Sarah E. Bond
Sarah E. Bond is an Associate Professor in Classics at the University of Iowa. She is interested in late Roman history, epigraphy, late antique law, Roman topography and GIS, Digital Humanities, and the socio-legal experience of ancient marginal peoples. She received her PhD in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2011) and obtained a BA in Classics and History with a minor in Classical Archaeology from the University of Virginia (2005). Her book, Trade and Taboo: Disreputable Professionals in the Roman Mediterranean, is forthcoming from University of Michigan Press (Fall, 2016). Follow her on Twitter @SarahEBond or read her Blog. (Please visit Professor Bond's personal website for current CV.)
Presenter at
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXI, November 16 – 18, 2018
Museums as Political Space: Classics, Color and the Exhibition of the Ancient World
Can museums be apolitical? Over the past few years, debate has raged over whether museums can be a neutral space devoid of all ideology or agenda–and whether they should be. This talk addresses the role of the museum in the field of Classics and the political messages that such spaces have sent to viewers since antiquity. In addressing the modern idea of the museum space and its role in the community, this talk explores how curatorial decisions–the addition of digital interactive models, the use of polychromatic light, and the relabeling of antiquities to include marginalized persons–can serve to reframe our understanding of the ancient world. By using new methods for (re)framing objects and revising the labels for them, museums can more directly address issues of colonialism, looting, and the diversity of the ancient Mediterranean.
