FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Cindy Deppe, media relations, 641-269-4834

April 7, 2008

McKIBBEN LECTURE ON "HOUSEWORK IN THE ANCIENT WORLD"

GRINNELL, IA - For most, housework is little more than a "to do" list we’d rather forget. For Susan Ashbrook Harvey, a 1975 Grinnell College graduate, it’s an area of study and fascination. Harvey will discuss "Housework in the Classical Tradition" in her 2008 McKibben Lecture on Mon., Apr. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Forum South Lounge on the Grinnell College campus. "Ancient Greek and Roman cultures bequeathed profound philosophical teachings to Western civilization," Harvey says. "Among the most interesting are those related to tasks of housework and housekeeping." In the Roman Empire, for example, these practical matters provided models through which authors -- especially Jews and Christians -- addressed matters of moral formation, the "care of the self," religious subjectivity, and cosmic order. "The results," Harvey says, "allow unusual access to gender, religion, and social history in the ancient Mediterranean world."

Harvey is a professor of religious studies at Brown University, where her work focuses on the social aspects of late antique Christianity, particularly issues affecting women. Her graduate study at the Centre for Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, England, resulted in a master of letters degree, followed by a Ph.D. in early Syriac Christianity.

Harvey’s recent book, "Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination" (2006), has received wide acclaim. She has been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Wilson International Center. In 2005, she received the Barrett Hazeltine Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2007, Grinnell presented Harvey with an honorary doctor of humane letters degree.

The McKibben Endowed Lectureship in the Department of Classics honors Bill and Betty McKibben for their 50-plus years of service to classical studies at Grinnell College.

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