In its first cycle of investigation, Global Antiquities aims for a grounded comparison of Greece, Rome, and China through three thematic clusters: People, Places, and Performances. Each of these will be studied in workshops that assemble the leading scholarly voices in the field. Proceedings will be published by a North American press (contract agreement is under way). Workshops are held every three years: People (2014), Places (2017), Performances (2020).
The time period under investigation is from the Late-Warring States through the Eastern Han Period (4th century BCE to the 1st century CE). In the Mediterranean world, we were aiming at an equivalent from the late Archaic period to the early Roman empire (6th century BCE to the 1st century CE).
2017 Workshop: Places
Place and Political Culture in ancient Greece, Rome, and China
October 25-27, McGill University, Thomson House, and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Program: to be released soon.
List of confirmed participants: Hans Beck and Griet Vankeerberghen (organizers), Alex McAuley (Cardiff), Darian Totten (McGill), Amy Russell (Durham), Martin Mohr (Zurich), Robin Yates (McGill), Luke Habberstad (University of Oregon), Charles Sanft (University of Tennessee), Anthony Barbieri-Low (UC Santa Barbara), Ryan Abrecht (UC San Diego), Poo Mu-chou (Hong Kong), Carlos Norena (Berkeley)
The second workshop in the series is dedicated to the cluster of Places. Contributions will be grouped in four thematic rubrics: places of power, including the comparative analysis of palatial centres and monumental expressions of state authority; places of public, everyday interaction, with a discursive analysis of concepts of public and publicity; the ontology of place and the impact of the local; and places of memory.
2014 Workshop: pEOPLE
Citizens and Commoners in ancient Greece, Rome, and China
October 22-24, McGill University, Thomson House, and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Program: click here
The first workshop in the series was dedicated to the cluster of People. We explored the following key themes: the people as a citizen body and institution; their participation in political life of the community; the collective identity of people and their conceived ethnic origins; people and gender; elites vs. commoners; the public discourse; the public discourse on the people and rhetoric as well as free speech.