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The Betty Behrens Seminar on Classics of Historiography

Date: Thursday 20 February – Thursday 13 March 2025, 2.15pm
Location: Richard Eden Suite, West Court, Clare Hall, Cambridge CB3 9AL
Booking: via Eventbrite

The Betty Behrens Seminar on Classics of Historiography offers a unique opportunity for students and scholars to reflect on some great historical works and engage in discussion with renowned experts.

As we know, a classic is recognized as such insofar as it retains its value as an intellectual and cognitive tool, helping us to gain an understanding of the past as well as the present from a particular cultural viewpoint. Classics still have the capacity to resonate and speak to us about current problems. They produce perspectives that are implicitly comparative and dynamic, thanks to the historical dimension passing through both them and us.

These considerations are even more relevant when we speak about the classics of historiography because the same historical dimension is present on several more levels. These classics challenge us to contemplate some historical problems which are only fully understood when properly contextualised. In the same way, even the classic itself can fruitfully produce its own intellectually provocative value only when read through the eyes of the present but interpreted with a historicist approach.

The seminar will endeavour to underline the importance of the classics of historiography for their relevant intellectual function in creating critical political thought.

The seminar will take place between the 20th of February and the 13th of March and will be composed of three meetings. The charming and fresh atmosphere of the Richard Eden Suite in Clare Hall, West Court, Cambridge, will be the location for the discussions.

Each meeting is composed of about two hours. The guest speaker will introduce the classic by talking for half an hour. After that, each participant may briefly express their understanding of the work by addressing some questions to the other participants and the guest speaker. In order to be ready for the dialogue, everyone might read some pages of the work under scrutiny. The selection of pages is chosen by the guest speaker and is downloadable from this webpage (look for the ‘Download the text here’ link).

Before and during each seminar meeting, coffee and tea will be available. After each event, the participants will enjoy a further informal exchange of viewpoints over a glass of juice or wine.

There are a few posts available to guarantee the close dynamics of the discussion and the full involvement of the participants. Those interested can even apply for just one meeting.

To attend the seminar, please register via Eventbrite  

For any queries, please contact Professor Davide Cadeddu, who is convening this seminar series, via davide.cadeddu@unimi.it


Information on each session

Seminar 1 – Thursday 20 February 2025, 2.15pm-4pm

Tim Cornell (Emeritus Professor of Ancient History, University of Manchester)

History of Rome (ca. 220-200 BC) by Quintus Fabius Pictor – Download the text here.

Download the text on the Introduction to Fabius Pictor

Seminar 2 – Thursday 27 February 2025, 2.15pm-4pm

John H. Arnold (Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge)

Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324 (1975) by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie – Download the text here.

Download the text on the Introduction to Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

Seminar 3 – Thursday 13 March 2025, 2.15pm-4pm

Katherine Harloe (Professor of Classics and Intellectual History, School of Advanced Study, University of London)

The History of Art in Antiquity (1764) by Johann Joachim Winckelmann – Download the text here.

The German critical edition