Conference | Workshop
Disorienting Empire
- Date
- Monday 13 October 2025
- Time
- Address
- National Museum of Antiquities
Rapenburg 28
2311TV Leiden - Room
- Trajanuszaal
On October 13th at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, there will be a one-day workshop with Basil Dufallo, Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan, to discuss his book Disorienting Empire: Republican Latin Poetry's Wanderers. The book sets out to explore the cultural experience of the Romans between 240 and 30 BC, during the rapid expansion of their empire, as they were confronted with a vast and very different Hellenistic world. It focuses on literary texts and in particular the pervasive motif of error ('wandering'), emblematic of the disorienting experiences the Romans encountered through contact with the Orient.
In the morning, Prof. Dufallo will present the book and explain how it came to be and what questions he was seeking to answer, and we will discuss the book's ideas in more depth. In the afternoon, four colleagues (Miguel John Versluys, Nicky Schreuder, Francesco Busti, and the Anchoring guest fellow, Manuel Baumbach, from Ruhr University Bochum) will respond to Disorienting Empire, applying its proposals to their own work.
Everyone is welcome but please register by emailing Matthew Payne (m.f.payne@hum.leidenuniv.nl).
Programme
From 10.00 | Registration, tea and coffee
10.30 | Welcome and Introduction
10.40 – 11.40 | Basil Dufallo – Disorienting Empire #1
Overview and background to the book
Chapters 1 & 2
Q&A discussion will be interweaved through the presentation
11.40 – 12.00 | Coffee break
12.00 – 13.00 | Basil Dufallo – Disorienting Empire #2
Chapters 3-6
Where next?
Q&A discussion will be interweaved through the presentation
13.00 – 14.15 | Lunch
14.15 – 15.15 | Presentations in 30 minute slots (15 minute presentation, 10 minute
discussion):
Miguel John Versluys – Glocalisation, Embedding, Anchoring: On the Cognitive Impact of Globalization in the Roman World
Nicky Schreuder – Hellenism in (the Second) Style: Dwelling through painting in the Late Republic
15.15 – 15.35 | Coffee break
15.35 – 16.35 | Presentations in 30 minute slots (15 minute presentation, 10 minute
discussion):
Francesco Busti – Cinna's Zmyrna: Roman Wanderings in the East
Manuel Baumbach – Hellenistic Poetry and the Expansion of Empire
16.35 – 16.45 | Wrap up
16.45 – 16.55 | Pack up (museum closes at 16.55)
17.00 – 18.00 | Drinks