Keynote Lecture
"Unearthing Gender and Performance in the Archive of Hellenism"
Artemis Leontis, University of Michigan
Thursday February 26th, 2026
4:30-6:00 PM Goldwin Smith Hall 142
Reception to Follow
Abstract: This talk explores how feminist archival practices challenge conventional histories and open new ground for understanding Hellenism and Classicism. By placing Eva Palmer Sikelianos’s radical practice of alternative archaeologies and her complex archival legacy into conversation with the life and work of Margarete Bieber, the presentation asks: What becomes possible when the margins of the archive are excavated? Through acts of recovery, reinterpretation, and disruption, the archive shifts from a site of passive preservation to a dynamic space where gender, memory, and authority are actively contested and remade. Focusing on the politics and procedures of recovering hidden queer sources, the talk shows how such work destabilizes—and should expand—the frameworks of classical scholarship and reception.
Workshop Series
Ancient Copies, Modern Methods: Replication, Translation, and Reception in the Work of Margarete Bieber
Friday, February 27, 2026
9AM-5PM A.D. White House
Workshop Program
Light Breakfast (9-9:30)
Panel 1: A Transatlantic Life (9:30-11AM)
Annetta Alexandridis (Cornell): "On the Difficulty of Trans-lating. Margarete Bieber’s German Readings in the History and Theory of Fine Arts"
Giulia Bertoni (Kiel): "Reassessing Margarete Bieber’s Ancient Copies: Looking Backward and Forward"
Coffee Break (11-11:15AM)
Panel 2: Rewriting, Rereading, Revision (11:15-12:45PM)
Mary Danisi (Cornell): "Greco-Roman Dress in Translation: Margarete Bieber’s Ekphrastic Style and the Work of Description in the Study of Classical Sculpture"
Peter Thompson (Oxford): "Books in the Life of Margarete Bieber"
Lunch (12:45-1:45PM)
Panel 3: Recovering Ancient Dress (1:45-3:15PM)
Lauren Grover (CUNY Hunter College): "Beauty Over Perfection: Representations of Classical Drapery in Greek and Roman Sculpture"
Evan Allen (Kiel): "Margarete Bieber’s Photographic Method: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on the Use of Live Models for the Study of Ancient Dress"
Coffee Break (3:15-3:30PM)
Panel 4: Legacy and the Archive (3:30-5PM)
Sarah Cohen (Columbia): “'The End of Copying?': Margarete Bieber’s Contributions to the Study of Late Roman Palliate"
Francesco de Angelis (Columbia): Closing Response
Dinner (5:30PM)
