Shows
The Sustainable PastHealthy Spaces in the Ancient, Renaissance and Modern World: Baths and GardensIn this final episode of season two, we interview each other about our work on ancient bathing and gardens and their relationship to human health and wellbeing. We explore how we might reevaluate our own practices to help with sustainability. Dr. Giacomo Savani, a fellow at St. Andrews is working on a new project related to female health and bathing practices in the ancient and early modern periods, and considers the role the environment played in that. Dr. Patty Baker, is founder of Pax in Natura, a floral designer, and former academic, speaks about her res...2022-11-2959 minThe Sustainable PastBiophilic Design with Dr. Vanessa ChampionDr. Vanessa Champion is a classicist and founder of the Journal of Biophilic Design and The Space Doctors, who speaks with us about the term Biophilia and Environmental Psychology and how modern scholarship and ideas are grounded in historical conceptions. In this episode, there is an interplay between Ancient Greco-Roman concepts of healthy spaces and the ways in which we can use their ideas in modern design.The Journal of Biophilic Design can be accessed here. The Space Doctors can be accessed here. 2022-11-2430 minThe Sustainable PastIsmene Miliaresis: Heating Baths and Homes in the Roman EmpireDr. Ismene Miliaresis received her Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Virginia and her research focuses on the sustainability of heating systems in ancient Roman baths and homes,particularly at Ostia and Pompeii, and she is the Assistant Director of the Palazzo Imperiale Project at Ostia. She has worked on numerous excavations in California, on Crete at Eleutherna, at Morgantina in Sicily, at Pollena Trocchia near Naples, at Salapia in Puglia, and for four years at Villa Magna at Anagni where she supervised the excavation of the cisterns andwater systems of the imperial Antonine...2022-11-2141 minThe Sustainable PastEarly Modern Water Usage in Italy and Lowland Europe with Dr. Janna Coomans & Davide MartinoIn this week's episode, we continue with the theme of water. We have a double interview with Dr.Janne Coomans a postdoctoral candidate at the University of Amsterdam and Davide Martino, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. Both speak about their research on water usage in the early modern period, in northern Europe and Italy. We hear more about ideas of healthy water and the means of making water available to the wider public, and discuss the ideas of a healthy water supply in the past, ideas, we continue to struggle with today.Janna Co...2022-10-2939 minThe Sustainable PastWater in Early Modern Italy with Professor David GentilcoreDavid Gentilcore is Professor of Modern History at Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice. He is the principal investigator of an ERC Advanced Grant entitled The Water Cultures of Italy, 1500-1900, which aims to create a new holistic approach to the study of human interactions with water over time. He’s published extensively on history of popular religion, the history of medicine and health, and the history of food and diet.2022-10-2943 minThe Sustainable PastProfessor Laurence Totelin: Botany and PharmacologyThis week, we hear from Professor Laurence Totelin, who is a specialist in ancient pharmacology and botany at the University of Cardiff, Wales. She is an historian of Greek and Roman Science, Technology, and Medicine and has published wildly on of ancient pharmacology, gynecology, botany and sensory studies. She is currently working on the history of pharmacological retail; the history of plant grafting; and the history of ancient cosmetics and sexual aids, such as aphrodisiacs. With Dr. Patty Baker and Professor Helen King, she helped create a MOOC Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World.In this...2022-09-1338 minThe Sustainable PastIntroduction Season Two: Health and EnvironmentsIn this season, Drs. Giacomo Savani and Patty Baker interview experts on past and present environments and how they were and are perceived to be related to health. We speak with a range of specialists whose work focuses on ancient, medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern and Modern Italy. Again, we explore the possibilities of learning from the past to think about and improve the environmental crises we face today.2022-09-1303 min
The Sustainable PastThe Sustainable Past: Episode Five, Roman Gardens with Kathryn GleasonIn this episode, we interview Professor Kathryn Gleason who speaks about the archaeology of ancient Roman Gardens.Professor Gleason is a member of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Cornell in the United States. Her work focuses on the archaeology of Roman Gardens, and she has worked in the Bay of Naples and in Israel. Her research explores an extensive system of plant trade and hydrological engineering that was needed to construct Roman gardens. Her recent publication is the edited volume entitled Gardens of the Roman Empire with Cambridge University Press and there is a dedicated website...2021-04-2933 min
The Sustainable PastThe Sustainable Past: Episode Six: Roman Art, Bathing, Urban Planning, and Floral DesignIn this final episode, Dr. Giacomo Savani and Dr. Matthew Mandich speak about their recent workshop on “Antiquity and the Anthropocene” and their research on Roman Baths and Roman/Modern urban planning respectively. Then, Dr. Giacomi Savani interviews Dr. Patty Baker about her work on ancient floral design and medicine. Dr. Matthew J. Mandich holds a PhD in Roman Archaeology from the University of Leicester (UK) and is currently undertaking a Master’s at the University of San Francisco (USA) in Urban and Public Affairs. His research is founded on the archaeological, topographical, and historical study of ancient...2021-04-2947 min
The Sustainable PastThe Sustainable Past: Episode Four, Ancient Landscapes and Mountains with Professor Jason KönigProfessor Jason König speaks to us about ancient Greco-Roman literature on the environment, in particular ancient relationships with mountains.Professor Jason König is the assistant director of the Center for Ancient Environmental Studies at the University of St. Andrews. He is currently working on ancient representations of landscape and the environment. The main focus of this is a book on the representation of mountains in ancient literature and culture. The project is supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant, entitled ‘Mountains in ancient literature and culture and their postclassical reception’. He is also e...2021-04-2940 min
The Sustainable PastThe Sustainable Past: Episode Three: The Ancient Tiber River with Dr. Andrea BrockDr. Andrea Brock speaks about her environmental archaeological work on the Tiber River during the early foundations of ancient Rome.Dr. Brock is the Director of the Center for Ancient Environmental Studies at the University of St. Andrews. She is an environmental archaeologist with particular expertise in historical ecology and palaeolandscape reconstruction. Her current work integrates the literary record on early Rome with geoarchaeological evidence, in order to produce an environmental and topographical reconstruction of Rome’s river valley. She is director of the Forum Boarium Project, where she worked on a coring survey of the city’s or...2021-04-2937 min
The Sustainable PastThe Sustainable Past: Episode Two: Environmental Humanities with Dr. Christopher SchliephakeDr. Christopher Schliephake presents a detailed review of current scholarship in the environmental humanities.Dr. Schliephake is based at the University of Augsburg, Germany. He is a Senior Lecturer in Ancient History and is involved with numerous international environmental humanities research groups and an editorial board member for Bloomsbury’s series on Ancient Environments. Two of his recent publications are The Environmental Humanities and the Ancient World in 2020 with Cambridge University Press and an Edited volume on Ecocritisim, Ecology and Cultures in Antiquity 2017.Artwork: "The Nature of the Beast" by Dr. Giacomo SavaniM...2021-04-2942 min
The Sustainable PastIntroduction to the Sustainable PastDrs. Patty Baker and Giacomo Savani explore what we can learn from the ancient Romans and Greeks to help with environmental sustainability issues today. Environmental concerns are of critical importance for ourselves, future generations, and all life on our delicate planet. There are many scientific studies and activist groups that are trying to correct the situation; yet, it is only recently that scholars in the humanities have started to contribute to these discussions. So, we speak with leading scholars, embedded in the arts and humanities of the ancient world, who explore what we can do to help revert this...2021-04-2904 min