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Cologne International Forum Opening Event

 24 November 2022, 6 pm | International House, Kringsweg 6, Cologne 
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  • Enlarged view:
    Dr. Heike Berner, Executive Director Cologne International Forum
     
    Photo:Beate Vossel-Newman
  • Enlarged view:
    Prof. Dr. Johanna Hey, University of Cologne Vice-Rector for International Affairs
     
    Photo:Beate Vossel-Newman
  • Enlarged view:
    Prof. Dr. Anja Bettenworth, Universtiy of Cologne Department of Classics
     
    Photo:Beate Vossel-Newman
  • Enlarged view:
    Guest speaker: Jackie Murray, Professor of Classical Philology, University of Kentucky, SUNY Buffalo
    Photo:Beate Vossel-Newman
  • Enlarged view:
    Guest speaker: Jackie Murray, Professor of Classical Philology, University of Kentucky, SUNY Buffalo
    Photo:Beate Vossel-Newman
  • Enlarged view:

     
     
     
    Photo:Beate Vossel-Newman

Guest Lecture – »Classics Now: The Importance of Studying Antiquity in Our Present Age of Crisis«

Jackie Murray (Professor of Classical Philology, University of Kentucky, SUNY Buffalo, Fellow of the American Academy, Berlin)

The Humanities, especially disciplines like Classics, are under attack. They are being pulled apart by various political and identitarian forces that want to weaponize the cultural capital of classics. At risk in this struggle is the critical and scientific approach to antiquity that comes from decoupling "The ancient Greeks and Romans" from the ideological content of "Western" culture.  So, it’s crucial that scholars take stock of the aspects of the discipline that have been feeding these forces. The idealization of the past by classicists has prevented the past from teaching its real lessons about human nature.


In cooperation with the Department of Classics

 

Photo: Annette Hornischer

Jackie Murray is an associate professor of Classics at the University of Kentucky and at SUNY at Buffalo. Her research focuses on Hellenistic poetry and the reception of Classics in African American and Afro-Caribbean literature. She is currently a Berlin Prize Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin.