Loyola University Chicago commemorates its sesquicentennial with online lectures “with other great minds to reflect and address urgent issues of our time.” The Loyola 150 Scholar Series is open to the public. A full schedule is available at https://www.luc.edu/150/scholars/.
Of particular note is the March 22 The John F. Callahan Lecture: “‘urbs procul est, urbs magna, Chicago’: Latin Drama, Jesuit Education, and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair” by Laura Gawlinski, associate professor and chair at department of classical studies, Loyola University Chicago, and Christopher Polt, assistant professor of classical studies at Boston College.
According to the lecture’s summary, Gawlinski and Polt will consider the central role that Latin performances assumed in Jesuit education. “In the late 19th century,” the summary continues, these performances “took on complex new significance as Jesuit schools in the U.S. sparked renewed interest in their production. This talk explores how Jesuit educators saw the theatrical performance in Latin as a means not only of student formation but also of self-promotion and self-defense during a turbulent period in U.S. higher education and Catholic immigration history.”