Grant Parker in Provence

Grant Parker, chair of Stanford’s department of classics, teaches Latin literature and a variety of topics in the comparative global humanities. He is also courtesy faculty in the department of comparative literature and an affiliate of the Center for African Studies and the Stanford Archaeology Center, and has served as a resident fellow in Toyon Hall for more than 10 years.

Travel literature in ancient and modern times has been an ongoing focus of Professor Parker’s. He has written on the literature and cultural history of the ancient Roman world (Mediterranean Passages: Readings from Dido to Derrida, co-edited with Miriam Cooke and Erdag Göknar), typically bringing monuments, maps and histories of collecting into his research.

During our program, Professor Parker will discuss the architecture of Aix as basis for engaging topics such as heritage, cultural property, collective memory, and the history of collecting. His lectures will explore the related histories (ancient and modern) of Gallo-Roman sites in Aix, their connection with Celtic/Gallic traditions, and how the medieval period saw new cultural dynamics after the end of the Roman empire in the west. Additionally, lectures will connect specific sites and objects with broad contemporary debates via provocative readings.

• Joined Stanford University department of classics in 2006, department chair since 2015

• Richard E. Guggenhime Faculty Scholar, Stanford University, since 2016

• Formerly held faculty positions at the University of Michigan and Duke University

• BA and MA, Princeton University; PhD, University of Cape Town

• Publications include The Making of Roman India (2008), as author, and South Africa, Greece, Rome: Classical Confrontations (2018), as editor.