Ancient Knowledge: Text, Media, Performance
Our project investigates ancient knowledge as it is manifested within and beyond the classical world. We see this as a fruitful field for comparative, synchronic, and diachronic approaches. In asking particularly about the ways in which ancient knowledge becomes legible (thus the subtitle “text, media, performance”), we aim to create a dialogue between investigations of the content of knowledge and its social functions, with a particular emphasis on issues of transmission and questions of authority. The project thus situates itself at the intersection of classical philology, philosophy, the history and sociology of science and medicine, and intellectual and cultural history. We are confident that this project will not only enrich the research of the faculty and graduates involved in the collaboration, but will also provide a model for interaction across these different disciplines and subfields.