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.

Lecture Archive

2006-7 "'Reality' in Crisis: What Greek Tragedy and Roman Games Can Tell Us about Pop Culture Today," Daniel Mendelsohn, Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities, Bard College

2005-6 "Why Emma Bovary Had To Be Killed: Some Reflections on Literature, Medicine, and Democracy," Jacques Rancière, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Paris-VIII (St. Denis)

2004-5 "Aristotle's 'Hymn to Virtue': Genre Crossing as a Capital Offense," Andrew Ford, Professor of Classics, Princeton University

2003-4 "Nostalgia and Modernity, or, the Odyssey, from Greece to Appalachia via New Guinea and Europe," Steven Feld, Professor of Anthropology and Music, University of New Mexico

2002-3 "Tyrant Slaying as Civic Therapy: An Ancient Debate in Texts and Images," Josiah Ober, Professor of Classics, Princeton University

2001-2 "Body Parts, Large and Small," Ian Hacking, Chair of Philosophy and History of Scientific Concepts, Collège de France

2000-1 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

1998-99 Joan E. DeJean, Trustee Professor of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania

1997-98 Mary L. Poovey, Professor of English, New York University

1996-97 Peter R. Brown, Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Princeton University

1995-96 "Transcultural Concepts: Aesthetics in Mesopotamia," Irene Winter, Chair of Fine Arts, Harvard University

1994-95 Charles Segal, Walter C. Klein Professor of the Classics, Harvard University

1993-94 Friedrich Kittler, Professor of Aesthetics and Media Studies, Humboldt University

1992-93 Gary A. Tomlinson, Annenberg Professor in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania

1991-92 Hazel V. Carby, Charles C. & Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of African American Studies, Yale University

1990-91 Naomi A. Schor, Benjamin F. Barge Professor of French, Yale University

1989-90 Natalie Zemon Davis, Professor Emerita of History, Princeton University

1988-89 Sir Kenneth J. Dover, Professor of Greek and Chancellor Emeritus, University of St. Andrews