ENCOUNTERS WITH ANIMALS IN GRAECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY:
THE HISTORICITY OF EXPERIENCE

A Multidisciplinary Symposium at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Fabianinkatu 24, Seminar Room 136, 1st floor
9 Dec. 2013 – Open to all. Welcome!

PROGRAM

10.00–10.15        Opening of the Symposium by Tua Korhonen and Erika Ruonakoski
10.15–11.45         Keynote: Professor Ingvild Saelid Gilhus (University of Bergen): Christianity and the Changing Experiences of Animals in Late Antiquity
11.45–12.30        Maijastina Kahlos (University of Helsinki): Beyond the Bounds of Humanity – Animal Imagery in Late Antique Invective Rhetoric
12.30–13.30        Lunch
13.30–14.15         Miira Tuominen (University of Jyväskylä): Why Justice Must Be Extended to Animals? Poprhyry’s On Abstinence
14.15–15.00         Jussi Backman (University of Jyväskylä): Philosophical Hermeneutics and the Historicity of Understanding
15.00–15.20        Coffee
15.20–16.05         Sari Kivistö (University of Helsinki): Birds and Utopia
16.05–16.50         Erika Ruonakoski (University of Helsinki): What Do Greek Depictions of Animals Communicate to Us? A Phenomenological Analysis of Temporal Distance
16.50–17.35        Tua Korhonen (University of Helsinki): No Fear of Metamorphosis? “[…] most ancient Greeks were not seriously worried that they would suddenly become animals” (Forbes Irving 1990, 60)
17.35–17.45         Closing of the Symposium

Ingvild Saelid Gilhus is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. Her seminal book Animal, Gods, and Humans: Changing Attitudes to Animals in Greek, Roman and Early Christian Thought (Routledge 2006) has ensured her a firm place in all discussions of animality in antiquity. She is a contributor to the forthcoming The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life (Oxford University Press).