135 | Shadi Bartsch on Plato, Vergil, Confucius, and Modernity

<p>In our postmodern world, studying the classics of ancient Greece and Rome can seem quaint at best, downright repressive at worst. (We are talking about works by dead white men, after all.) Do we still have things to learn from classical philosophy, drama, and poetry? Shadi Bartsch offers a vigorous affirmative to this question in two new books coming from different directions. First, she has newly translated the <a href="https://shadibartsch.com/books/the-aeneid/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Aeneid</em></a>, Vergil's epic poem about the founding myth of Rome, bringing its themes into conversation with the modern era. Second, in the upcoming <em>Plato Goes to China</em>, she explores how a non-Western society interprets classic works of Western philosophy, and what that tells us about each culture.</p> <p><em>Support Mindscape on </em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer received her Ph.D. in Classics from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago. Among her awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, and multiple teaching awards. She has served as the Editor-in-Chief of <em>Classical Philology,</em> and is the Founding Director of the <a href="https://sifk.uchicago.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge</a>. She is developing an upcoming <a href="https://anchor.fm/shadi-bartsch" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">podcast</a>.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://shadibartsch.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web site</a></li> <li><a href="https://classics.uchicago.edu/people/shadi-bartsch-zimmer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">University of Chicago web page</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadi_Bartsch" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/ShadiBartsch" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shadi-Bartsch/e/B001H6KQV4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon author page</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-yield-ancient-history-and-literature-to-the-alt-right/2021/02/03/3632ad7a-6635-11eb-886d-5264d4ceb46d_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Washington Post Op-Ed</a></li> </ul> <p><br /></p>