The Department of Modern Languages & Classics will host the inaugural Stegman Lecture Series on Thursday, April 7, 2022.

11 a.m,

  • Ivan Vergara, poet, will read from his book Era Hombre Era Mito Era Bestia/Man Myth Beast in SC Cardinal Hall B.

4 p.m.

  • Dr. Luis Arturo Guichard will present a talk entitled “Don’t Let Me Be Forgotten: Memory and Communication in Greek Verse inscriptions” from 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. in NQ 160. 

Abstract:

Memory was a main concern for ancient Greek culture. The poet Hesiod portraited Memory (Mnemosyne) as the mother of the Muses, i.e. the origin of all forms of Art and communication.There were public and private ways to keep memory of events, both of the community and the individuals, and poems inscribed on stone were very appreciated as a means to keep the past alive. For us, inscribed poems, most of them funerary, are an open window to Antiquity: we can see there an act of communication taking place in real time, which involves a written text and an image intertwined in the same message.The aim of the presentation will be reading and examining some Greek inscriptions (with translations into English), and explaining how they work as memory keepers and communication conveyors in Antiquity, and how much they can tell us about the people who created and read them.

About the Speakers

Ivan Vergara García was born in Mexico in 1979 and is a teacher at USAL, poet, musician, editor and cultural representative. He is the creator of PLACA (Platform of Chilango Andalucen Artists) Mexico-Spain-USA, and editor of Ultramarina C&D. He coordinates and maintains 25 projects in four countries and is an organizer of cultural events where he interacts with analog and multimedia art. In 2013, Ivan published his first extensive poetry book, ‘Era Hombre Era Mito Era Bestia / Man Myth Beast’, traducido al inglés por Jennifer Rathbun, with Ultramarina C&D. You can learn more about him on his publisher's website

Dr. Luis Arturo Guichard is Professor of Greek Philology, Coordinator of the European Master in Classical Cultures and Director of the Creative Writing Master programme at Salamanca University (Spain). Learn more about his work

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