Pasts Imperfect is a weekly newsletter amplifying and supporting public writing focused on a global antiquity. Subscribe here: https://pastsimperfect.substack.com/ For our first newsletter, we wanted to signal boost the creation of a number of new spaces welcoming public writing focused on ancient pasts from a global perspective. These spaces underscore scholarship from diverse scholars as wellContinue reading “Introducing Pasts Imperfect: New Spaces for Public Scholarship”
Category Archives: digital humanities
Following the Stylus Manual: Roman everyday writing equipment
‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift
with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give)
as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’
(trans. Tomlin 2019)
Ancient 3D Models Before Digital Modeling
Last week, my interview with Abydos Archaeology’s Matthew Douglas Adams was published at Hyperallergic. The article focused on the discovery of an industrial royal brewery dating to 3100-2900 BCE at the Egyptian site of Abydos, where Adams co-directs the excavation with Deborah Vischak, as part of fieldwork supported by New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and Princeton University. InContinue reading “Ancient 3D Models Before Digital Modeling”
Working Together to Transcribe Ancient Documents During COVID-19
As the pandemic known as COVID-19 grips the globe, thousands of instructors in the United States and elsewhere have been asked to transition their courses online for the remainder of the semester. To some instructors, such as the superb Classics professors at the Open University, distance learning has become a normalized pedagogy. To many othersContinue reading “Working Together to Transcribe Ancient Documents During COVID-19”
In Libris Libertas: Open Access Monographs in Classics, Ancient History, Art History, and Archaeology
It is syllabus time for many once again. If you are like me, you want to save your students from spending too much on textbooks, but still want to have a rich array of current reading for students assigned on your syllabus. A few years ago, I put together a popular list of “Open AccessContinue reading “In Libris Libertas: Open Access Monographs in Classics, Ancient History, Art History, and Archaeology”
Through the Eyes of Ruby: Discovering Color and Trade in ‘The World Between Empires’
Last week, Candida Moss and I were lucky enough to catch the tail end of The World between Empires: Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East, an exhibition which opened March 18 and closes on June 23, 2019 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The 190 objects within the exhibition acquired fromContinue reading “Through the Eyes of Ruby: Discovering Color and Trade in ‘The World Between Empires’”
Pro Publica: A Public Classics Workshop
Pro Publica: A Public Classics Workshop Northwestern University, October 18-19, 2019 How can we better speak and write about the ancient Mediterranean for the general public? How can academics engaged in the study of antiquity underscore the relevance of Classics in the present day? The Society for Classical Studies and the Department of Classics atContinue reading “Pro Publica: A Public Classics Workshop”
Taking a Sapphic Stanza: Papyri, Digital Humanities, and Reclaiming the Work of Ancient Women
This semester, I am teaching our department’s Archaic to Classical Greek Survey. I specialize in late antique Roman history and GIS, and thus this has been a departure from my normal research interests–and just one reason we are searching for a Homerist with DH skills right now. However, reading and teaching Greek does not mean thatContinue reading “Taking a Sapphic Stanza: Papyri, Digital Humanities, and Reclaiming the Work of Ancient Women”
Redesigning WOAH: Women of Ancient History
For a long time now, I have been interested in the ways in which digital humanities projects can be used to amplify, to visualize, and to give agency to underrepresented groups. Put another way: How can digital humanities contribute to social justice? One of the shining examples of this type of DH project is theContinue reading “Redesigning WOAH: Women of Ancient History”
‘We Regret to Inform You’: Success, Failure, and the Shadow C.V.
Pinned to the board above my desk in my office is an Apollo 13 postcard that reads: “Failure is not an option.” This was the collective motto of the mission, despite the fact that, well, NASA had failed a lot during the course of the space race (1957-1975). I thought about this postcard a lot afterContinue reading “‘We Regret to Inform You’: Success, Failure, and the Shadow C.V.”
History From Below 