Humanities West teams up with Stanford Humanities Center to present a unique lecture-performance event Democracy Then & Now: From Ancient Greece to This Week. Noted Stanford Classics professors Josiah Ober and Caroline Winterer will engage in a wide ranging discussion covering the ancient principles of democracy, oligarchy, and dictatorship; the Roman Republic experiment and its failure of Empire; the implications of Ancient Greece and Rome for American intellectual life and its representative democracy; on the contemporary relevance of ancient Greek political thought and practice; on inequality in democratic societies; and more. The discussion is moderated by Tyler Stovall (History, Dean of Humanities at UCSC).
The program is complemented by a performance of Stanford Repertory Theatre's Democratically Speaking introduced by Rush Rehm (Theater and Classics, Stanford). Democratically Speaking explores "democracy", from ancient Greece forward, with speeches, writings, and rubrics about democracy across 2,500 years. This staged reading with Gianna Clark, Thomas Freeland, and Gabriella Grier features a timely exploration of "people power" (the root meaning of demos + kratos), a compelling and relevant challenge for modern times.
Free tickets are available in limited quantities for students age 25 or younger; inquire at
[email protected] .