The Subject of Antiquity: Contours and Expressions of the Self in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures
September 1, 2017- July 1, 2018
Organizers: Ishay Rosen-Zvi and Maren Niehoff
There is a growing scholarly consensus that new notions of the self emerged in Greco-Roman Antiquity, which prompted philosophers, artists, lawmakers and biographers to conceive of human beings as individuated selves, situated in specific cultural and historical contexts. We wish to examine these emerging discourses of the self, and their interaction and expressions in the material and textual culture of Greeks and Romans, Jews and Christians.
While such an intellectual project seems very much a scholarly desideratum, it is also a complex challenge, since its successful achievement is contingent upon bringing together scholars from disparate disciplines. The constraints imposed by existing academic frameworks are thus often an impediment to its realization. We believe that the Institute provides the most suitable venue for a joint venture to explore the potential of combining various areas of research in order to achieve new understandings of this phenomenon.
The proposed research group consists of leading experts and one young scholar in the fields of Greek philosophy, Roman law and literature, Early Christianity, Jewish Hellenism and rabbinics. Most of us are in the process of embarking on book projects in new areas, which require intensive collaboration with colleagues in adjacent fields. Working closely together for a year-long period will enable us to shed new light on areas and genres which have regularly been studied in isolation. We hope to highlight both shared understandings across religious boundaries as well as culturally distinct types of self-fashioning.
Fellows:
- David Lambert, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Joshua Levinson, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Gretchen Reydams-Schils, University of Notre Dame
- Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Tel Aviv University
- Maren Niehoff, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Eve-Marie Becker, Aaurhus University
- Alfons Furst, WWU Münster
- Edward Watts, University of California, San Diego
- Carlos Levy, l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne
Date | Presenter | Title | Type |
Tuesday 24/10/2017 | Eve-Marie Becker | Paul's (varying) notion(s) of the Self: 2 Cor, Rom, Phil | Closed seminar |
Thursday 26/10/2017 | David Lambert | Problems in Bible Translation and the History of the Self | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 31/10/2017 | Gretchen Reydams-Schils | Demons and the Self: Is my Rationality Mine? | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 07/11/2017 | Joshua Levinson and Ishay Rosen-Zvi | TBA | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 14/11/2017 | Sarit Kattan Gribetz | Time, Self and Difference in Rabbinic Sources | Closed seminar |
Thursday 23/11/2017 | Yair Furstenberg | Romanization of the rabbinic laws of status | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 28/11/2017 | Alfons Fürst | Freedom as Self-Determination in Origen's Ethics and Metaphysics | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 05/12/2017 | Edward Watts | The Narrative Self in Imperial Historiography | Closed seminar |
Sunday 10/12/2017 | Yakir Paz and Orit Malka | TBA | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 12/12/2017 | Laura Nasrallah | TBA | Closed seminar |
Thursday 28/12/2017 | Eve-Marie Becker | TBA | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 2/1/2018 | Ishay Rosen-Zvi | Looking for a Midrashic Self: Can Language Help | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 9/1/2018 | Carlos Levy | Was the poet Lucilius the creator of the Roman literary and philosophical identity? | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 16/1/2018 | Karen King | TBA | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 23/1/2018 | Avigail Manekin | TBA | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 30/1/2018 | Joshua Levinson | TBA | Closed seminar |
Tuesday 6/2/2018 | Albert Baumgarten | TBA | Closed seminar |
Thursday 15/2/2018 | Maren Niehoff | Models of Self Reflection in Genesis Rabbah | Closed seminar |
Group Members

Joshua Levinson

Alfons Fürst
Edward Watts

Ishay Rosen-Zvi

Eve-Marie Becker

Maren Niehoff

David Lambert

Gretchen Reydams-Schils