The Division of Classics of the Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Literatures, & Cultures presents "A Questions of Time: Apollonius' Argonautica and the Jubilee of Ptolemy III and Euergetes I", a lecture by Jackie Murray, Assistant Professor of Classics at Skidmore College.

WHEN: Monday April 9, noon

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About the speaker

Prof. Murray's current research focuses on the 3rd-century BCE author Apollonius Rhodius of Alexandria. Apollonius' epic poem, Argonautica, traces the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the golden fleece.  In the course of the poem, Apollonius is careful to let his readers know how much time has passed, by references to astronomical bodies taken from the skies of the time of his writing. With this information and the aid of records of ancient astronomical observations and modern planetarium software, it is possible to find a year matching the astronomical events described in the poem. The year turns out to be 238 BCE, the jubilee year of the Egyptian king Ptolemy Euergetes, and the year he introduced the first official 365.25 day calendar. With its detailed attention to time and the study of the heavens, Apollonius’ poem, can be seen as a tribute to Ptolemy’s calendar and the astronomical science required to create it.

Prof. Murray attended the University of Guelph, the University of Western Ontario, and holds her Ph.D. from the University of Washington. She currently holds the Andrew Heiskell/National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome. She has also held an NEH Fellowship in the Institute for Enabling Geospatial Scholarship and at the UCLA Summer Instituteon Models of Ancient Rome, and participated in the Mellon Faculty Seminar and University of Venice Advanced Seminar in Ancient Mediterranean Literature. She is the author of numerous articles on Hellenistic literature, and is currently completing a book entitled Anchoring Apollonius’ Argonautica in Time.

In celebration of National Poetry Month this April, the UK Libraries is sponsoring a poetry reading by Nikky Finney. The reading will take place in the Special Collections Library, in the Great Hall of the King Building, with a reception to follow. April 26, 2012, 4-6 pm. The event is free and open to the public.  Please RSVP to kate.hesseldenz@uky.edu.

On Friday March 30th, the English Graduate Student Organization Conference will be a great opportunity for graduate students to present their papers. It is an all day event hosted at the Commonwealth and Bingham-Davis houses of the Gaines Center. For more information please contact Julie Naviaux.

UK professor Jill Rappoport will discuss Charles Dickens' dedication to social reform in both his works and in his life.

February 26, 2012

2:00pm

Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 161 Lexington Green Circle

http://www.josephbeth.com/adultevents.aspx

Publisher & Proprietor of RedBone Press, Lisa C. Moore, will discuss her developing documentary on Black Lesbian Elders in the South.



4:30-5:30pm



Refreshments will be served.



Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, African American Studies, American Studies, Department of English, Gender and Women's Studies, Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, and the Office of the Vice President for Diversity.



See more about Lisa C. Moore's project here: http://www.gaycenter.org/node/6693

The 2012 Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies Conference will be hosted by the University of Kentucky, Lexington KY, March 22-25, and will take place at the downtown Lexington Hilton Hotel and the University of Kentucky campus.