Josephus and the Cultural Politics of Emotional History

Professor George Baroud’s lecture, “Josephus and the Cultural Politics of Emotional History,” fulfills three CLE criteria. First, it advances Ideas in Action by engaging the core capacity of Literary and Artistic Creative Expression, using the literary craft of an ancient historian to illuminate how emotional histories are constructed and interpreted. Second, it offers an opportunity most students could not access elsewhere, since Professor Baroud is among a small number of nationally recognized experts in Roman historiography. Third, the talk will enable students to reflect on and think critically about social and political differences through the lens of Josephus, a Jewish historian active in ancient Rome.