Identity and Self-Representation in the Subcultures of Ancient Rome

FAIN: FS-50149-07

American Academy in Rome (New York, NY 10021-4905)
Eleanor W. Leach (Project Director: March 2007 to July 2009)

A five-week seminar in Rome for fifteen college and university teachers on the complexities of Roman identity within various subcultures of late Republican and early Imperial Rome.

The proposed NEH Summer Seminar, "Identity and Self-Representation in the Subcultures of Ancient Rome," will be lead by Eleanor Winsor Leach (Indiana University) and Eve D'Ambra (Vassar College) during the summer 2008 at the American Academy in Rome. This seminar will focus on the ever-controversial matter of personal identity by considering ways in which Roman citizens throughout the Mediterranean world used word and image to represent themselves both as individuals and as members of communities. In addition to each week's thematically organized seminar discussions, a series of Roman museums visits and field trips to sites beyond the city should expand each participant's resources for study and teaching in areas of class, gender, and ethnicity. We believe that the particpants may be surprised to encounter the social and occupational diversity of the subcultures emcompassed within the general heading of Roman culture.