On March 26 and 27, we welcomed speakers and delegates for our international conference, "Explorations in the Public Reception of Aristotle", supported by the the Classics and Ancient History Department, Institute of Classical Studies and the Durham Centre for Classical Reception.
A packed programme saw 16 papers across 8 different panels with talks on subjects across the range of Aristotleian reception beyond the academy. We are excited for the book to come which will feature summonings of Aristotle from Marxist ideology to the UK classroom, from Irish folklore to the digital world of generative AI.
Sara Monoson provided the keynote speech which helped to tie the many threads of the conference around the conceptual tool of summoning. The Northwestern professor's presentation reported on the appearance of explicit references to Aristotle in recent (2020-2025) political commentary beyond the academy in the U.S. The paper also offered reflections on methodological issues in reception studies and introduce the idea of “summoning” as a conceptual tool.
We finished with pizza and a live screening of Alex Lyras' Aristotle/Alexander: A New Play alongside an interview with the writer and the British actor starring in the eponymous role, Andrew Byron. The Company of Angels production is currently enjoying a run in LA after opening at the Getty Villa last spring.
We would like to thank all of our speakers, attendees and supporters of the conference who helped make it such a resounding success! More to follow.
