Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities
In March 1987 Robert S. Danziger, MD 1980, endowed a fund in honor of his father Sigmund H. Danziger Jr., AB 1937, an inveterate reader and student of the classics. To this was added a gift from a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities with the object of bringing to campus "an established scholar of classical literature, who has made substantial contributions to the critical analysis of classical literature, or has been exceptionally skilled at inspiring an appreciation for classical literature." Over the years the prestige of this annual event led to a widening interpretation of the term "classical literature" and while classicists such as Sir Kenneth Dover, Charles Segal and Simon Goldhill have numbered among the Danzigers, so have early modern scholars Natalie Zemon Davis, Joan DeJean, and Mary Poovey, Hindi literary specialist David Schulman, philosopher and historian of science Ian Hacking.
Upcoming Lecture
| 2008-2009 |
Elaine Pagels Harrington Spear Pain Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University 23 April: "The Cultural Impact of the Book of Revelation" |
Lecture Archive
| 2007-2008 |
Mary Beard Chair of Classics at the University of Cambridge and Classics Editor of the Times Literary Supplement "Pompeii Reconstructed?" |
| 2006-2007 |
Daniel Mendelsohn Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities, Bard College "'Reality' in Crisis: What Greek Tragedy and Roman Games Can Tell Us about Pop Culture Today" |
| 2005-2006 |
Jacques Rancière Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Paris-VIII (St. Denis) "Why Emma Bovary Had To Be Killed: Some Reflections on Literature, Medicine, and Democracy" |
| 2004-2005 |
Andrew Ford Professor of Classics, Princeton University "Aristotle's 'Hymn to Virtue': Genre Crossing as a Capital Offense" |
| 2003-2004 |
Steven Feld Professor of Anthropology and Music, University of New Mexico "Nostalgia and Modernity, or, the Odyssey, from Greece to Appalachia via New Guinea and Europe" |
| 2002-2003 |
Josiah Ober Professor of Classics, Princeton University "Tyrant Slaying as Civic Therapy: An Ancient Debate in Texts and Images" |
| 2001-2002 |
Ian Hacking Chair of Philosophy and History of Scientific Concepts, Collège de France "Body Parts, Large and Small" |
| 2000-2001 |
Simon Goldhill Professor of Greek Literature and Culture, King's College, University of Cambridge |
| 1999-2000 |
David Shulman Renée Lang Professor of Humanistic Studies, Hebrew University |
| 1998-1999 |
Joan E. DeJean Trustee Professor of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania |
| 1997-1998 |
Mary L. Poovey Professor of English, New York University |
| 1996-1997 |
Peter R. Brown Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Princeton University |
| 1995-1996 |
Irene Winter Chair of Fine Arts, Harvard University "Transcultural Concepts: Aesthetics in Mesopotamia" |
| 1994-1995 |
Charles Segal Walter C. Klein Professor of the Classics, Harvard University |
| 1993-1994 |
Friedrich Kittler Professor of Aesthetics and Media Studies, Humboldt University |
| 1992-1993 |
Gary A. Tomlinson Annenberg Professor in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania |
| 1991-1992 |
Hazel V. Carby Charles C. & Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of African American Studies, Yale University |
| 1990-1991 |
Naomi A. Schor Benjamin F. Barge Professor of French, Yale University |
| 1989-1990 |
Natalie Zemon Davis Professor Emerita of History, Princeton University |
| 1988-1989 |
Sir Kenneth J. Dover Professor of Greek and Chancellor Emeritus, University of St. Andrews |