This talk will analyze the impact of the Second plague pandemic in Egypt (1347-1844 CE). The Second plague pandemic refers to the long series of epidemics that struck the Middle East and Europe, starting with the Black Death, 1347-1351 CE. This pandemic generally lasted until the early 1700s in Europe, but longer in the Middle […]

Spartacus is a historical figure that has captured the imagination of millions since he escaped from that gladiatorial school in Capua over two millennia ago. This workshop looks at the historical sources for the Third Servile War (73-71 BCE) and then introduces basic digital approaches to mapping the movement of Spartacus and his supporters through […]

Sarah Bond, Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Iowa, will examine the use of slave labor in monumental building through a broad historical lens. The use of contracted and slave labor for large building projects has roots going back to antiquity. The Pyramids at Giza, the Baths of Caracalla, the Great Wall of […]

During the high days of modernization fever, among the many disorienting changes Germans experienced in the Weimar Republic was an unprecedented mingling of consumption and identity: increasingly, what one bought signaled who one was. Exemplary of this volatile dynamic was the era’s burgeoning motorcycle culture. With automobiles largely a luxury of the upper classes, motorcycles […]