'Life of the Mind' Lecture to Feature Classics Professor's Discussion of Slavery

"Life of the Mind," interdisciplinary conversations with UC faculty, will return from 3:30-5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, in the Russell C. Myers Alumni Center with a lecture by Holt Parker, professor of classics in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

Parker will speak about

Thinking with Slaves

. “Slavery still haunts the world. We will think about what slavery was, is, does,” said Parker. “My talk will expose the historical holding pens in the foundations of modern slavery, racing through competing definitions of slaves and slavery: legal, historical, philosophical, anthropological and above all metaphorical.”

"Life of the Mind"

is a semi-annual lecture series that features a distinguished University of Cincinnati faculty member presenting his or her work and expertise. A panel of three responds to and discusses the lecture from diverse perspectives. The series includes intriguing insights from diverse perspectives and encourages faculty and students from across UC to engage in further discourse. The presentation is not simply a recitation of the faculty member’s work but promotes an informed point of view.

Holt Parker received his PhD from Yale University. He has been awarded the Rome Prize, an NEH Fellowship, a Loeb Library Foundation Grant, the Women's Classical Caucus Prize (twice), the Paul Rehak Award and a Fowler Hamilton Fellowship from Christ Church, Oxford. He has published on Sappho, Sulpicia, sexuality, slavery, sadism and spectacle. His book, "Olympia Morata: The Complete Writings of an Italian Heretic" (2003) won the Josephine Roberts Award from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. "Censorinus: The Birthday Book" (2007), the first complete English translation, makes an attractive present. With William A. Johnson he edited "Ancient Literacies" (2009). His translation of Beccadelli’s notorious "The Hermaphrodite" is out in the I Tatti Renaissance Library (2010). He is working on an edition, translation and commentary on the Gynecology by Metrodora (c. 2d. cent CE), the earliest surviving work by a woman doctor.

Sponsored by the Office of the President and organized by the University of Cincinnati Libraries and Faculty Senate, the mission of

"Life of the Mind

" is to celebrate UC faculty research, scholarship and creative output and to foster the free and open exchange of ideas and discourse.

"Life of the Mind

" is free and open to the public and attracts a broad audience including UC students, faculty, staff and alumni, as well as people from the community.

More information about "

Life of the Mind

" is available online at

www.libraries.uc.edu/lifeofthemind/

.

For those who cannot attend in person, the Sept. 29 lecture in the Alumni Center will be streamed live via the website.