Lauritsen Lecture

This series of lectures brings a distinguished historian of the ancient world to the University of Minnesota every year to deliver a public lecture and occasionally to participate in seminars and other events. It was established in 2002 by a generous gift from Frederick M. Lauritsen, who received his Ph.D. in history from Minnesota in 1973, and his wife Catherine. Before his retirement, Professor Lauritsen, an expert in the numismatic history of Greek communities in Asia Minor, taught in the history department at Eastern Washington University for nearly thirty years. The range of material covered by the lectures reflects the breadth and vibrancy of the study of ancient history at Minnesota, a legacy that goes back to Lauritsen’s former teacher, Tom B. Jones. Topics have spanned geographically from the Mediterranean to Central Asia and chronologically from the Bronze Age to the Roman Imperial period.

Past Lauritsen Lectures

  • 2023 - Salima Ikram, "Feasts fit for Pharaoh: Food and Drink in Ancient Egypt"
  • 2022 - Susanna Elm, "Manliness and Imperial Representation: Pacatus Panegyric on the Emperor Theodosius"
  • 2019 - Sarah Forsdyke, "The Jury Trial in Ancient Greece: A Revolution in Justice with Implications for the Modern World"
  • 2018 - Felipe Rojas, "The Past in Things: Archaeophilia in Roman Anatolia"
  • 2017 - Norman Yoffee, "New Perspectives on Ancient Trade"
  • 2016 - Edward Watts, "Hypatia and the Long Legacy of a Lenten Murder"
  • 2015 - Amy Richlin, "Slave Theater in the 200s BCE"
  • 2014 - Jon E. Lendon, "Ancient Greek Infantry Combat: What Can Modern Riots Tell Us?"
  • 2013 - Daniel T. Potts, "Conflict and Co-existence: Greeks in Seleucid and Arsacid Iran"
  • 2012 - Edward Champlin, "Sejanus: The Emperor Who Almost Was."
  • 2011 - Jonathan M. Hall, "Who's Who in the 'Royal' Cemetery at Vergina, and Why it Matters"
  • 2009 - Amélie Kuhrt, "Achaemenid Visions of Power and Empire"
  • 2008 - Thomas G. Palaima, "Greek Heroic Culture: Ancient Greek and Modern Scholarly Views of the Mycenaean Age"
  • 2007 - David Cohen, "Power and Politics in Classical Greece: Norms, War, and Justice"
  • 2006 - Mary T. Boatwright, "Tacitus, Nero, and Agrippina's Funeral"
  • 2005 - Frank L. Holt, "Alexander the Great: New Evidence From Afghanistan"
  • 2004 - Matthew W. Stolper, "The Great King and His Clerks: the Achaemenid Empire Seen from Persepolis"
  • 2002 - Erich Gruen, "Greeks and Jews in the Hellenistic World"