ERC Locus Ludi/Toys as Cultural Artefacts
Cycle de 12 conférences à distance
Début: mercredi 23 septembre, 16h00. 
Pour s'inscrire: locusludi@unifr.ch

Online research seminar autumn 2020 T
Toys as Cultural Artefacts in Ancient Greek and Roman Cultures
University of Fribourg, Wednesday 16h00-17h30 (swiss time)

The pandemic has deeply changed our academic lives. The need to exchange and collaborate is more present than ever and this online seminar intends to provide a virtual space for ongoing researches on ludic culture. This semester will be dedicated to toys as cultural artefacts in ancient Greek and Roman cultures, fostering anthropological and material approaches in order to define the specificities of ancient playthings.

We will address the following research questions:

What is a “toy”? What do we mean by toy in a post-industrial contemporary society? and how

was it defined in the past?

The toy stage in the biography of objects

Cheap or costly toys? self-made by children or caretakers, or products of specialists?

Playful rites or ritual play?

The agency of toys: for the ancients, did toys generate a fictional universe, and did they

possess a subjectivity?

The series is composed of 12 talks. Registration is open. You can register to a talk by sending a message to locusludi@unifr.ch

23.9.2020: Véronique Dasen, Chiara Bianchi. Fribourg, SNF Project Poupées articulées grecques et romaines//articulated Greek and Roman dolls

30.9.2020: Ada Nifosi, Kent, Looking for gender and age specific 'dolls' in Dynastic Egypt

7.10.2020: Sonia Klinger, Haifa, Toys or models of toys: objects in terracotta from the Demeter and Kore sanctuary at ancient Corinth

14.10.2020: Astrid Fendt, Munich, Rite de passage or special ability? The bronze statuette of a boy holding a spinning top in the Munich Collection of Antiquities

21.10.2020: Ioanna Patera, Cracovie, Paignia, jeux d’enfants et jeux d’adultes, Marco Vespa, Fribourg: animals as athurma. Discussant: Cleo Gougouli, Patras

28.10.2020: Adrienne Lezzi-Hafter, Zurich, Choés du peintre d’Erétrie / Hanna Ammar, Fribourg, Des jeux d’enfants?

4.11.2020: Emilie Thibaut, Compiègnes, Miniature offerings for the Etruscan gods: toys to grow?

11.11.2020: Maya Muratov, New York, With strings attached: terracotta figurines with articulated limbs

25.11.2020:Zahra Newby, Warwick, Dolls in the funerary context: the Grottarossa doll and her mistress

2.12.2020: Vicky Sabetai, Athens, Playthings from Boeotia: a combined look at their varying occurrences in cult-places and tombs