MCLLC ~ Bluegrass Classics Lectures 

Prof. Dr. Anja Bettenworth

Professorin für Klassische Philologie
Universität zu Köln
​Conception of space and reception of antiquity in Abdelaziz Ferrah's novel Moi, Saint Augustin

• Prof. Bettenworth is Professor of Latin at the University of Cologne. She specializes in Roman Elegy, Greek-Roman Epic, Curtius Rufus, andthe Reception of the Antiquity, especially in modern Maghreb. Her current project examines the reception of antiquity in modern literature and film of the Maghreb. The focus is on the role that ancient figures play in the post-colonial societies of North Africa, especially for the Berber population.

Dr. Ridha Moumni
Tunisia Postdoctoral Fellow
THE CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES | HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Ottoman Carthage: the reception of antiquities by Tunisian ruling class (19th cent.)

• Dr. Ridha Moumni is currently an Aga Khan Fellow at the Department of Art History of Harvard University. He is conducting research at Harvard’s Center of Middle Eastern Studies on the collection of Muhammad Khaznadar, the first Tunisian dignitary to excavate the ancient site of Carthage. A second project explores the role of the arts in nation building in Postcolonial Tunisia. Dr Moumni recently published a book on Tunisian visual artists from the 19th century to the Revolution. He is currently at work on a book project on the collections of Bardo National Museum.

Prof. Nisrine Slitine El Mghari
Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, and French and Francophone Studies | ​Modern and Classical Languages Literatures and Cultures | University of Kentucky
The Moroccan Imperial City of Fez : A Quest for Collective Memory

• Professor Slitine El Mghari's research focuses on representations of the city in 20th- and 21st-century Francophone and Arabophone Moroccan literature. More specifically, her work concerns itself with the different social, historical, and political forces that contribute to the construction of urban spaces, and draws on various critical and theoretical fields, including colonial and postcolonial studies, cultural memory studies, gender studies, and literary studies, while at the same time considering different contemporary Moroccan urban structures from a spatio-temporal perspective. Currently, she explores forms of popular culture, ranging from grafitti, the graphic novel, to new-age journalism, as well as texts written in dārija (the Moroccan dialect). Her interest in cinema studies includes more contemporary genres like the various web series produced by young North African artists and examining social, cultural, and political realities. Her research areas are also in Maghrebi Francophone and Arabophone literature and civilization, Sub-Saharan Francophone fiction, and French Antillian literature and culture. 

Prof. Paolo Visonà Associate Professor Adjunct | School of Art and Visual Studies | University of Kentucky

Ancient Coins in Motion: Numismatic Finds in Tunisia from the 16th to the Early 20th Centuries

• Paolo Visonà is a classical archaeologist who has been the principal investigator on several long-term excavation projects in Italy that were supported by the Mamertion Foundation, and later by the Foundation for Calabrian Archaeology.  His publications include studies in archaeology, art history and numismatics.  At the University of Kentucky, he has taught classes on classical mythology, Greek and Roman art, and a seminar on ancient coins.

MCLLC ~ Bluegrass Classics Lectures 

Prof. Dr. Anja Bettenworth

Professorin für Klassische Philologie
Universität zu Köln
​Conception of space and reception of antiquity in Abdelaziz Ferrah's novel Moi, Saint Augustin

• Prof. Bettenworth is Professor of Latin at the University of Cologne. She specializes in Roman Elegy, Greek-Roman Epic, Curtius Rufus, andthe Reception of the Antiquity, especially in modern Maghreb. Her current project examines the reception of antiquity in modern literature and film of the Maghreb. The focus is on the role that ancient figures play in the post-colonial societies of North Africa, especially for the Berber population.

Dr. Ridha Moumni
Tunisia Postdoctoral Fellow
THE CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES | HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Ottoman Carthage: the reception of antiquities by Tunisian ruling class (19th cent.)

• Dr. Ridha Moumni is currently an Aga Khan Fellow at the Department of Art History of Harvard University. He is conducting research at Harvard’s Center of Middle Eastern Studies on the collection of Muhammad Khaznadar, the first Tunisian dignitary to excavate the ancient site of Carthage. A second project explores the role of the arts in nation building in Postcolonial Tunisia. Dr Moumni recently published a book on Tunisian visual artists from the 19th century to the Revolution. He is currently at work on a book project on the collections of Bardo National Museum.

Prof. Nisrine Slitine El Mghari
Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, and French and Francophone Studies | ​Modern and Classical Languages Literatures and Cultures | University of Kentucky
The Moroccan Imperial City of Fez : A Quest for Collective Memory

• Professor Slitine El Mghari's research focuses on representations of the city in 20th- and 21st-century Francophone and Arabophone Moroccan literature. More specifically, her work concerns itself with the different social, historical, and political forces that contribute to the construction of urban spaces, and draws on various critical and theoretical fields, including colonial and postcolonial studies, cultural memory studies, gender studies, and literary studies, while at the same time considering different contemporary Moroccan urban structures from a spatio-temporal perspective. Currently, she explores forms of popular culture, ranging from grafitti, the graphic novel, to new-age journalism, as well as texts written in dārija (the Moroccan dialect). Her interest in cinema studies includes more contemporary genres like the various web series produced by young North African artists and examining social, cultural, and political realities. Her research areas are also in Maghrebi Francophone and Arabophone literature and civilization, Sub-Saharan Francophone fiction, and French Antillian literature and culture. 

Prof. Paolo Visonà Associate Professor Adjunct | School of Art and Visual Studies | University of Kentucky

Ancient Coins in Motion: Numismatic Finds in Tunisia from the 16th to the Early 20th Centuries

• Paolo Visonà is a classical archaeologist who has been the principal investigator on several long-term excavation projects in Italy that were supported by the Mamertion Foundation, and later by the Foundation for Calabrian Archaeology.  His publications include studies in archaeology, art history and numismatics.  At the University of Kentucky, he has taught classes on classical mythology, Greek and Roman art, and a seminar on ancient coins.

Lisa Mignone is the author of The Republican Aventine and Rome's Social Order (University of Michigan Press, 2016).  She was the inaugural Guangqi Lecturer at Shanghai Normal University in China (2016), and she has won several other international fellowships, including a Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome (2006-2007) and the Margot Tytus Visiting Scholarship, which she currently holds.  She has written articles on urban social integration, religious topography, and classical reception, and she was an editor of Studi e Scavi sull’Aventino 2003-2015 (Quasar Edizioni). Her second monograph, Rome's Juno: religious imperialism and self-preservation is under contract with University of Michigan Press.

Wrath.  Hatred.  Brutality.  Is there more to the goddess Juno than the constantly cuckolded wife of Olympian Jupiter, the goddess ever-hateful of Aeneas' destiny to reach Italian shores and found Rome?  This paper positions both the goddess Juno and her worship outside of literary conventions, where she consistently appears as a foreign or external goddess in constant need of appeasement, inveiglement, and reconciliation.  When we look beyond (or around) the literary character to examine the object of active veneration, Juno emerges as the goddess to whom Romans turn at times of extraordinary military crisis--and she is the deity who responds. She not only protects the Roman state, but also extends its imperial jurisdiction.  This paper examines the role of the foremost goddess in Roman religious culture and practice during the Republic, particularly with respect to issues of Roman manhood and imperialism. Arguments draw from historical, religious, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, art historical and literary evidence from Rome, Etruscan Veii, Latin Lanuvium, and Punic Carthage. This work contributes to the study of ancient imperialism, Mediterranean religions, and inter-cultural history. Furthermore, it provides the cultural and historical context in which we can more fully recognize and appreciate the divide between and intersections across poetic creation and performed religious experience. While the initial goal of the project may have been to cleave religious, military, and political history from the contaminating influence of poetic constructions, ultimately the project deepens and enriches our understanding of both Roman religious-military practices and the construction of Juno as a literary character.