BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//The Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Toronto BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20200308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20201101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20270314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20271107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260416T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260416T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20260407T124414Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260407T125156Z UID:1319-1776366000-1776369600@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Serene Death: Execution in the Early Modern Venetian Republic DESCRIPTION:Ariana Ellis\, Doctoral candidate\, Department of History\, University of Toronto \nThe popular image of Venice as La Serenissima\, the peaceful Republic of arts\, education\, and fair governance\, was utilized and purposefully enhanced by the Venetian state across the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The use of public execution as a form of state punishment walked the line between supporting this reputation of divinely inspired Venetian justice and revealing the reality of civil dissent within the city. Through a discussion of ritual\, geography\, myth\, gossip\, and violence\, this talk will illustrate the role and function of execution in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Venice. \nOnline with Zoom: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81730003190 URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/serene-death/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Ottawa Chapter,Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260326T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260326T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20260313T023834Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260313T031615Z UID:1311-1774551600-1774555200@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:The Philology of Fraudulence and the Gospel of Barnabas in Renaissance Italy DESCRIPTION:Domenico Pietropaolo\, Professor Emeritus\, Department of Italian Studies and Centre for Drama\, Theatre\, and Performance Studies\, and Senior Fellow of Massey College\, University of Toronto \nThe purpose of this paper is to consider the constraints within which philologists must operate when they examine potentially fraudulent documents and to argue that philology\, when it is focused on the detection of textual authenticity and forgery\, is ultimately grounded in an epistemology of belief. I will develop this argument as a reflection on examples from various fields—including theatre history\, law\, and religion—in which oral performance\, real or imagined\, is thought to precede the scripted text. My primary text is a gospel of Islamic inspiration\, written in Renaissance Italian\, known as the Gospel of Barnabas\, which claims to be the translation of a narrative that Barnabas received orally from the lips of Jesus and from his disciples Peter and John. The cultural interest of this work lies mainly in the fact that it overturns the theology of the four canonical gospels\, all regarded as false narratives of the identity and ministry of Jesus\, and indicts with deliberate deception the traditional account of the Crucifixion. Whether this gospel is derived from an original work by Barnabas\, and if so\, where in the Mediterranean\, when and in what language it was composed\, and what function the Italian version was meant to have in the Catholic Reformation are all parts of the philological puzzle. \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/84568003293 URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/the-philology-of-fraudulence-and-the-gospel-of-barnabas-in-renaissance-italy/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Ottawa Chapter,Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251204T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251204T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20251127T145728Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251127T145728Z UID:1290-1764874800-1764878400@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:From Spiritual Autism to Cosmic Communion: Reading St. Francis in the Key of Modernity DESCRIPTION:John Caruana\, Associate Professor\, Department of Philosophy\, Toronto Metropolitan University \nThe Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor laments that the defining feature of modern subjectivity is that “we are too much in our heads.” Modernity\, he argues\, has trained us to imagine ourselves as detached—from one another\, from the natural world\, and even from the depths of our own embodied life. This estrangement\, which Thomas Berry calls a “spiritual autism\,” underlies many of our present crises\, not least the ecological one. In this context\, St. Francis of Assisi stands out as a guide for our disoriented age. A slow\, attentive reading of the Umbrian mystic’s famous Canticle of the Creatures invites us to recover a sense of gratitude and belonging that speaks to both believers and nonbelievers alike. To read Francis in this manner\, I turn also to writers who have extended his vision into new idioms: his spiritual heir\, the poet Dante Alighieri\, and\, more recently\, the philosopher Massimo Cacciari\, whose reflections help us discern how Francis’s cosmic praise may still resonate within the modern soul. \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/81730003190 URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/from-spiritual-autism-to-cosmic-communion-reading-st-francis-in-the-key-of-modernity/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Ottawa Chapter,Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251113T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251113T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20260225T220346Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260225T220703Z UID:1304-1763060400-1763064000@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Transatlantic Intellectual Networks: Leonardo Sciascia and the Sciascia Archive Project DESCRIPTION:Eloisa Morra\, Associate Professor\, Department of Italian Studies\, University of Toronto\n\n\n\nLeonardo Sciascia (1921 – 1989) was an Italian novelist and politician. The archival materials which document his work are now part of the Sciascia Archive Project at the University of Toronto. This presentation will analyse correspondence preserved at the Leonardo Sciascia Foundation in Racalmuto\, alongside other documents\, in order to reconstruct the context and motivations behind this donation. The presentation will also highlight the role of transatlantic intellectual networks in the reception of Sciascia’s work. The second part of the presentation will focus on the ongoing digitisation process — the first step in an initiative that aims to develop a digital network linking this collection with other Sciascia and non-Sciascia archives in Italy\, beginning with the Canadian material. \n\nOnline with Zoom. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/transatlantic-intellectual-networks-leonardo-sciascia-and-the-sciascia-archive-project/ CATEGORIES:Ottawa Chapter,Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250306T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250306T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20250207T142930Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250211T030718Z UID:1231-1741287600-1741291200@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Reading in the Ancient Classroom DESCRIPTION:Brayden Hirsch\, Department of Classical Studies\, Boston University \n \n What was it like to learn to read in antiquity? How did students experience the texts we call “classics” today?  In this talk we will get a glimpse into the ancient classroom\, with an overview of the varieties of surviving evidence (literary accounts\, papyri\, ostraca\, writing tablets\, written colloquia) and examples of each. \nOnline: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/83377569435 \n  \nCo-sponsored by the University of Toronto Department of Classics and by the University of St. Michael’s College Division of Continuing Education. \n  \n        URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/reading-in-the-ancient-classroom/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20250206T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20250206T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20250128T223736Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250128T223923Z UID:1224-1738868400-1738872000@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:A Day in the Life: Ancient Craft Production at Sikyon\, Greece DESCRIPTION:Scott Gallimore\, Assistant Professor\, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies\, Wilfrid Laurier University \n \nSince 2013\, excavations at the archaeological site of Sikyon in Greece\, located just to the west of Corinth\, have revealed a workshop complex that was active from the 1st to 7th century AD. This complex had pottery kilns\, wine-pressing floors\, a furnace for smelting iron\, and a shop. In this talk we will explore what this production was like and how it tells us about the daily life of an ancient population and the jobs they carried out. \nOnline with Zoom: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/83377569435 URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/a-day-in-the-life-ancient-craft-production-at-sikyon-greece/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20240307T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20240307T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20230825T141931Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250128T223254Z UID:1116-1709838000-1709841600@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:The End of the Hasmonean Dynasty and its Effects on Judea and Judaism DESCRIPTION:Nadav Sharon\, Jewish Studies Librarian\, University of Toronto \nThe end of the Hasmonean dynasty and the beginning of Roman domination of Judea\, in the middle part of the first century BCE\,  is a relatively neglected but momentous period in Judean history.  Beyond a historical reconstruction this lecture will explore the impact of the Roman conquest on the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls\, enhance the understanding of later Judean-Roman relations and the roots of the Great Revolt\, and examine how this early period of Roman domination had an impact on later developments in Judean society and religion. \nOnline with Zoom. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/the-end-of-the-hasmonean-dynasty-and-its-effects-on-judea-and-judaism/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20240208T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20240208T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20230825T143003Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230913T221738Z UID:1121-1707418800-1707422400@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Egypt DESCRIPTION:Clifford Goldfarb\, Chairman of the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library \nThis presentation has a theme: everything about Arthur Conan Doyle\, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries\, and Egypt. That is Arthur Conan Doyle in Egypt\, Arthur Conan Doyle writing about Egypt\, his works with an Egyptian element\, and things in Arthur Conan Doyle‘s life and career that are connected to Egypt. This will include – but not be limited to – some or all of Napoleonic connections\, Lord Kitchener and Omdurman\, Dervishes\, camels\, Nile cruises\, foreign correspondents\, undead mummies and their curses\, Coptic monasteries\, archaeology and colonialism. \nZoom link to be added. \n  \nCo-sponsored by the Toronto Chapter of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. \n   URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/sir-arthur-conan-doyle-in-egypt/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20240118T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20240118T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20230830T183555Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240111T020348Z UID:1147-1705604400-1705608000@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Confessors\, Lapsi\, and Pax Deorum: Third Century Christian Responses to Required Sacrifices DESCRIPTION:  \n \nAlyssa Lynn Elliot\, Emory University \nThe religious practices of the people of Rome were a necessary part of maintaining pax deorum (the peace of the gods)\, which in turn maintained order\, peace\, and prosperity in the empire. In the wake of the crises of the third and fourth centuries CE\, emperors issued edicts and instituted religious reforms requiring citizens to make sacrifices to the gods. This lecture explores the Christian responses to these required sacrifices\, particularly the confessors and lapsi\, and the disposition of other Christians toward them after the time of crisis had ended. \n  \n  \nZoom link:  https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/84589472510 URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/confessors-lapsi-and-pax-deorum/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20231116T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20231116T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20230731T145610Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231026T171150Z UID:1109-1700161200-1700164800@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:‘The Jew Who Made Me’: The Catalan Atlas and the Concept of the "Port Jew" DESCRIPTION:Amalya Feldman\, PhD candidate\, Department of Art History University of Toronto \n \n  \nThe Catalan Atlas was a world map created around 1375 by a Jew living on the island of Mallorca in the western Mediterranean. By analyzing the features of the atlas\, we can begin to understand the culture of the Jewish community in the medieval Mediterranean port city of Palma di Mallorca as an example of the diverse communities in which “Port Jews” lived.  \n  \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/87165229604 \n  URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/the-jew-who-made-me-the-catalan-atlas/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20231026T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20231026T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20230920T175031Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231020T021043Z UID:1155-1698346800-1698350400@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:The Mediterranean Noir: Notes on a Spatial Theory DESCRIPTION:Alberto Zambenedetti\, University of Toronto \nIn 1998\, the late Jean-Claude Izzo published an essay titled ‘Le bleu et le noir’ in the weekly news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur. The piece opened with the following words: ‘In the beginning is the Book. And that moment in which Cain kills his brother Abel. In the blood of thisfratricide\, the Mediterranean gives us the first noir novel’ (Izzo\, 2013). With this statement\, the author suggested a powerful hermeneutical possibility: the recasting of the noir discourse (as an intertextual and transartistic practice) in a fashion that would include an expanded genealogy and an extended geography\, well beyond its known Anglofone paths. In the last decade\, film scholars have embarked in a profound reevaluation of the anglocentrism of the noir canon in a fashion that is consonant with Izzo’s position (Spicer 2007\, Fay and Nieland\, 2010\, Pettey and Palmer 2014a and 2014b)\, going so far as to postulate the existence of a contemporary ‘global noir’ arising from ‘transnational filmmaking\, cross-cultural influences\, and the idea of global culture.’ (Desser\, 2012\, 628). This lecture proposes a theory of space that sheds light on the cultural specificity of the Mediterranean noir\, and that addresses the submerged\, repressed histories of the lands touched\, and thereby linked\, by this complicated sea. \nOnline with Zoom: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/89863355866. \nCo-sponsored by the University of Toronto Department of Italian Studies. \n    URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/the-mediterranean-noir-notes-on-a-spatial-theory/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230420T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230420T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20220329T123558Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230130T222837Z UID:786-1682017200-1682020800@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Manifesting Miracles: Image Cults in Late Medieval Southern Italy DESCRIPTION:Claire Jensen\, PhD Candidate\, Department of Art History\, University of Toronto \n \nIn late medieval southern Italy\,  it was not uncommon for a painting to grant miracles. From resolving legal trouble to protecting people from plague and natural disasters\, public images frequently inspired active cults of devotion. This talk will introduce several miraculous artworks in and around Naples and discuss how they challenge the traditional canon of art history. \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/82725763927 \n  \nCo-sponsored by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura\, the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies\, the University of Toronto Department of Italian Studies\, and the University of Toronto Department of Art History.. \n   \n. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/manifesting-miracles/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230330T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230330T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20220907T012220Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230323T135857Z UID:987-1680202800-1680206400@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Visualizing Voice: The Myth of Echo and Narcissus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Pompeiian Wall Paintings DESCRIPTION:Mariapia Pietropaolo\, McMaster University \n \nOne of the most popular stories from ancient Greek and Roman mythology is the story of Narcissus in love with his own watery image. In the Metamorphoses\, the Roman poet Ovid also includes the story of the nymph Echo’s unrequited love for Narcissus. Rejected by him\, she begins to fade away until she exists only as a disembodied voice. The myth was also a popular subject of wall paintings in and around Pompeii. In this paper\, I discuss the relationship between the textual and figurative representations of Echo’s voice\, and I explore the aesthetic problem of painting a voice. \n  \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86786144716 \nCo-sponsored by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the University of Toronto Department of Art History. \n    URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/visualizing-voice/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230209T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230209T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20220325T004552Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230209T020411Z UID:739-1675969200-1675972800@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Relics of Roman Identity: Re-Collecting the Lost Palazzo del Bufalo\, Rome (c. 1450-1600) DESCRIPTION:Matthew Coleman\, PhD candidate\, University of Toronto (Art History) \n \nThe antiquities collection of the del Bufalo family was one of the largest and most influential in Rome\, c. 1450-1600. Unfortunately\, unlike richer contemporary collections (e.g.\, of the Medici or d’ Este)\, neither the Bufali artifacts nor their home exist today. This talk explores both the bookish and globetrotting methodologies used to reconstruct Renaissance antiquities collections which have been lost to time\, in an effort to restore their extraordinary cultural legacies for future study. \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86310345964 \n  \n  \nCo-sponsored by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto\, the University of Toronto Department of Italian Studies\, the University of Toronto Department of Classics\, the University of Toronto Department of Art History\, and the University of Toronto Archaeology Centre. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/relics-of-roman-identity/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230112T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230112T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20220325T004027Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220906T010716Z UID:735-1673550000-1673553600@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:The Smith and the State: Relationships between Metallurgical Production and Mycenaean Palaces in Late Bronze Age Greece DESCRIPTION:Taylor Stark\, PhD candidate\, University of Toronto (Classics) \nIt is generally thought that the Mycenaean palaces in Late Bronze Age Greece (ca. 1600 – 1150 BCE) held near-universal control over specialized crafting industries\, including metal production. This view is derived from the textual evidence of the Linear B tablets. However\, a comparison of various archaeological metal production assemblages reveals that smiths interacted with political authorities in far more complex ways than has been assumed. As such\, this talk presents a more nuanced understanding of the diverse relationships that existed between craft production and the palaces\, which in turn has broader implications for our view of Mycenaean states as definable entities which are universally comparable in their function and interests. \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/82140037593 \n.Co-sponsored by the University of Toronto Department of Classics. \n     URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/the-smith-and-the-state/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20221201T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20221201T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20220325T004320Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220906T010433Z UID:737-1669921200-1669924800@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Italy's Urban Boom in the Late Roman Republic DESCRIPTION:Drew Davis\, Crake Doctoral Fellow in Classics\, Mount Allison University \n \nA significant urbanization phenomenon swept through the Italian peninsula in the second and first centuries BCE. Communities across Italy invested considerable amounts of labour and financial capital into monumentalizing their urban spaces\, a process which coincided with one of the most transformative periods in the region’s history. This lecture will explore how this commitment to public construction in turn (re)created and constructed communities and forged local identities. \nDrew Davis is Crake Doctoral Fellow in Classics at Mount Allison University for 2022-2023.  He is completing his doctoral dissertation at the University of Toronto.  It focuses on the larger socio-economic history of the public building phenomenon which swept through Italy in the last two centuries of the Roman Republic. It assesses how communities afforded such projects\, and how this construction fit into the wider political shifts of the period. \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86581981946 \nCo-sponsored by the University of Toronto Department of Italian Studies and the University of Toronto Department of Classics. \n     URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/italys-urban-boom-in-the-late-roman-republic/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20220915T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20220915T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20220325T195932Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220907T195807Z UID:750-1663268400-1663272000@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Hunting the Little Poor Man of Assisi: Or\, Why after 100 Years of Research I Still Had to Write Yet Another Life of St. Francis of Assisi DESCRIPTION:Augustine Thompson\, O.P.\, Praeses\, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies\n\n \n  \nSince the 1890s\, Franciscan and non-Franciscan scholars have been searching for new sources for the life of St. Francis and subjecting them to intensive study and analysis. We now know more about the evidence for this beloved saint than ever before\, but there was\, until this biography\, virtually no attempt to use all this information to reconstruct the “Historical Francis.” This lecture will explain the difficulties of interpreting this evidence and why those most involved in its study have avoided using it to create a new biography. It will then explain the speaker’s own approach and how it produced a very different picture of St. Francis from that popularly received. \n\n\nIn February 2022 Father Augustine Thompson was appointed Praeses (President / Director) of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto.  He is currently on leave from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley\, California.  He is the author of Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (Cornell University Press\, 2012).  He joined the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) in 1977\, and was ordained a priest in 1985. \nZoom link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/89906353712 \nCo-sponsored by: the Dominican Institute of Toronto\, the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies\, the University of Toronto Department of Italian Studies\, and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Toronto). URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/hunting-the-little-poor-man-of-assisi/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20220407T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20220407T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20211014T162053Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T013826Z UID:407-1649358000-1649361600@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Behind the Tophet: Theologies of Infanticide DESCRIPTION:Baruch Halpern\, Covenant Foundation Professor of Jewish Studies and Religion\, University of Georgia\n\n \nData that elucidates the practice of child sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean world include the literary relation of legendary instances\, myth\, foreigners’ descriptions and occasional references to the living practice from Late Bronze Hatti forward. Extensive archaeological manifestation\, with an accompanying trove of physical evidence and formulaic inscriptions\, has made the practice\, if anything\, even more inscrutable. Against that background\, I take this occasion to explore both some scholarly explanations of the practice and what seem the most fruitful approaches to it for the future. \n\n\nBaruch Halpern received his doctorate from Harvard University.  He has taught at York University\, Penn State University and the University of Georgia.  He was co-director of the Megiddo Expedition and Survey of the Jezreel Valley\, as well as of an archaeological survey in southeastern Cilicia\, Turkey. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/behind-the-tophet/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20220310T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20220310T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20211002T210028Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T013552Z UID:268-1646938800-1646942400@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:The Origins of the God of Israel DESCRIPTION:Aleksander Krogevoll\, Instructor\, University of St. Michael’s College\n\n \nIt is difficult to conduct any study on the origin of Yahwism\, as the evidence for YHWH’s origins remain limited. However\, the absence of YHWH in the West-Semitic group of gods has led scholars to look for the deity’s origins south of Israel. This presentation will offer an overview of the Midianite-Kenite hypothesis and explore why it has become the leading hypothesis for YHWH’s origins. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/the-origins-of-the-god-of-israel/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20220210T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20220210T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20211002T210548Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T013520Z UID:271-1644519600-1644523200@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Jews in the Roman Army: Cultures in Conflict DESCRIPTION:Christopher Zeichmann\, Emmanuel College\, University of Toronto\n\nThe relationship between the Jewish people and the Roman Empire was not a happy one – marked by three famous Jewish revolts. Due in part to this tension\, as well as conflicts with sabbath observance\, dietary restrictions\, and other issues\, there is a common wisdom that Jews never served in the Roman army or\, if they did\, that they were apostates. Contrary to such beliefs\, this paper will argue that there were many Jewish men who served in the Roman army\, finding ways to navigate their religious scruples within the structures of the military. How did these men understand their own Judaism and Jewishness? \n\n\nDr. Christopher B. Zeichmann (he/they) completed his Ph.D. at the Toronto School of Theology. His books include The Roman Army and the New Testament (2018) and Essential Essays for the Study of the Military in First Century Palestine (2019). He presently teaches at Ryerson University and Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto and serves as project manager of Brown University’s Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine project. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/jews-inthe-roman-army/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20220207T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20220207T170000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20220207T235918Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220208T035140Z UID:609-1644220800-1644253200@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Tombstones\, Times of Death\, and Horoscopes in the Roman Empire DESCRIPTION:Simeon D. Ehrlich\, Stanford University URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/tombstones-times-of-death-and-horoscopes-in-the-roman-empire/ CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20220113T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20220113T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20211002T214629Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T013911Z UID:289-1642100400-1642104000@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:From the Mary of History to the Theotokos of Faith DESCRIPTION:Dr. Brian Butcher\, Adjunct Professor\, McGill University\n\n \nThe Mediterranean has played host to the blossoming and cross-pollination of several distinct Orthodox Christian traditions\, including the Byzantine\, Coptic\, West Syriac and Armenian. Each of these recapitulate the scriptural figure of Mary the mother of Jesus\, through the media of iconography and hymnography\, especially as these converge within the liturgical context. There the threads of the New Testament (and apocryphal) accounts of her\, as well as the Old Testament symbols or “types” discerned to foreshadow her\, are interwoven into a rich tapestry. By showcasing cardinal representations of the “God-bearer” this presentation invites reflection on the unity and diversity of the Christian East\, and the complex dynamics operative in the historical development of doctrine and devotion. \n\n\nDr. Brian A. Butcher received a Ph.D. in Theology (Eastern Christian Studies) from St. Paul University in Ottawa in 2010\, an M.A. from St. Paul University in 2003\, and a B.A. from McGill University in 1998. He is currently an adjunct professor at McGill University. For nine years he was Lecturer and Research Fellow in Eastern Christian Studies at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptysky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies both at the University of St. Michael’s College and previously at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. Prior to that he taught for several years at Simon Fraser University and Redeemer Pacific College/Trinity Western University.  His first book\, Liturgical Theology After Schmemann: An Orthodox Reading of Paul Ricoeur\, was published in 2018 by Fordham University Press. Other recent publications include a chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology (2015). He is a subdeacon in the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/from-the-mary-of-history-to-the-theotokos-of-faith/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20211209T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20211209T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20211002T211911Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T013203Z UID:280-1639076400-1639080000@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Judging the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel DESCRIPTION:Dr. Michael O’Connor\, Associate Professor\, St. Michael’s College\, University of Toronto\n\n \nIn the 1530s Michelangelo added the Last Judgment to the previous work he and others had painted in the Sistine Chapel. In doing so\, he completed but also disrupted the artistic program of the Chapel begun half a century earlier under the patronage of Pope Sixtus IV. \nIs the result a success? This talk will consider different answers to that question. \n\n\nMichael O’Connor is Associate Professor\, Teaching Stream\, in the Christianity and Culture program and Book and Media Studies program at St. Michael’s College\, University of Toronto. \nHis research interests include music and liturgy\, early modern intellectual history (especially Renaissance Rome)\, Christianity and the arts\, and history of biblical exegesis. Recent courses have included “Ritual and Worship” and the First Year Foundations Seminar “The Sistine Chapel: History\, Image\, Use.” \nProfessor O’Connor is the director of the St. Michael’s Schola Cantorum and the college Singing Club. A board member of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music and the Royal School of Music\, Canada\, he is also active as composer\, arranger\, and music editor. \nHe arrived at the University of St. Michael’s College in 2005. He formerly served as Warden of the Royal School of Music\, UK and Lecturer in Theology\, Ushaw College\, UK. Professor O’Connor holds degrees from Pontifical Gregorian University\, Rome (STB\, STL)\, and Oxford\, Oriel College (DPhil). URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/judging-the-last-judgement-in-the-sistine-chapel/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20211104T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20211104T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20210918T235507Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T013036Z UID:215-1636052400-1636056000@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:The Life and Death of Tombs: The Excavation of the Mycenaean Cemetery at Ayia Sotira in the Nemea Valley\, Greece DESCRIPTION:Dr. R. Angus K. Smith\, Brock University\n\nFrom 2006 to 2008 an international team conducted archaeological excavations at the threatened late Bronze Age site of Ayia Sotira near Nemea\, Greece.  These excavations saved a cemetery of Mycenaean tombs from looting and revealed new information about the complex mortuary rituals that surrounded the use and reuse of communal tombs during the 14th and 13th centuries BCE. This talk will describe the excavations and what these tombs revealed\, and put them in the larger context of death in Mycenaean Greece. \n\n\nDr. R Angus K. Smith is Associate Professor of Greek Archeology with the Classics Department of Brock University; he holds his degrees from Dartmouth College\, Cambridge University (M.Phil) and Bryn Mawr College (MA\, PhD). His research interests are Greek archaeology\, Aegean prehistory\, ceramic analysis and mortuary analysis.  He is currently Associate Director of excavations at the Minoan town of Gournia on Crete\, and he was Co-Director of the recently completed Ayia Sotira excavation project at Nemea.  Professor Smith is the 2018 recipient of the Brock University Faculty of Humanities Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity.  He was President of the Canadian Institute in Greece and is President of the Niagara Peninsula Society of the Archaeological Institute of America. \nPresented jointly by the Ottawa and Toronto Chapters. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/life-and-death-of-tombs/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Ottawa Chapter,Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20211007T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20211007T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20211002T162701Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T012941Z UID:258-1633633200-1633636800@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:King Sized Controversy: Evaluating the Extent of David’s Kingdom DESCRIPTION:Rachel Urowitz\, Lecturer\, University of Toronto \n \nThe extent of the kingdom of Judah has been in the limelight since the discovery of Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Elah Valley in Israel in 2007. Archaeologists at this site have proclaimed that it is directly linked to David’s kingdom and that it proves the strength and size of Judah in the Iron Age. This lecture will examine the archaeological record of the Kingdom of Judah in the 10th century BCE and introduce theories that challenge the strength and size of David’s kingdom in this period. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/king-sized-controversy/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20210914T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20210914T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20210918T234921Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T012904Z UID:208-1631646000-1631649600@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Dante and Theology in Vico’s Philosophy of History DESCRIPTION:Domenico Pietropaolo\, Professor Emeritus\, University of Toronto \n \nIn Vico’s theory of the Ideal Eternal History of civilization\, Dante appears as the Homer of the late Middle-Ages\, which Vico regarded as a typological return of the heroic age of the ancient Mediterranean in Christian Europe. A central principle of Vico’s philosophy of history is that\, in the creative imagination of every age\, poetry and metaphysics\, including theology\, are inversely related. Vico knew that this principle was at odds with Dante’s Commedia\, in which one could not easily separate poetry from theology or metaphysics without dissolving away the text itself. He struggled with the problem for a long time\, periodically revisiting details of it as he elaborated both his philosophy of history and his theory of the creative imagination. In this lecture we shall examine salient aspects of his ongoing reflection on the Commedia and his chief arguments for a general hermeneutic grounded in the idea of a Christian ricorso of the poetic age of the ancient Mediterranean. \nProfessor Domenico Pietropaolo was President of CIMS for several years.  He is professor of Italian literature and theatrical studies at the University of Toronto\,  where he was also director of the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama and the Department of Italian Studies as well as Dean of St. Michael’s College. His main interests are the dramaturgy of staging and the study of theatrical processes\, medieval Italian literature\, modern theatre and Futurism.  His main publications include the volumes Semiotics of the Christian Imagination\, Semiotics and Pragmatic of Stage Improvisations and Dante studies in the Age of Vico and numerous essays on literary and theatrical history. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/dante-and-theology/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Ottawa Chapter,Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20210429T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20210429T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20210525T172916Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T012832Z UID:49-1619722800-1619726400@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Who Created Florence? Making a Renaissance City DESCRIPTION:Nicholas Terpstra\, University of Toronto \n \nFlorence stands out for many as embodying the peak of Italian Renaissance creativity.  But what made it the artistic centre that we see today? Many Renaissance cities had artists\, architects\, authors\, and musicians\, but few have the reputation that Florence continues to enjoy as the place to go in order to immerse yourself in the culture of the Renaissance.  To understand why\, we have to go beyond the artists themselves and look at those who later collected\, conserved\, and (re)created the art and architecture we see today.  This lecture will move form a fifteenth century creator\, to a sixteenth century collector\, an eighteenth century conservor\, and a group of nineteenth century expatriates in order to answer the question of “who created Florence” as the modern Renaissance capital that we see today. \nGenerously funded by Joe Di Geso. Presented jointly by CIMS Ottawa and CIMS Toronto. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/who-created-florence-making-a-renaissance-city/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Ottawa Chapter,Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20210307T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20210307T150000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20210622T212631Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T012528Z UID:120-1615125600-1615129200@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Renaissance Readers and Their Books: Representations of a Fugitive Act DESCRIPTION:Antonio Ricci\, York University \n \nThe image of a person holding a book appears frequently in Renaissance art and literature. The privileged status of texts in humanist culture and their proliferation after the coming of print technology contributed to the motif’s popularity. This lecture will examine depictions of readers in paintings and poems of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The intention is to recover aspects of the experience of reading during the period and\, at the same time\, to gain a measure of insight into what remains an elusive phenomenon. What does reading mean? What is it\, really\, that we are doing when we engage in this fundamentally human act? The Renaissance offers us intriguing answers. \nGenerously funded by Joe Di Geso. \nPresented jointly by CIMS Ottawa and CIMS Toronto. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/renaissance-readers-and-their-books-representations-of-a-fugitive-act/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Ottawa Chapter,Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20210211T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20210211T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20210622T212542Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T012445Z UID:118-1613070000-1613073600@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:Unholy Texts: Reading Biblical Rape Narratives DESCRIPTION:Carl Ehrlich\, York University \n \n  \nThe topic of rape appears a number of times in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament).  It may be found broached both explicitly and implicitly in texts reflective of a number of literary genres\, including legal texts\, narrative texts\, poetic texts\, and prophetic texts.  While the violent act of rape is nowhere condoned\, it was a tragic fact of life in the biblical world – as it still is in ours.  This lecture will survey biblical texts relating to rape in a number of literary genres and attempt to classify the allusions to rape according to various literary\, social\, theological\, and legal criteria. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/unholy-texts-reading-biblical-rape-narratives/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20210114T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20210114T200000 DTSTAMP:20260501T175417 CREATED:20210622T212434Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220717T012416Z UID:115-1610650800-1610654400@www.mediterraneanstudies.ca SUMMARY:The Yahweh of the South: The Site of Kuntillet 'Ajrud and its Controversial Connection with the Northern Kingdom of Israel DESCRIPTION:Cristiana Conti\, York University \n \nThe epigraphic findings of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud\, a 9th-8th century BCE site at the intersection of several land routes that connected Sinai to the major trade networks of the time\, reveal the existence of “Yhwh of Teman\,” a southern manifestation of the cult of Yahweh.  The travelers and merchants who paused their journey at this site worshiped this version of Yahweh alongside a northern one\, whose principal temple was most likely located in Samaria\, then the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Interestingly\, Kuntillet ‘Ajrud\, although located in southeast Sinai\, was culturally and politically affiliated with the Northern Kingdom rather than Judah.  This lecture will review the epigraphic and archaeological evidence found at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud and evaluate the merits of the site’s association with the Northern Kingdom of Israel but also its underlying and distinctive cultural identity. URL:https://www.mediterraneanstudies.ca/lecture/the-yahweh-of-the-south-the-site-of-kuntillet-ajrud-and-its-controversial-connection-with-the-northern-kingdom-of-israel/ LOCATION:Online with Zoom CATEGORIES:Toronto Chapter END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR