About the events
The Institute’s seminars and guest lectures are open to everyone and take place in the lecture hall on the ground floor.
Evening lectures: Guest speakers and established researchers share their ongoing projects and perspectives. The events begin at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays or Thursdays and conclude with a reception on the rooftop terrace, followed by further discussion.
Institute seminars: MA students and early-career researchers give a short presentation in English (approximately 20 minutes) followed by a Q&A session and informal discussion. Institute seminars take place on Tuesdays at 12 noon.
Evening lectures
Thursday 10 September 2026
Martina Gatto, Università di Roma (Tor Vergata), “Lycurgus of Sparta in Greek and Latin Literature”
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Karin Kukkonen, University of Oslo, “Novelists at Play - Creativity, Literary Games, and the Early-Modern Novel”
Wednesday 23 September 2026
Henning Laugerud, University of Bergen, “Idolatria, Superstition, and Iconoclasm - Paradoxes of Performing Imagery”
Thursday 15 October 2026
Adelisa Malena, Ca’ Foscari Università di Venezia, “Early Modern Women Prophets in Trans-confessional Perspective”
Thursday 19 November 2026
Sible de Blaauw, Radboud-universitetet, “At the Gates of Paradise – Liturgy and Ritual on the Threshold of St Peter’s Basilica”
Thursday 26 November 2026
Michael J. Geary, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), “Beyond Borders - Transnational Activism, the Anti-Apartheid Movements and the European Communities, 1973-1994.”
Institute seminars
Tuesday 29 September 2026
Linnea H. Fredheim, Universitetet i Bergen, “Image and Ekphrasis – Medea-paintings and Rhetoric in Imperial Rome”
Tuesday 27 October 2026
Samantha Leanne Smith, Universitetet i Oslo, “Striped Stockings, Earrings, and Golden Vessels – Dressing the Magi in Sixteenth-Century Adoration Scenes”
Tuesday 3 November 2026
Sofia Maria Linnea Hammervoll, Universitetet i Oslo, “Two sides of the same coin? Magic, Religious Authority and Individual Agency in the late Roman Principate”
Tuesday 10 November 2026
Elin H. Gussiås, Universitetet i Bergen, “A Gilded Cage? The Daily Life of the Vestal Virgins as Seen Through Material Culture”
Tuesday 17 November 2026
Emilie S. Lone, Universitetet i Bergen, “The Art of Entertainment – How Gladiators' Lives Are Reflected in Surviving Visual Material”
Tuesday 24 November 2026
Tuva L. Odberg, Universitetet i Oslo, “Saint Catherine of Alexandria – The Heroine of San Clemente”
Tuesday 1 December 2026
Sunniva Mundal Haug, Universitetet i Bergen, “Gazing Into the River of Time — Nordic Receptions of Antinous’ Images in the Nineteenth Century”
Signature lectures
Monday 19 October at 18:00 The L'Orange Lecture 2026
Glenn Most, University of Chicago/Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa:
“Weeping Heraclitus and Laughing Democritus”
Thursday 5 November at 18:00 “Encounters III” lecture
Antonios Pontoropoulos, Svenska institutet i Rom/Uppsala universitet, “Performing Gender and Agency in Greek, Latin, and Scandinavian Alexander Romance(s)”
Further information and registration
Please see the individual event pages for further information, including a link to the registration form.
Most events are now confirmed, but additional events may be added and the programme is subject to change.