Il Foro - Lecture Series

Dying Like Men: Women and Martyrdom in Early Christianity

 

In the first few centuries of the Common Era, Christians were persecuted by Roman officials for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods. The men and women who were killed became known as martyrs and were elevated within Christian communities for their devotion to God and their ability to endure immense pain and suffering. Their deaths became the subject of written texts called martyrologies that were read aloud in churches and formed the basis of martyr veneration practices. In this lecture, we will look at how women martyrs are depicted in their martyrologies as being distinct from men, both in the way that they’re associated with their family roles (wife, mother, daughter, etc.) and in terms of how their gender reflected their mode of execution. 

 

Dr. Heather Barkman received her PhD in Religion from the University of Ottawa in 2016. A native of Manitoba, she then moved back to Winnipeg and currently teaches in the Religion Department and the Classics Department at both the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. Additionally, she frequently offers courses through the McNally Robinson Community Classroom and Creative Retirement Manitoba. Her main research and teaching interests are on women in early Christianity, martyrdom and religious violence, and the Roman Empire.

The Speakers Forum at the Centro (Il Foro al Centro) is a long-running lecture series which offers engaging, high-quality presentations with broad public appeal. Join us to be inspired, informed, and entertained, in the cultural setting of the Centro. 


This  free  lecture series will be held in our  Library. Il Foro is organized and hosted by Christopher Bidinosti, a Physics Professor, of the University of Winnipeg, along with  Mariella Di Santo, Dino Petrelli and Trudy Blight. 


The lectures will feature topics that are interesting, timely, and relevant to society at large.


MAY 16, 2024 at 7 pm -  Dr. Heather Barkman  Martyrdom in Early Christianity

Previous Successful Lectures



Italian Music Through the Centuries
by Julian Pellicano, Principal Conductor, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Associate Conductor, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

Opera as we know it today had its origins in late 16th century Florence, and in the 21st century, operas by Verdi, Puccini, Rossini and the Italian operas by Mozart consistently make up 8 of the 10 most performed operas worldwide each year. 

This presentation by Julian Pellicano will explore the history, development, influence, traditions, and of course, the music of Italian opera in an overview from its beginnings in the Florentine Camerata to its apotheosis in the operas of Giacomo Puccini.

Pellicano will share highlights on Italian Opera through the centuries as well as his own experiences in the field. Live performances by Heather Kozak and Rachel Dyck, Esprit de Choeur and Viva L'Italia Choir!

The presentation is free and sponsored by Remo De Sordi, Taylor McCaffrey Lawyers.
About Julian Pellicano
A musician with wide-ranging musical interests, conductor Julian Pellicano is currently Principal Conductor of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Associate Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. 

Dedicated to invigorating performances of the traditional and contemporary symphonic repertoire, Pellicano’s range has extended to films live with orchestra, classical and modern ballet, collaborations with composers, opera, pops, musical theatre multimedia productions, workshops, as well as carefully programmed concerts for young listeners.
 

Challenges Facing Children: Navigating the Rocky Road
by Dr. Rayleen De Luca

On Thursday, September 26 at 7:00 PM,  we present our latest Il Foro Series on "Challenges Facing Children: Navigating the Rocky Road," which will focus on some of the problems that children are faced with, including depression, anxiety, self esteem and body image issues, peer pressure and competition, social media and cyber addiction. 

Behaviours for parents to look out for and strategies to deal with these difficulties will be discussed.

The presentation is free and is co-sponsored by the University of Winnipeg.
About Dr. Rayleen De Luca
Dr. De Luca is a registered clinical psychologist. As a professor at the University of Manitoba, she was the first woman to serve as Director of the Clinical Psychology Training Program. Dr. De Luca’s research has been widely published in books and scientific journals throughout the world. She has been invited to speak nationally and internationally. 

Dr. De Luca was inducted into the Order of Canada for her outstanding work and for her dedication to improving the lives of vulnerable Canadian children and families.
About Dr. Matt Gibbs
Matt Gibbs is an associate professor and Chair of the Classics Department at the University of Winnipeg. His research concerns the economy and history of Greco-Roman Egypt, and the Roman Republic and Empire generally. Having worked as a session musician for several years, he returned to academia and studied ancient history, archaeology, and classics. 

He is also interested in the history and reception of alcohol in the ancient world and in the classical reception of heavy metal music.

Alcohol in the Ancient Roman World
by Dr. Matt Gibbs

For quite some time now, academics have recognized eating and drinking  in various contexts  were used to deal with political and economic elements of society as well as many other cultural, economic and religious aspects.  And so, in this way, food and beverages, and their consumption, and the context in which these things were consumed can be seen as some of most important indicators of one's identity, culture and one's society.  

We can see this clearly in the case of Rome, where what non-Romans ate and drank was used to identify both them and their cultures.   But what was the role of alcohol in the Roman world, how was it used, and why?  Perhaps , more importantly, how these drinks were made, how did they taste and what can this tell us about the Roman world and the people who lived in it?

Dr. Gibbs will talk about how he recreated beer from ancient Rome with the help of Barn Hammer Brewing Company. 

The Florentine Plague 1348
by Dr. Anne-Laurence Caudano

"It is inherently human to show pity to those who are afflicted."
- Boccaccio on the Florentine Plague of 1348

In 1347, the plague hit the Genovese colony of Caffa in the Crimea and rapidly spread throughout Europe.  It reached Florence and other Italian cities in 1348, killing a third to half of the population.

A moving account of the pestilence's ravages in Florence is painted by Boccaccio in the prologue to his Decameron.  He described in detail, its physical manifestations and the ensuring breakdown of the social order and solidarities as well as a range of social emotions and powerless reactions.

In this presentation, Boccaccio's poignant description will be set in the context of late medieval medical advice and understanding of the plague, and of the practical decrees adopted by Italian city councils in their attempt to circumscribe the effects and spread of the Plague.

About Dr. Anne-Laurence Caudano

Dr. Anne-Laurence Caudano is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Winnipeg, where she teaches medieval history. 


Her research interests include Byzantine astronomy and cosmology, the medieval Slavic world, as well as medieval sciences and medicine, particularly the place of religion in medieval culture and mentalities, the conflictual and collaborative relationships between medieval cultures during the Crusades, as well as the development of scholarship and science at that time.


The Cult of Relics Pilgrimage in Rome and Lucca by Dr. Claire Labrecque

Since the putative discovery of the relics of the Passion of Christ by St. Helena in Jerusalem in the fourth century, the cult of saints and their relics has played a major role in the development of pilgrimage in Western Europe. Sacred relics were of two types: the bodily relics which were made of the remains of a saint, and the secondary relics (brandea), also known as ‘relics of contact, which were any object that had belonged to a saint or had been in contact with the body of a saint. This lecture will be a brief introduction to these two categories of relics that can be found in many pilgrimage sites of Europe, and we will pay attention more specifically to the cult of relics in two important pilgrimage cities of Italy, Rome (the relics of St. Peter & St. Paul) and Lucca (a True Cross of a Volto Santo type).  

About Dr. Claire Labrecque

Dr. Claire Labrecque is an Associate Professor with the Department of History at the University of Winnipeg and Coordinator of the Art History Program (undergraduate). She has a PhD in History with a specialization in the history of Late-Medieval and Renaissance art & architecture. Her current main research focus is on the art and architecture of pilgrimage in Europe between c. 1300 and 1500, and particularly the study of stained glass from 1200 to 1800 in Canadian collections that benefits of her expertise as a member of the International Scientific Committee of the Corpus Vitrearum (Canada). She is the co-writer, with Prof. J. Bugslag from the University of Manitoba, of the second volume of a series on pre-modern stained glass in Canada (Vol.2: Quebec) that should be published in 2021. 

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