March 25, 2011 — Issues of gender are at the forefront of contemporary studies of Greco-Roman antiquity. Recently scholars have been applying such perspectives more systematically to the remains of ancient material culture, as well as to literary texts.

An April 2 symposium at the University of Virginia, "Ancient Cultures, New Perspectives: Gendered Approaches to the Greek and Roman Worlds," will take stock of such work and consider new gendered perspectives in a series of talks by specialists of ancient epigraphy, archaeology and art and those of Greek and Roman literature.

The morning session, to be held from 10 a.m. to noon in Minor Hall, room 125, includes:

• "Boys Will Be Boys: Komos and Symposion on Athenian Vases," Tyler Jo Smith, associate professor of art, University of Virginia

• "Theorizing Female Viewership and Desire in Roman Art," Sarah Levin-Richardson, post-doctoral fellow, Rice University

The afternoon session will be held in Cocke Hall's Gibson Room. It includes:

• 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Keynote Address: "Looking for the Letters of Roman Wives: Terentia and Calpurnia Write Back," Catharine Edwards, professor of history, classics and archaeology, Birkbeck College, University of London

• 2:45 to 4:30 p.m.
Literary Studies: "Raising the Curtain, Removing the Veil: Women and Public Nudity in the Early Empire," Molly Pasco-Pranger, assistant professor of classics, University of Mississippi
 
"Hercules and the Founding Mothers: Rome's Early History and Women's Rituals in Augustan Poets," Vassiliki Panoussi, associate professor, College of William & Mary

For information visit the symposium website

Support for the conference is provided by the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the Department of Classics and the Ancient History Fund.