Classical Naming and Free Black Histories: Fugitive World Making

media release: This event is presented by the UW-Madison Department of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Room 114.

Scholars from Margaret Williamson to Saidiya Hartman have analyzed and theorized the cultural politics of classical slave naming in the Americas and the Caribbean. This lecture by Emily Greenwood will consider examples of the persistence of classical naming in Black communities post-emancipation, looking at some striking instances where classical names have played a role in making up new, fugitive histories. Because classical names are vectors of multi-layered signification in American history, encompassing mastery, slavery, genealogy, and myth-making, they have been used to assimilate to many different histories, dominant and fugitive, and help to dramatize our national inconsistencies.