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79394-01 - Colloquium: Memory and Oblivion: Ancient Societies in Perspective (2 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers |
Massimo Cè (massimo.ce@unibas.ch, Assessor)
Cinzia Tuena (c.tuena@unibas.ch) |
| Content | In ancient Mediterranean societies, memory constituted not so much a passive record of past events as a dynamic and often contested process that shaped identity, justified authority, structured rituals, and sustained communal bonds across generations. Memorial and commemorative practices, whether enacted in ceremony, embedded in language, or engraved into stone, reflected cultural values, political aims, and religious beliefs. Equally significant were acts of forgetting. Erasures, silences, and revisions were not accidental; they functioned as instruments of resistance, control, and transformation. This interdisciplinary course, which consists of a workshop (28.10.2026) and a conference (23./24.11.2026), invites reflections on how memory was constructed and negotiated in ancient contexts, through funerary architecture, monumental inscriptions, linguistic conventions, textual transmission, and the performance of rituals. These are the primary questions we want to address: What guided ancient individuals and communities in selecting what to preserve or discard, and by what means was memory both crafted and suppressed? What were the strategies through which people remembered – or chose to forget – their past? How did memory and oblivion intersect with issues of power, place, and poetics? And how do researchers today reconstruct these ancient practices when working with biased and fragmented materials? |
| Learning objectives | Through interdisciplinary exchange with other early-career researchers and leading experts working in their own and other fields of Ancient Studies, course participants will gain a deeper understanding of the diverse roles that memory and oblivion played in the ancient Mediterranean. By actively participating in two academic formats – the workshop and the conference – course participants will develop their research skills, broaden their disciplinary perspectives, and build their academic networks. |
| Bibliography | Assmann, Aleida (1999). Erinnerungsräume. Formen und Wandlungen des kulturellen Gedächtnisses. Munich: C.H. Beck. Assmann, Jan (1992). Das kulturelle Gedächtnis. Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen. Munich: C.H. Beck. Castagnoli, Luca, and Paola Ceccarelli (2019, eds.). Greek Memories: Theories and Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dignas, Beate (2024, ed.). A Cultural History of Memory in Antiquity. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Flower, Harriet I. (2006). The Art of Forgetting. Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Olabarria, Leire (2025). Making Memories in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pieper, Christoph, and Verena Schulz (2025, eds.). Forgetting and Power in Greek and Latin Literature. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. Proietti, Giorgia, and Jeremy McInerney (2026, eds.). Memory, Space and Mindscapes in Ancient Greece. Mnemosyne supplements 500. Leiden/Boston: Brill. Van Dyke, Ruth M., and Susan E. Alcock (2003, eds.). Archaeologies of Memory. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. |
| Comments | The workshop, to be led by Prof. Beate Dignas, will take place on Wednesday 28th October. The conference, which features contributions by Prof. Leire Olabarria and Prof. Verena Schulz, will take place on Monday 23rd November (full day) and Tuesday 24th November (morning only). In order to attend the workshop and the conference, course participants will be excused from any other courses that they usually attend on those days. |
| Weblink | Conference: Call for Papers and Program |
| Admission requirements | This course is primarily aimed at those who are currently pursuing an MA or PhD in any program of the Departement Altertumswissenschaften at the University of Basel, but advanced BA students as well as interested participants from other departments and institutions are also welcome. |
| Course application | Those who wish to present a paper at the conference should send an abstract to c.tuena@unibas.ch by 30th June 2026. General registration for the course will remain open until 30th September 2026. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Course auditors welcome |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Ancient History: Recommendations (PhD subject: Ancient History) Doktorat Gräzistik: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Greek Philology) Doktorat Historisch-vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Comparative and Historic Linguistics) Doktorat Klassische Archäologie: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Classical Archaeology) Doktorat Latinistik: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Latin Philology) Doktorat Ur- und Frühgeschichte: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: European Archaeology) Egyptology: Recommendations (PhD subject: Egyptology) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | For successful completion of the course, participants will be required both to attend the conference and to participate in the preparatory workshop. Participation in the workshop will involve some advance preparation (in the form of readings and, possibly, other small assignments). For the conference, participants will have the option of either contributing a paper of their own or writing a summary of one of the panels. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Ägyptologie |