Sparta Live: Sparta and the Internet

Sparta Live! "Sparta and the Internet: the ups and downs of public history online

Join us, Dr Roel Konijnendijk and Dr Owen Rees for a discussion about Sparta and the Internet

Discussions of the Spartans, their history and culture, are prolific on the internet. From chatrooms to message boards, YouTube videos to viral memes, the Spartans are everywhere - along with a strong and pervasive image of what they were like. As historians, what is our role within these discussions? Should we be correcting errors as they appear? How can we balance nurturing a public interest in Spartan history, with correcting falsehoods and misconceptions? And how open are wider audiences to our input when it challenges their beliefs? This lecture will focus on the experiences of public historians trying to engage in the online discourse of Sparta.

Discussants:

Dr Roel Konijnendijk (University of Oxford)

Dr Owen Rees (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Dr Petros Doukas (Mayor of Sparti)

Dr Chrysanthi Gallou (University of Nottingham)

SPARTA LIVE Series is a new programme of online live presentations and discussion workshops on the history, archaeology and legacy of ancient Sparta. The programme is run by The Centre for Spartan & Peloponnesian Studies (CSPS) at the University of Nottingham, in partnership with the City of Sparti in Laconia, Greece – the site of ancient Sparta.

Find out more about the UoN Centre for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies (CSPS), visit: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/csps/home.aspx