Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient RomeMaggie Popkin Case Western Reserve UniversityOctober 28, 2022 - October 28, 2022
11:00am - 1:00pm -
Columbia University
As part of its Classical Dialogues series, the Classical Studies Graduate Program CLST at Columbia University is pleased to welcome Maggie Popkin, Robson Junior Professor and Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University. On October 28, 11am-1pm, Maggie Popkin will discuss her book Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome (Cambridge UP, 2022), an investigation into the critical role that souvenirs played in shaping how Romans perceived and conceptualized their world, and their relationships to the empire that shaped it. Introduction by Francesco de Angelis (Columbia University) with commentators Giulia Bertoni (Columbia University) and Giovanni Lovisetto (Columbia University). Location: Hamilton Hall 603, Columbia University.
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.
In its Classical Dialogues series, the interdepartmental Classical Studies Graduate Program CLST at Columbia University invites authors of recent work in ancient studies that is exemplary for the kind of study that CLST aims to foster. All faculty and students at Columbia and beyond are cordially invited. CLST students are required to read carefully at least one chapter or article in advance and prepare questions and comments for discussion.