Wellspring Series 2026: Reimagining Sex Work
Activity
Debates about sex work often recycle sensationalised images of sex workers; salacious, depraved or victimised, they are not truly flesh and blood, but stock characters made to play a role in moral and political fantasy. Such myths fuel the collective imaginary, and of all media, cinema has perhaps…
Sign on Screen Film Festival
Festival
The full program and tickets are now available for the Sign on Screen Film Festival, taking place at the National Film and Sound Archive from 6pm Friday May 22 - 5pm Sunday May 24 2026. All events are Auslan <> English interpreted, all screenings are captioned with hearing loop…
What Makes a Monster Horrible? Exploring the Sensory Experience of Monstrosity in Myth through Disgusting and Aversive Language
Seminar
CCS Research Seminar 6Ancient Greek and Roman myths abound with vivid descriptions of giant, supernaturally powerful creatures with horrifying composite bodies and a taste for mortal destruction – monsters. Across Greek and Roman literature, monsters are most commonly portrayed as horrible…
The Scar, the Bow, and the Bed: Embodied Engagements in—and with—Key Moments of the Odyssey
Seminar
CCS Research Seminar 5The 4E approach to cognition—according to which our cognitive processes are thought to be embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive--allows classicists to investigate from an empirical standpoint the experientiality and the impact of narrative texts, as we follow…
Audiobook Fraud from the Analog Era to AI
Seminar
Presented in person and online via Zoom, login details below.This presentation examines the audiobook as a medium in which entrenched assumptions about vocal authenticity collide with the technological ease of deception. Focusing on various forms of life writing, it proposes the concept of the ‘…
Why the Roman State Lasted for 2000 Years—and What We can Learn from It
Lecture
CCS Research Seminar 4 - Public Lecture presented in association with the Friends of the ANU Classics Museum During the two millennia that the Roman state lasted nearly everything changed. Rome began as an Italian city state in which people spoke Latin and worshiped pagan gods and evolved into…
Local Myth on the Panhellenic Stage: Political Monuments at Delphi
Seminar
CCS Research Seminar 3The 1st-century geographer Strabo once described the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi as being ‘theatre-like’ (θεατροειδής). While this was probably intended as a geographical descriptor, it is certainly the case that Delphi was a place of performance where cities could ‘…