Events – Institute of Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition

Donors’ Celebration 2025: “It Is, as It Was” Bringing Ancient Rome to Life – Jonathan Stamp

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by lily.bickers

We are thrilled to announce that our 2025/26 Donors’ Celebration will be a lecture delivered by Jonathan Stamp, former consultant for the HBO series ROME and tutor at Magdalen College, Oxford.

The lecture will take place on November 18th from 5PM to 6:30PM in the Old Council Chamber in the Wills Memorial Building. The event is free, open to all, and will be followed by a drinks reception.

You can book your tickets here.

“When I signed up to be the historical consultant on what was then one of the most lavish and big budget TV historical dramas ever made – HBO’s epic ROME – I had no idea what awaited me. Nothing less than the challenge of trying to re-imagine, down to the smallest detail, what it would actually have been like to have lived in that city – from its grandest villas to its poorest tenements – and to have walked its streets. I found that a lifetime of studying the Classics had left me unprepared to answer even the most basic day-to-day questions, and set about trying to put that right. Twenty years later I am still trying. In this talk, “It Is As It Was”, I share some of my conclusions, using clips from the original show. Do come and step into the Time Machine with me”.

Book Launch Event: “Time, Tense, and Genre in Ancient Greek Literature”

Posted on September 16, 2025October 6, 2025 by lily.bickers

The IGRCT is holding a book launch lecture and reception for the volume “Time, Tense, and Genre in Ancient Greek Literature”, edited by Connie Bloomfield-Gadêlha and Edith Hall. The event is open to all, and will consist of a talk by Nick Lowe (Royal Holloway), followed by a drinks reception.

The poster for the event. It features an unfinished painting of a woman with no face, standing on a cliff.

The lecture will take place on October 8th from 5PM to 7PM in the Peel Lecture Theatre.

You can book your tickets here.

The volume fuses three concepts and associated approaches to ancient literature that have never been applied together at the same time: ideas of time, grammatical tense, and literary genre, thus providing a significant new approach to ancient Greek literature by throwing fresh light on one of its most important preoccupations.

2025 Symonds Lecture: “No man can see himself as others see” Bringing the personal papers of John Addington Symonds to new audiences.

Posted on September 9, 2025 by lily.bickers

We are very excited to announce the 2025 John Addington Symonds lecture, presented in collaboration with OutStories Bristol.

The poster for the event discussed. It features various photographs and drawings from John Addington Symonds' life, such as a photograph of him on a sledge and a drawing of his dog.

The lecture will take place on October 4th from 4PM to 6PM in the Peel Lecture Theatre. The event is free, open to all, and will be followed by a drinks reception.

You can book your tickets here.

Alexander Taylor and Nicky Sugar from the University of Bristol Special Collections will unveil the results of the current project to recatalogue the Symonds archive and increase engagement with his work. They will bring to life new information about Symonds’s life and work, but will also use the Symonds collection as a vehicle for discussing some of the current issues archivists have to balance when working on collections.

How do we deal with sensitive or contentious topics within the records we look after?
Who gets to decide which aspects of the collection are highlighted in catalogues, and on what basis?
How do we ensure that engagement with collections is equitable and authentic?

They will show off some treasures from the archive and seek feedback from the audience about how you’d like to see them develop participation work based on this and other collections which contain LGBTQ+ narratives.

About the speakers:

Nicky Sugar became an archivist because she wanted to help make sure that stories get told. 27 years later, her motivation remains unchanged. After a varied career in higher education and local authority archives she joined the University of Bristol as Head of Special Collections in 2023.

Alexander Taylor has worked as an archivist across a variety of sectors including secondary and higher education and religious institutions. He has project-managed several recataloguing projects, including the personal papers of literary scholar John Addington Symonds. He joined the University of Bristol as Project Archivist in September 2024.

Yearly Events Programme and Directors’ Reception Series

Posted on September 2, 2025September 11, 2025 by lily.bickers

The IGRCT is thrilled to announce our programme of events for the 2025/26 academic year. Be sure to put these dates in your diaries, and keep an eye out for announcements about venues and bookings!

Text reads: IGRCT events programme 2025/25. November eighteenth: Donors Celebration. Jonathan Stamp: Title to be announced. April twenty third: Morse Lecture. Josephine Quinn: Title to be announced. The poster has the same image as the previous page.

The poster for the event series. It features a painting of a silhouette of a woman walking down a black and white staircase. The first of these events to be open for bookings is the Director’s Annual Reception Series. These lectures will be held online on Thursdays throughout the year, and you can view the full programme and book your place here.