Another contribution to an ongoing discussion at Stanford around the future of Classics and the Humanities [Link]. Colonial loot In 1897 a British military force burned and looted, murdered their way through the capital city of the kingdom of Benin in west Africa. It was another dreadful act aimed at securing political and economic control…
heritage
Boijmans Collections Depot – teaser
The revolutionary new collections depot for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam opens later this year. Here is en evocative glimpse of the roof top. More about this remarkable project – [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link]
Confronting the Classics
Project Greece and Rome – [Link] Classics is the study of Ancient Greece and Rome. Or is it? Mary Beard, Cambridge University Professor, the popular “Oxbridge Don“ of the British media, deals with the question of the object of Classics in her book Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures, and Innovations (Liveright 2013). I had a…
Heritage – actuality and performative pragmatics
Published next month – Chinese translation of my essay on heritage as actuality, with a case study from the Roman north. [Link] to 2012 version in English.
Update – the actuality of the archaeological past
I have contributed little to this site Since 2016. I have been writing (Greece and Rome: a new model of antiquity [Link]), running experiments in fieldwork (Project Borderlands [Link]), exploring applied archaeology (with a host of organizations and corporations), asking questions of the proper role of the academic, the researcher, the scholar. In this contemporary…
Update – Collections Depot for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Previous reports on this extraordinary project in the future of the museum – [Link] Projects and research theme – Future of the past – Studio Michael Shanks @ Stanford – [Link] JANUS Initiative @ Stanford – [Link] The public art depot for the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, designed by MVRDV is nearing completion in Rotterdam….