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SUMMARY:The Stratigraphy of Serendipity - Professor Susan Alcock\, Brown U
 niversity
DTSTART:20080125T173000Z
DTEND:20080125T183000Z
UID:TALK8732@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Janet Gibson
DESCRIPTION:Abstract\n\nSerendipity is slippery\, marked by an ambiguity i
 t is more enjoyable to explore than to lament.  This talk will visit the c
 oncept through the lens of two related disciplines — classics and archae
 ology\, particularly classical archaeology.  From one direction\, we will 
 investigate the degree to which serendipity — the name an invention of t
 he eighteenth century AD — possesses a stratigraphy\, an ancient history
 \, and examine some of the contexts in which Greeks and Romans (and those 
 that study them) recognized the power of unexpected conjunctions and disco
 veries.  From the other angle\, the role of serendipity in the early histo
 ry\, and later development\, of classical archaeology will be assessed.  F
 or a field in which the act of ‘discovery’ is so important\, and luck 
 so often ascribed to the successful\, serendipity is a surprisingly unpopu
 lar factor to invoke — a reluctance that is actually quite revealing.  T
 ogether these two disciplinary squints at the concept will demonstrate asp
 ects of its history\, elasticity\, catalytic force\, and occasional humor.
   \n\nBiography\n\nSusan E. Alcock took her B.A. from Yale University\, an
 d her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cam
 bridge.  After several years teaching at the University of Reading (UK) an
 d the University of Michigan\, in 2006 she was named the inaugural directo
 r of the Artemis A.W. and Martha Sharp Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology
  and the Ancient World\, Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology\, and P
 rofessor of Classics at Brown University.  She is the author or editor of 
 ten books\, including Graecia Capta: The Landscapes of Roman Greece (Cambr
 idge 1993)\, Pausanias: Travel and Memory in Roman Greece (with J.F. Cherr
 y and J.  Elsner\; Oxford 2001)\, and Archaeologies of the Greek Past: Lan
 dscapes\, Monuments and Memories (Cambridge 2001)\, which won the Spiro Ko
 stof Award from the Society of Architectural Historians.  She has been hon
 ored with awards for her undergraduate teaching\, which she very much enjo
 ys.  Her current research interests include the study of the Hellenistic a
 nd Roman Mediterranean and Western Asia\, landscape archaeology\, the arch
 aeology of imperialism\, and the archaeology of memory.  Dr. Alcock was a 
 director of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (Messenia\, Greece) 
 and has recently begun fieldwork in southern Armenia\, as co-director of t
 he Vorotan Project\, Syunik Marz..  Currently a Senior Fellow at the Cente
 r for Hellenic Studies (Washington\, D.C.)\, Dr. Alcock was a 2001 recipie
 nt of a MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur F
 oundation.  
LOCATION:LMH\, Lady Mitchell Hall
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