2017: The Irresistible Sea: Merchants, Marauders, and Migrants
On April 22, 2017, the graduate students in the Ancient Greek & Roman Studies MA Program hosted the fourth-annual Graduate Student Symposium, The Irresistible Sea: Merchants, Marauders, and Migrants.
Event Details
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Hosted By: The Ancient Greek and Roman Studies MA Program, Department of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
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Date: Saturday, April 22, 2017
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Keynote Speaker: Professor Kate Birney
About the Symposium
For millennia, the sea has lured the inhabitants of the Mediterranean to its wine-dark waves. The sea's imposing swells and fickle winds early on acted as a barrier by preventing exchange and separating peoples and cultures. Though the sea continually evoked fear, man eventually traversed the Mediterranean's waters with ever-improving technology, turning an obstacle into an avenue for the transference of goods, peoples, and ideas. With these emerging networks came both prosperity and destruction, with many turning to the sea to survive. The Mediterranean Sea shaped the fortunes of individuals and empires alike, a power which it has never lost.