Guest Lecture: Mantha Zarmakoupi, University of Pennsylvania

The Department of Art History Guest Lecture Series is pleased to present:

“The blue marble of Greek architectural history: Delos and the Delos Symposia”
Prof. Mantha Zarmakoupi, University of Pennsylvania

WHEN: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 at 1:30 pm ET

WHERE: Online via Zoom (no registration required)

For meeting link and passcode, please contact the Art History Chair's Office via email.

Abstract: In this talk, Professor Zarmakoupi focuses on two moments in the history of the island of Delos in the Aegean Sea in order to shed light on the interweaving narratives of Greek architectural history. The two moments she is focusing on are separated by over 2,000 years: the port-city of Delos in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE and the Delos Symposia in the 1960s and 1970s. Her analysis of the late Hellenistic port-city aims to offer an alternative approach to the study of classical urbanism. Professor Zarmakoupi’s consideration of the Delos Symposia points to the ways in which Ancient Greek Cities formed part of the 20th century discussion on the future of cities. This bipartite analysis of Delos - the city of Delos as an object of archaeological inquiry and the city of Delos as the meeting place of the Delos Symposia - exemplifies her methodological approach to the study of Greek architectural history and the ways in which she promotes conversations across the distinct fields of architecture and classical archaeology in her research..

Mantha Zarmakoupi is the Morris Russell and Josephine Chidsey Williams Assistant Professor in Roman architecture in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research addresses the broader social, economic and cultural conditions underpinning the production of ancient art, architecture and urbanism. She focuses on the art and architecture of the Hellenistic and Roman periods and undertakes to understand the ways in which the cultural interaction between Greeks and Romans informed their artistic production as well as the shaping of their built environment. She has published widely on Roman luxury villas, as well as on the architecture, harbour infrastructure and urban development of late Hellenistic and Roman Delos. Professor Zarmakoupi has a multidisciplinary training in architectural design (Athens), history and theory of architecture (Harvard), and classical archaeology (Oxford). She has been a Fellow at Freie Universität in Berlin (TOPOI), New York University (ISAW), the University of Cologne (Humboldt Stipendium), the Getty Research Institute (Visiting Scholar), the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies and the National Hellenic Research Foundation (Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship). Before joining the University of Pennsylvania, she was Birmingham Fellow and Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the University of Birmingham.