Each quarter, the Stanford Archaeology Center invites prominent archaeologists from around the globe to be in residence for a week as a Distinguished Lecturer. During their residency, the Distinguished Lecturer gives two lectures and interacts with faculty, postdoctoral scholars and students. Stanford Archaeology Center will host Prof. Naoise Mac Sweeney from University of Vienna, Austria over two days (May 14 and May 15) for the Spring Quarter of this academic year. 

Abstract:

This talk builds on some of the ideas underlying Naoíse’s latest book, The West: A New History of an Old Idea, which reconsiders the narrative of Western Civilization as a golden thread running through history from the classical worlds of Greece and Rome, through the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, and culminating in Atlantic modernity. It delves into the construction of Western Civilisation as a form of mythological genealogy, and pinpoints the moment in time when this genealogy was invented, in the Early Modern world of Habsburg-Ottoman rivalries.