Our second lunch in the Winter 2021 Lightning Lunch series explores network analysis through art, religion, and the development of civilizations in the Mediterranean. Art historian Carl Knappett (University of Toronto), historian Irad Malkin (Tel Aviv University), and religious scholar John Kloppenborg (University of Toronto) describe their work excavating the development of trade, knowledge, and religious networks within and beyond the Greco-Roman world.
The event will take place from 12:00pm to 1:00pm EST February 23, 2021. Speakers will give short presentations on their work, followed by discussion.
Register here to attend!
Speaker Biographies:
Carl Knappett specializes in the Aegean Bronze Age, and Minoan Crete in particular. His main focus currently is the east Cretan site of Palaikastro, where he directs a new excavation project. Professor Knappett continues his research on pottery from a number of other Aegean sites, such as Knossos, Malia, Myrtos Pyrgos, Akrotiri, and Miletus. This multi-sited approach has led him into various kinds of network analysis for investigating regional interactions.
Irad Malkin recently published a book (soon in paperback) applying Network Theory to the question of how did Greek civilization emerge during the Archaic period when Greeks were actually distancing themselves from each other. How did civilizational convergence accompany settlement divergence? This follows his interest in religion and colonization, the use of myth as mediator between political communities and lands, ethnicity and collective identity, and Mediterranean history and historiography. In 1986 he co-founded and still serves as co-editor of the Mediterranean Historical Review.
John S. Kloppenborg is a specialist in Christian origins and second Temple Judaism, in particular the Jesus tradition (the canonical and non canonical gospels), and the social world of the early Jesus movement in Jewish Palestine and in the cities of the eastern Empire. He has written extensively on the Synoptic Sayings Gospel (Q) and the Synoptic Problem, and is currently writing on the parables of Jesus, the letter of James, and cultic, professional, and ethnic associations in the Graeco-Roman world. He is one of the general editors of the International Q Project and holds a five year SSHRC Insight Grant on Associative Practices in the Graeco-Roman World.
Recording Available!
Thank you to everyone for such a wonderful discussion! If you were not able to attend the lunch, or if you would like to rewatch the talk, a Zoom recording is available here.