Politics and Performance in Western Greece is the subject title of the Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Hellenic Heritage of Southern Italy, which is to take place in Syracuse, Sicily, May 30-June 2, 2016.

This four-day symposium brings together two of the main Classics thematic groups; performance as displayed through rhetoric and drama, and politics, in the sense of both history and the means of political activity. Through the papers to be presented, scholars explore among others how political thought is expressed in ancient theatrical plays, the relationships between certain leaders and playwrights, the impact of philosophy in rhetoric and, through this, politics, in what extent political activity requires acting/performance, and the impact of ancient political thought on later thinkers.

Sessions are to take place in the Sicily Center for International Education (Palazzo Borgia, 1° floor, via Pompeo Picherali 10), while, between sessions the participants are to enjoy various activities such as a walking tour of Ortigia, a 3D film on Syracuse, a museum/archaeological site tour, a live performance of Euripides’ Alcestis, a boat cruise and a banquet. An optional post-conference tour focused on theaters and volcanoes has been arranged from June 4-7 with a plan to visit Mout Etna, Taormina, Tindaris, Catania, and the Aeolian Islands.

For further info,

For the program see below

PROGRAM

MONDAY, May 30 – Sicily Center for International Education, Palazzo Borgia, 1° floor, via Pompeo Picherali 10
15.00   Registration Opens

17.00   Opening Keynote – Moderator Heather L. Reid, Fonte Aretusa Organization

Peter Wilson (University of Sydney, Australia)
A potted political history of the Sicilian theatre (to ca. 300)

Movie:  Siracusa 3D Reborn (Francesco Gabellone, Davide Tanasi)

19.00   Walking Tour of Ortigia

20.00   Welcome Dinner


TUESDAY, May 31 – Sicily Center for International Education
9.00     First Morning Session 4×30 – Moderator: Jean De Groot (The Catholic University of America, USA)

Anthony Preus (Binghamton University, USA)
Philosophy and Rhetoric in Western Greece: Focus on Empedocles and Gorgias

Katarzyna Kolakowska (The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)
Empedocles of Akragas: Politician and Performer

Jeremy Delong (University of Kansas, USA)
Ionian Speculation and Eleatic Deduction: Parmenides’ Xenophanean-Based Theism

Robert Metcalf (University of Colorado Denver, USA)
Xenophanes and the Exhibition of Truth through Seeking [Zētein]

11.00   Coffee Break

11.30   Second Morning Session 3×30 –
Moderator: Yunus Tuncel (The New School, USA)

Argyri Karanasiou (Saarland University, Germany)
Hieron I and Aeschylus’ Persians: re-considering the dating of the Syracusan performance

Emidio Spinelli (“Sapienza”-Università di Roma, Italia)
In fuga verso la polis: Le supplici di Eschilo e l’attualizzante scenografia di una migrazione

Boris Nikolsky (School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Russia)
Euripides’ Trojan Women and Sicily

13:00   Lunch

14.00   First Afternoon Session 3×30 – Moderator: Thomas Noble Howe (Fondazione Restoring Ancient Stabiae)

Christopher Waldo (University of California at Berkeley, USA)
The Man Who Would Be King: Euripides’ Epinikion to Alcibiades and the Afterlife of Deinomenid Tyranny

Timothy Smith (The Johns Hopkins University, USA)
The Symposion in the Atholopolitics of Emmenid Akragas

Sandra Ducic (Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Belgium)
Catulli Carmina (Codex Vaticanus Ottobonianus Latinus 1829) e il suo influsso sul passo del Canto XXXI di Paradiso di Dante

15.30   Coffee Break

16.00   Second Afternoon Session 3×30 – Moderator: Anna Raudino (La Trobe University, Australia)

Jean De Groot (The Catholic University of America, USA)
Theatricality in Pottery Design and Machines

Alex Moskowitz (University of Georgia, USA)
Middle Grounds and Ritual Transformation at Sybaris

Constantinos Macris (CNRS, Paris, France)
Politics, Performance and Way of Life in the Pythagorean Communities of Magna Graecia

17.30   Sessions End

18.00   Optional Trip to Greek Theater for Sophocles’ Electra


WEDNESDAY, June 1 – Sicily Center for International Education
9.00     First Morning Session 4×30 – Moderator: Anthony Preus (Binghamton University, USA)

Marie-Elise Zovko (Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb/ University of Zadar)
In Search of the Philosopher-King: The Route of Plato’s Syracusan Voyages and the Historical Background of the Analogies of the Sun, the Line and the Cave

Christos Evangeliou (Towson University, USA)
Plato and Sicilian Power Politics: Caught Between Dion and Dionysius II

Tony Leyh (Emory University, USA)
The Political Problem of Philia in Plato’s Seventh Letter: The Case of Dionysius II

Dorota Tymura (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland)
A Bitter Life of a Tyrant – some remarks on Xenophon’s Hiero

11:00   Coffee Break

11.30   Second Morning Session 3×30 – Moderator: Argyri Karanasiou (Saarland University, Germany)

Ewa Osek (The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)
Hermocrates of Syracuse and His Anti-Athenian Politics of Revenge

Ahmed Hafez (University of Alexandria, Egypt)
Athenian Political Thought and its influences on Syracuse During the 5th century B.C.

Davide Tanasi (Arcadia University, USA)
A virtual arena for politics and performance: the 3D reconstructive study of the Acropolis of Greek Syracuse

13:00   End of Sessions

15:00   Shuttles Depart for Optional Tour of Museum and Archaeological Site

18:30   Shuttles Return to Ortigia or stay to see Euripides’ Alcestis


THURSDAY, June 2 –
Sicily Center for International Education

9.00     First Morning Session 4×30 – Moderator: Christos Evangeliou (Towson University, USA)

Jure Zovko (Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb/ University of Zadar, Croatia)
How Did a Woman of the Heroic Age Become the Ideal of the Jena Romantic?

Laura Liliana Gómez Espíndola (Universidad del Valle, Colombia)
Plato on the Political Role of Poetry: The Expulsion of the Traditional Poets and the Reform of Poetry

Paul Schollmeier (The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA)
Plato, Politics, and Poetry

Heather Reid (Morningside College, USA)
Performing Virtue: Athletic Mimēsis in Platonic Education

11.00   Coffee Break

11.30   Second Morning Session 3×30 – Moderator: Alex Moskowitz (University of Georgia, USA)

Matthew Keil (Queens College, City University of New York, USA)
From Ὁμόνοια to Concordia: The Journey of a Greek Political Ideal to Rome through Southern Italy

Anna Raudino (La Trobe University, Australia)
Le “città ieroniane” della Sicilia orientale

Thomas Noble Howe (Fondazione Restoring Ancient Stabiae/Southwestern University USA)
Strolling with Power: New Studies on Movement and Viewing from the Elite Roman Villas of Stabiae

13:00   Lunch Break (open)

14.30   First Afternoon Session 4×30 – Moderator:  Davide Tanasi (Arcadia University, USA)

Ted Robinson (University of Sydney, Australia)
Sicilian Comedy and Late 5th Century Politics

Giulia Corrente (Università degli Studi “Roma Tre”, Italia)
Lo spettacolo comico in Magna Grecia: caratteristiche, irradiazioni e dimensione ‘politica’ di una originale forma della teatralità mediterranea

Karen Sieben (Brookdale Community College, USA)
Diogenes of Sinope:  Performance as Critical Buffoonery

Yunus Tuncel (The New School, USA)
Cynics, Performance, and Shamelessness

16.30   Coffee Break

17.00   Closing Keynote – Moderator: Jeremy Delong (University of Kansas, USA)

Omar Alvarez (Centro de Estudios Clásicos, UNAM, Mexico)
Philosophy on Stage and Performance in Argument: Epicharmus vis-à-vis Greek West Intelligentsia

18.00   Sessions End

19.00   Sunset Boat Cruise

20.00   Final Banquet