Demons and Pygmies: Determining Humanness from the Ancients to Today

Join us for a guest lecture by Lynn Ramey, Vanderbilt University Professor of French and Faculty Director of the Center for Digital Humanities at Vanderbilt University.

In her lecture titled “Demons and Pygmies: Determining Humanness from the Ancients to Today,” Professor Ramey explores the roots of difference and the changing perceptions of what defines humanness. Her research investigates early texts associated with travelers, who claimed to describe the edges of the known world to discover dog-headed peoples and other now-surprising groups (even the identities of these travel writers are fictional in some cases, too). How did concepts of races from ancient authors such as Pliny shape later perceptions of the divide between the human and the monstrous?

 This talk is offered through the generous support of the Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic and Ancient Art fund.

To reserve a spot and find out about last-minute changes, RSVP HERE.