India Halstead, Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature: "Translation as Queer Kinship: H.D.’s Ion."

Abstract: Euripides’ Ion is a Greek tragedy that interrogates fixed notions of identity and kinship and critiques Athenian claims to national purity. This paper considers how H.D.’s ‘post-modern’ translation of the Euripides’ play leans into kinship’s constructedness. Drawing on Elizabeth Freeman’s concept of erotohistoriography, I consider H.D.’s Ion as a commentary on translation’s capacity to unite remote bodies, and as a gesture of queer kinship.

Jeremy Steinberg, Ph.D. Candidate in Religious Studies: "Feminist Readings in Ancient Greek Esther"

Abstract: In this paper, I undertake a feminist analysis of Esther (the person) as she is depicted in the Ancient Greek version of Esther (the biblical book). Esther (as both person and book) has received much attention in feminist biblical scholarship, but nearly all such scholarship uses Hebrew Esther as its field of analysis. My investigation asks how the episodes narrated in the Greek version but not the Hebrew allow us to complicate the picture of Esther that we know from existing feminist studies. My approach is grounded in a refusal to structure feminist analysis in a binary mode. Most feminist scholarship on Esther permits her only to be either a fully independent heroine or a slave to patriarchy. In my reading, Esther is a nuanced figure who is subject to significant constraints due to her status as a closeted Jewish woman at the Persian court but who nonetheless deftly negotiates within that subordinate position to gain autonomy and accomplish her priorities.

Upcoming dates:

Tuesday, 11/12, 12–1:30, GSWS Conference Room: Yingchen Kwok and Claire Elliot

Wednesday, 12/11, 10:30–12, on Zoom: UD Collab with Davy Knittle (grad presenter tbd)

Thursday, 2/6, 12–1:30, location tbd: Deion Dresser and Hank Owings

Thursday, 3/6, 12–1:30, location tbd: Annie Ting and Aurora De Lucia