Naoise Mac Sweeney, PhD

Professor, Institute of Classical Archaeology

University of Vienna, Austria

Abstract:

This talk builds on some of the ideas underlying Naoíse’s latest book, The West: A New History of an Old Idea, which reconsiders the narrative of Western Civilization as a golden thread running through history from the classical worlds of Greece and Rome, through the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, and culminating in Atlantic modernity. It delves into the construction of Western Civilisation as a form of mythological genealogy, and pinpoints the moment in time when this genealogy was invented, in the Early Modern world of Habsburg-Ottoman rivalries.

Bio:

Naoíse Mac Sweeney is Professor of Classical Archaeology (Greek) at the University of Vienna. Her work focuses on the construction of identity and cultural interaction in the Iron Age to Classical Greek world, with a particular focus on Anatolia. A subsidiary strand of her research considers the intersection of modern politics and reception. She is the author of books including Community Identity and Archaeology (2011), Foundation Myths and Politics in Ancient Ionia (2013), Troy: Myth, City, Icon (2018) and, most recently, The West: A New History of an Old Idea (2023).