On view at the Joukowsky Institute April 15th is an exhibit of objects collected in Lesvos as part of Yannis Hamilakis’s contemporary migration project.

Dr. Maria Liston will give a talk entitled “A Tale of Two Wells: Birth, Death, and Midwives in ancient Greece” on Thursday, April 7th, 2022 at 6:30 pm EDT.

The death of one or more infants would have been a nearly universal part of the lives of women in Ancient Greece. Yet until recently, other than a very few burials of women and infants together, there has been almost no evidence for this. Infant remains are rare in cemeteries of nearly all periods. However, the analyses of two wells in the Athenian Agora and Eretria, Euboia provide some of the first evidence for perinatal death and the decisions that were made regarding infant remains. They offer insight into the role of midwives, the interventions that could take place in difficult births, and the causes of infant death. The informal disposal of infant remains in wells also provides some evidence for the process of acquiring a social identity in Greek society. We cannot know how much agency the mothers of these infants had in the decisions made about them, but these infant remains provide unusually detailed evidence for the practice and outcomes of childbirth, a central event in the lives of ancient Greek women. This online even is free and open to the public.

This event is online: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mKQZyb9vRLybAV6Y4kPHzQ?fbclid=IwAR2IVrRLtyv3QDxMAQTOwvGexp9nk65YbU09tSFM2oc4J_RBZiOtkKUQDFg

From the Department of Classical Studies, Brandeis University:

Graduate Conference: Ancient Worlds, Embodied: Identity, Society, and the Human Body in Antiquity

Department of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
Annual Graduate Conference
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Debby Sneed, Lecturer at California State University, Long Beach
Conference Date: April 8th – 9th, 2022

To register, fill out our Google form prior to the event.

If you would like to attend our conference virtually, join us via Zoom.

This year’s conference will be held over two days, Friday, April 8th (10:00 AM – 2:40 PM EST) and Saturday, April 9th (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM EST). Friday will be hosted in Mandel 303 with the option to join virtually, and Saturday will be virtual with an in-person viewing option again in Mandel 303. The hybrid format of this year’s conference has allowed for wide participation from graduate students across the U.S. and abroad and includes papers spanning many cultures and time periods. We believe this will be an excellent opportunity to meet young researchers, hear about their work, and learn from each other.

Day 1:
Group 1: “Our” Bodies, “Their” Bodies 
Group 2: Genitalia and (Dis)empowerment

Day 2:
Group 3: Negotiation of Bodies, Negotiation of Identities
Group 4: Human Bodies and Personal Identities
Group 5: Vulnerable Bodies

The Brandeis University Graduate Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies is excited to introduce our annual graduate conference, entitled “Ancient Worlds, Embodied: Identity, Society and the Human Body in Antiquity.” In this year’s conference, we hope to provide a platform for the exploration of ideas related to the human body through the examination of textual, visual, and material evidence from the ancient world. The intention of this conference is to engage with the human body through a range of disciplines as it impacted societies in antiquity. We are fortunate to offer numerous papers that explore the human body as it appears in ancient literature, artistic presentations, and archaeological excavations, delivered by graduate students from a variety of universities.