Karla Pollmann, Professor of Classics and Head of the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, will give lectures at two renowned American universities later this month.
Firstly, she has been invited to contribute to the Writing Empire Colloquium, a year-long series of academic events organised by the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame, in honour of the late Professor Sabine MacCormack, an eminent scholar of the history of the later Roman Empire. Paying tribute to one of Professor MacCormack’s own areas of expertise, Karla will on 23 April 2014 deliver a lecture entitled ‘Augustine as a Global Thinker: Societal Pluralism and the History of Salvation in the City of God.’ Taking a fresh look at Augustine’s masterpiece that intertwines human history and the history of salvation, Karla will expound that Augustine’s global view of world history was informed by two possible models of pluralism with relevance up to this day: one destructive and one a chance for salutary exchange.
For further details of this lecture visit: http://medieval.nd.edu/events/2014/04/23/25079-writing-empire-colloquium-karla-pollman/
Two days later, on 25 April 2014, Karla will contribute a paper to the multidisciplinary Metaphor Workshop organised by the Department of Classics at the University of Chicago, entitled ‘Metaphor and Complicity. Ancient and Modern Positions.’ Building on a long-standing research interest of hers in the nature of language and its psychological possibilities she will shed light on an underestimated aspect of the usage of metaphor in texts. As metaphor disguises a statement in transferred language, it challenges the reader to make an effort to decode the hidden message – when the readers succeed, their pride in doing so will make them more willing and less critical accomplices of the actual statement.
For more details, please visit the webpage here: http://classics.uchicago.edu/newsevents