on Mount Gerizim: Hadrianic Building and Foreign Policy in Judaea” (April 6, 2011)
• Alexander P. MacGregor “The Classical World-View and the Physiology of Sight” (April 20, 2011)

Conferences:

Greek Identity. The Glory and Burden of Hellenism (November 9, 2012), Co-sponsored with the Department of History, the Institute for the Humanities, the School of Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics, and Anita and Dr. George Skarpathiotis.

• Anthony Kaldellis (Ohio State University) “Byzantine Scholars and Neo-Hellenic Identity”
• Zinon Papakonstantinou (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Ancient Athletics and Panhellenic Identity”
• Jennifer Tobin (University of Illinois at Chicago) “An Athenian Abroad: Herodes Atticus in Rome. Greek Identity under Roman Rule”
• Dean Kostantaras (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Notions of Identity, Nationhood and Hellenism in the 18th and 19th Century”
• Discussion: Leon Fink (University of Illinois at Chicago), Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago), Alexandra Filindra (University of Illinois at Chicago), George Karras (University of Illinois at Chicago), Nikos Varelas (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Lectures:

• Mary Ann Eaverly (University of Florida) “Tan Men, Pale Women: Color as Gender Indicator in Egyptian and Archaic Greek Painting a Question of Interconnections” (April 20, 2012)

Conferences:

STASIS: Dissent and Civil War in Ancient and Modern Greek History (October 18, 2013). Co-sponsored with the Department of History, the Institute for the Humanities, the School of Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics, and Anita and Dr. George Skarpathiotis.

• Dean Kostantaras (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Stasis and National Character in the Modern Greek Historical Imagination”
• Zinon Papakonstantinou (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Curse Tablets and Interpersonal Conflict in Democratic Athens”
• Anthony Kaldellis (Ohio State University) “Civil Wars as Elections in the Byzantine Empire”
• André Gerolymatos (Simon Fraser University, Chair in Hellenic Studies) “The International Greek Civil War”
• Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Thucydides and his Political Solution on Civil War”
• Stathis Kalyvas (Yale University): “Thucydides in the Peloponnese. Practices and Experiences of Violence in the Greek Civil War in the 1940s”
• Discussion: Leon Fink (University of Illinois at Chicago), Jonathan Hall (University of Chicago)

Lectures:

• Zinon Papakonstantinou (University of Illinois at Chicago) “The Marathon Race: Myth and Realities” (March 6, 2013)
• Maria Kouri (University of the Peloponnese) “Modern Greece Image and Cultural Identity” (March 14, 2013)
• Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Evans and His Vision of Knossos” (April 2, 2013)
• Dora Vassilikou (Athens Archaeological Society) “Mycenae Rich in Gold” (April 15, 2013)
• Aristotle Tziampiris (University of Piraeus) “The Emergence of Israeli-Greek Cooperation” (October 2, 2013). Co-sponsored with Jewish Studies and the Department of Communications.
• Peter Hayes (Northwestern University) “The German Foreign Office and the Holocaust” (October 8, 2013). Sponsored by the Department of Jewish Studies, Classics, History, Chemistry and the Levine Hillel Center.
• John Ramsey (University of Illinois at Chicago) “Pompey’s Third Consulship (52 B.C.):  Elected or Appointed?” (November 6, 2013)
• Dr. Tasos Tanoulas (Acropolis Restoration Project, recipient of European Price for the best restoration project) “The Propylaia of the Acropolis through the Ages” (November 26, 2013). Co-sponsored with the AIA.

Visiting Onassis Scholar in Residence:

• Professor Thanos Veremis (University of Athens)

Professor Veremis gave the following lectures:

• “The Years of Ottoman Rule, European Influences and National Ideologies” Classics Building, University of Chicago. Co-sponsored with the UoC Department of Classics. (October 17, 2014)
• “The role of populism in post-Andreas Papandreou Greek politics” Brownbag Lecture, Department of History, UIC. (October 22, 2014)
• “The Greek Crisis: Causes and Implications,” Held at the National Hellenic Museum. Co-sponsored with the National Hellenic Museum. (November 6, 2014)

Professor Veremis taught GKM/HIST 285: “Modern Greek History, 1453-present” together with Dr. Paris Papamichos Chronakis

Conferences:

Crete: History, Communities, Identity (March 11, 2014)

• Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago, Classics) “Archaeology and Identity”
• Robert Gordon (University of Illinois at Chicago, Jewish Studies and Chemistry) “Jewish Communities on Crete”
• Alexandra Filindra (University of Illinois at Chicago, Political Science) “Immigration to and from Crete”
• Christos Takoudis (University of Illinois at Chicago, Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering) “Resistance to the Germans: Memories of a School Boy”
• Moderators: Zinon Papakonstantinou (University of Illinois at Chicago, Classics and History) and George Papadantonakis (University of Illinois at Chicago, Chemistry)

History Between the Academic and the Public Domain (October 30, 2014)

Participants:

• Stathis Kalyvas (Yale)
• Leon Fink (University of Illinois at Chicago)
• Thanos Veremis (University of Athens)

Co-sponsored with the Department of History (UIC) and the Institute for the Humanities.

Conferences:

Greece and Europe: Parting ways or showing the way? (April 14, 2015)

Roundtable discussion with Professors

• Alexandra Filindra (University of Illinois at Chicago)
• Petia Konstantinova (University of Illinois at Chicago)
• Akis Kalaitzidis (University of Central Missouri)
• Eulalia Puig Abril (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Co-sponsored with the Department of Political Science.

The Greeks: Ancient and Modern – A Global 21st Century Dialogue (November 4, 2015)

Panel with Professors

• Paul Cartledge (Cambridge)
• Jonathan Hall (U of Chicago)
• William Parkinson (Field Museum and UIC)
• Nanno Marinatos (UIC)

Co-sponsored with the Department of History, the Institute for the Humanities, and Anita and Dr. George Skarpathiotis.

Lectures:

• Eleni Mantzourani (University of Athens) “Spyridon Marinatos: an Icon of Greek Archaeology” National Hellenic Museum. (March 15, 2015)
• Steven Bowman (University of Cincinnati) “Not as Sheep to the Slaughter: The Sonderkommando uprising in Auschwitz-Birkenau” (April 20, 2015) Co-sponsored with Jewish Studies and Circle for Hellas and Israel.
• Malcom Bell (University of Virginia) “Sicily in the Age of Archimedes” (April 24, 2015) Co-sponsored with the AIA.
• Nanno Marinatos (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Paris Papamichos Chronakis (University of Illinois at Chicago) Book Presentation of, Sir Arthur Evans and Minoan Crete: Creating the Vision of Knossos (May 3, 2015). Co-sponsored with the National Hellenic Museum.
• Paul Cartledge (University of Cambridge) “A Tarnished Dawn? Ancient Sparta’s Perception Today and Tomorrow” (November 2, 2015) Co-sponsored with Department of History, the Institute for the Humanities, and Anita and Dr. George Skarpathiotis.
• Silke-Maria Weineck (University of Michigan) and Nanno Marinatos (as discussant) (University of Illinois at Chicago) “The Tragedy of Fatherhood: King Laius and the Politics of Paternity in the West” November 17, 2015. Co-sponsored with the Department of Germanic Studies.

Faculty Seminars:

• Zinon Papakonstantinou “New and Old Curse Tablets from Classical Athens”  (September 9, 2015)
• Nanno Marinatos “Thucydides and Emotion” (September 30, 2015)
• Heidi Schlipphacke “The Future of Melancholia: Freud and Anxiety After War”  (October 14, 2015)
• Omur Harmansah “The Hittite Spring Sanctuaries” (October 21, 2015)

Scholarly Dialogue between Two Scholars:

Trapped in History? Writing the Modern Greek Past in Times of Crisis (March 2, 2016)

• Stathis Kalyvas (Yale University)
• Thomas Gallant (University of California at San Diego)

Lectures:

• Kostas Kostis (University of Athens and Onassis Foundation University Visiting Scholar) “State and Crisis in Today’s Greece: A Historian’s View” (April 12, 2016)

Faculty Seminars:

• Jennifer Tobin “The Earliest List of the Seven Wonders of the World: The Laterculi Alexandrini”  (January 20, 2016)
• Aimee Genova (PhD. candidate, University of Chicago) “Rethinking the roles of Cretan Archaeologists through Iosif Hatzidakis, founder of the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion” (February 10, 2016)
• Sebastian Anderson (PhD. Candidate UIUC) “Public’ Memory: New Evidence for Writing and Reading Epigram in Archaic and Classical Greece” (March 9, 2016)
• Nanno Marinatos “Thucydides: The Happy and Unhappy City” (March 16, 2016)
• Paris Papamichos Chronakis “Cosmopolitans of the Levantine Type’: the Entrepreneurs of Salonica from the Ottoman Empire to the Greek Nation-State, 1880-1922” (April 6, 2016)
• John Ramsey “In What Month were the Consular Elections held in 63 BC?” (April 20, 2016)