2022-2023 Departmental Visitors
This past year we were back to almost-normal for the first time since the pandemic. Whereas one ETS/AIA lecture was held as an online webinar, all other lectures took place in person. We are very grateful to all our speakers for sharing their exciting work with us and for enriching the lives of our students and faculty immeasurably. Here is the honor roll:
Rutledge Memorial Lecture
Martin Vizzotti
Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina
“The First Men in the Moon: Lucian, Kepler, Wells, and Borges’ Take on Science Fiction” (March 27)
Haines-Morris Lecture
Ted Gellar-Goad
Wake Forest University
“Reception ex Nihilo: Doubling, Improvisation, and Metatheater in Plautine Comedy and Seinfeld” (April 18)
16th Harry C. Rutledge Memorial Lecture in Archaeology
David Anderson
University of Tennessee
“How Archaeologists Can Respond to the Climate Crisis” (April 20)
East Tennessee Society of the Archaeological Institute of America
The 50th annual program of the East Tennessee Society of the Archaeological Institute of America organized four lectures. In addition to Anderson’s Rutledge Archaeology Lecture, we were fortunate to have one webinar sponsored by the national AIA society:
Davide Tanasi (University of South Florida), “Life and Death of a Christian Community in Roman Sicily: Recent Researches in the Catacombes of St. Lucy at Siracusa”
In addition, Anneke Jantzen (UT anthropology) presented her work on the earliest herders of eastern Africa, and Karim Alizadeh (UT anthropology) talked about his research on ancient borders and forced migrations in the area between the Black and Caspian Seas.