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On the Road : Mobility and Social Differentiation
An online talk by:
Dr. Claudia Moatti
Professor\, Université Paris 8 and University of Southern California
*co-sponsored by the UBC Centre for Migration Studies' Mobilities Group and the UBC Department of Classical\, Near Eastern and Religious Studies
Friday\, February 19\, 2021
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (PST)
Based on examples taken from different period
s of history\, but mainly from the Roman period\, this lecture proposes som
e insights on the social use of the road and the experience of mobility. Wh
o was found on the roads in the ancient societies\, and how did the meeting
between the different social categories take place? According to what crit
eria were routes chosen or even imposed: rank\, class\, gender or function?
What objects did the travelers take with them? What knowledge was accessib
le? And for what purpose\, with what imaginary was the road taken? Since an
tiquity\, novels have taken the road as a privileged setting because it emb
odied the place par excellence where people normally separated by social hi
erarchy or by space could meet and at the same time ostentatiously display
social division\, where destinies mingled and intrigues were woven. It is u
p to the historian to reread these narratives in the light of other sources
\, to put mobility to the test of social differentiation\, and\, beyond a s
tudy of practices\, to pose the question of spatial justice. Although space
is naturally common\, it is often "qualified" by the people who move in it
and access to it can be the subject of tension and conflict\, even abuse o
f power.
[ Bio ]
Claudia Moatti is professor a
t the Paris 8 University (France) and at the University of Southern Califor
nia (Los Angeles). She has studied the intellectual transformations of the
Roman society at the end of the Republic (The Birth of Critical Thinkin
g in Republican Rome\, Cambridge University Press\, 2015 = Paris\, 199
7)\, the Roman notion of res publica (Res publica\, Paris\, 2018)
and the control of human mobility in the Roman Empire. This last research d
eveloped within a broader international program she has been heading\,
La mobilité des personnes en Méditerranée\, de l’Antiquité à l’époque moder
ne. Procédures de contrôle et documents d’identification which culmina
ted in three edited volumes. Her current book projects concern Migration\,
mobility and the Law in the Roman world\, and the experience of mobility in
the Ancient world.