On October 11th, The 79th Renmin University of China Historical Studies Lecture held in the Ren Wen Building at RUC. For this Historical Studies Lecture, the keynote speaker was Professor David Konstan from New York University’s School of Classical Studies.

Konstan is a well-known Classical Studies scholar and is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the president of the American Literature Council, was a professor at Brown University for many years, and from 2010 started teaching at New York University. His main field of study is ancient Greek and Latin world literature, his main strengths are dramas, novels and classical philosophy. In the past few years, his main focus has been on Ancient Greek and Roman emotions and values concepts. He published many books on friendship, pity, emotions, forgiveness and aesthetics.

The topic for Konstan’s speech was “Emotions from Paganism to Christianity”. His lively and interesting explanations really intrigued the audience. After the speech there was a Q &A time between Konstan and the students where he patiently answered the students questions.