This year’s annual series of Sather Lectures will be delivered virtually by four previous Sather Professors, including Mary Beard, Professor of Classics and Fellow of Newnham College and MM McCabe, Professor of Ancient Philosophy Emerita, King's College London, and Honorary Fellow of Jesus College.
Founded over a century ago, the prestigious Sather Series traditionally invites a classical scholar to spend a term on the University of California Berkeley Campus as the Sather Professor. The Sather Professor teaches a graduate course during their term and delivers a series of six lectures on a topic of their choice. Each set of lectures is published as a book by the University of California Press with funds from the Sather Fund. Over the years many great classical scholars have occupied the chair, and the resulting publications have made valuable contributions to their field of study.
In 2021, the Classics Department at UC Berkeley have planned a special remote series of lectures due to the unusual circumstances, inviting former Sather Professors to deliver one of four lectures. Mary Beard was Sather Professor in 2008-09, her lectures later published as Laughter in Ancient Rome. MM McCabe, Former Fellow in Classics at Murray Edwards College, occupied the chair in 2016-17 with a forthcoming publication on Seeing and Saying: Plato on Virtue and Knowledge.
Speaking about the 2021 Sather Series Mary Beard said: “I had a wonderful time giving the Sathers years back, though they are also rather intimidating, I confess. I'm delighted to be a part of this special lockdown series.”
MM McCabe added “The terror of giving the Sather lectures is assuaged by the wonderful community in which they happen: the intellectual generosity of Berkeley colleagues made it possible to think about old stuff in quite new ways. It was the most exhilarating experience, and I am hugely honoured to be asked again.”
Mary will deliver her lecture titled Imperial Transgressions: Satire and Subversion in the Life of Elagabalus on 27 February. MM McCabe’s lecture, titled The Shield and the Cave: Motion and Emotion in Plato's Republic, ends the series on 3 April. Read more about the Spring 2021 Sather Series and register for the lectures.
Emily Gowers, Professor of Latin Literature and Fellow of St John’s College takes up her appointment as the Sather Professor 2021-2022 in January 2022.
Follow Mary Beard on Twitter @wmarybeard and MM McCabe at @mmmccabe1.
