All are welcome to join us for a special lecture by Dr Najee Olya.
Ancient Greek Visual Portrayals of Africans: Escaping the Anachronistic Trap of Race
Dr Najee Olya (The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg)
Wednesday 18th October 2023, 2-3pm
ONLINE: Teams Link Here
The visual repertoire of ancient Greek artists is filled with all manner of non-Greek foreign others. In addition to mythological others such as Amazons, real-world groups including Persians, Scythians, Thracians, and Africans each make an appearance. Of these foreign others, it has tended to be Africans that have been proven to be the most analytically difficult for classical scholars. Historically, ancient Greek images of Africans have been read through the lens of race as a biological fact and more recently as a social construction. In both instances, however, modern understandings of race, shaped by colonialism, imperialism, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade tend to permeate scholarly examinations of the artifacts. This research talk surveys a variety of the ancient Greek artifacts which depict Africans and questions to what, extent a framework reliant on race is interpretatively useful, as well as whether portrayals of one group of people by another must necessarily be conceived in racial terms.
For further information on this talk, please contact Professor Ellen Swift (E.V.Swift@kent.ac.uk).
