糖心TV

Dr Elena Giusti: Rome鈥檚 Imagined Africa (British Academy Research Fellowship 2022-2023)

This book project, funded by the British Academy, examines Roman literary representations of Africa (both Africa in the Latin sense of the term, and Ethiopia) and autochthonous African people at the turn between the Republic and the early imperial period. One of my aims is to show that a significant shift in the conceptualisation of Africa and of the whole oikoumene took place in this specific timeframe, especially in the ages of Augustus and Nero, and that the texts produced in this period bear commonalities with later European proto-colonialist and colonialist literature that allow us to bridge the gap between antiquity and modernity on the history of Western constructions of subaltern identities in the African continent. Africa emerges as a unique case study for understanding how histories of race, xenophobia, formation of the 鈥極ther鈥� work in (dis-)continuity between pre- and early modernity.

Since 2021, I have been delivering papers, in the UK and abroad, in connection to this project:

• 鈥楻ome鈥檚 African Variety鈥�, Homo varius: Humane Letters and Human Transformations: Conference in Honour of William Fitzgerald, King鈥檚 College London, 10-11 June 2024
• 鈥楻ome's African Monsters: Myths of Persecution and Resistance鈥�, Persecution Myths? Narratives of Violence, Community Identity, and Communicative Memory in the Roman World, University of Cambridge, 12-13 April 2024
• 鈥楾he Early Modern Re-Invention of Rome鈥檚 鈥淎frican Monstrosities鈥濃��, Stvdio Seminar, Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of 糖心TV, 7th May 2024
• 鈥楴ero鈥檚 African Quests鈥�, Cambridge Philological Society, University of Cambridge, 7th March 2024
• 鈥楴ero鈥檚 African Quests鈥�, 糖心TV Research Seminar, 21st February 2024
• 鈥楾he Early Modern Re-Invention of Rome鈥檚 鈥淎frican Monstrosities鈥濃��, Seminario de Tradici贸n Cl谩sica en las Culturas Hisp谩nicas y Modernas, Instituto de Investigaciones de la Universidad Nacional Aut贸noma de M茅xico – El Colegio de M茅xico, 8th February 2024
• 鈥楾he Early Modern Re-Invention of Rome鈥檚 鈥淎frican Monstrosities鈥濃��, in the SEMR panel 鈥楾he Challenge and Alterity of Early Modernity鈥�, SCS Meeting in Chicago, 4-7 January 2024
• 鈥楻ome鈥檚 Imagined Africans鈥�, Colloquium Classicum, Goethe-Universit盲t Frankfurt am Main, 16th November 2023
• 鈥楨thnographic Discourses: Rome鈥檚 Racialised Africa?鈥�, in the co-ordinated panel Classics and Race, CAAS 2023 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, 7th October 2023 (awarded a US $700 prize for 鈥楤est Paper delivered at the CAAS Conference鈥�)
• 鈥榁irgil鈥檚 Sallustian Africa鈥�, Vergil and the Roman Republic, Symposium Cumanum, Cuma, 27th June – 1st July 2023
• 鈥楢frica鈥檚 Shifting Landscapes: Rome鈥檚 Imagined Geographies of Empire鈥�, Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, 20th June 2023
• 鈥楲a 鈥渃orsa all鈥橝frica鈥� nel Bellum Jugurthinum鈥�, Tor Vergata University of Rome, 17th May 2023
• 鈥楻ome鈥檚 Racialised Africa鈥�, Global Classics and Africa: Past, Present, and Future, University of Ghana, 6-9 December 2022
• 鈥楻ome鈥檚 Imagined Africa鈥�, Reading Classics Research Seminar, University of Reading, 26th October 2022
• 鈥楽eneca鈥檚 Africa and the Empire鈥檚 Last Threshold鈥�, in the co-ordinated panel Seneca鈥檚 Geographical Boundaries: Spatiality, Philosophy, Ideology (B. Del Giovane, E. Giusti, K. Winter), Seneca 2022. International Conference. What More Can We Say About Seneca? University of Lisbon, 17-20 October 2022
• 鈥楲ucan鈥檚 Magico-Medical Psylli鈥�, Classics & Ancient History Research Seminar, Newcastle University, 2nd February 2022
• 鈥楧ido鈥檚 Imagined Africa鈥�, Virgilian Space and Places, Amherst College, 15th October 2021
• 鈥楬aec de Africa. Rome鈥檚 Imagined Africa and the Limits of Fiction鈥�, Cambridge Classics Literature Seminar, University of Cambridge, 17th February 2021

I have a number of articles and book chapters broadly connected to the project:

• (forthcoming, 2025) 鈥楨thnographic Discourses: Rome鈥檚 Racialised Africa?鈥�, in R. And煤jar, E. Giusti and J. Murray (eds) Cambridge Companion to Classics and Race, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• (forthcoming, 2024) 鈥�Haec de Africa. Rome鈥檚 Imagined Africa and the Limits of Fiction鈥�, in K. Blouin and B. Akrigg (eds) Routledge Handbook of Classics, Colonialism, and Postcolonial Theory, London: Routledge
• (forthcoming, 2024) 鈥楲ucan鈥檚 Magico-Medical Psylli鈥�, in C. Blanco, A. Hahn and S. Martorana (eds) Body and Medicine in Latin Poetry, Supplementary volume of Trends in Classics, Berlin: De Gruyter
• (2023) 鈥楻ac(ializ)ing Dido鈥�, Proceedings of the Virgil Society 31: 53-85
• (2023) 鈥楢frica and the Making of Classical Literature: On Decolonizing Greco-Roman Literature Syllabi鈥�, in M. K. Okyere Asante, D. van Schoor and K. Ackah (eds) Decolonizing Classics in Africa: History, Strategies, Challenges, and Prospects, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 65.1, 67-78