ECo Talks: Locals, Leaders and the Reverberating Consequences of Disaster Intervention: Some Case Studies from the Late Roman World with Campbell Grey
The Earth Commons and Georgetown Humanities Initiative will host the next ECo Talk with Campbell Grey, Associate Professor of Classical Studies at The University of Pennsylvania, will present his talk, “Locals, Leaders and the Reverberating Consequences of Disaster Intervention: Some Case Studies from the Late Roman World.“
About the Speaker: Dr. Campbell Grey is a social, economic, and environmental historian of the Roman world. His research explores notions of risk and uncertainty, primarily in the lived experiences of voiceless and marginalized populations. Dr. Grey’s current book project, Living with Risk in the Late Roman World, places data and methodologies from the earth and environmental sciences alongside textual evidence from the fourth through sixth centuries to explore lived experiences and cultural vocabularies of risk in the late Roman period.
About the Talk: Recent scholarship in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management has noted the collections of small-scale disasters that characterize the daily existence of the disempowered and marginalized, and explored the interactions between those everyday experiences of precarity and more widespread, momentary disasters. In such circumstances, any intervention from outsiders will be an expression of power with unintended, reverberating consequences. This seminar will explore these propositions, focusing upon some anecdotes from the late Roman world: the conflictual and mutually contradictory interventions of the fourth-century Caesar Gallus in a grain shortage at Antioch; the experiences of the inhabitants of Nicomedia following a catastrophic earthquake in 358 CE; the response of the third-century king Agbar to a devastating and unseasonable flood in his home city of Edessa.
Event Details: Light refreshments will be provided. Free and open to all. No RSVP required.
About the Series: Every Friday beginning on September 1, ECo Talks features scholars, leaders and innovators sparking conversation, sharing knowledge, and spurring change. ECo Talks are presented by the Earth Commons Fridays 11:30 am – 12:30 pm in Arrupe Hall Conference Room. Learn more about the series >>
