UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Verity Platt, professor of classics and history of art at Cornell University, will deliver a lecture, “Pliny the Elder’s Ethics and Aesthetics of Loss,” as part of the Department of Art History’s Dickson Lecture Series at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 2, in Room 112 Borland. The Department of Art History is part of the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State.
In her lecture, Platt will explore how loss is a fundamental part of both nature and human creativity. She will explore the archeological value of Pliny the Elder's natural history and its relationship to loss. Platt will address the ethics of the text and how they coincide with sensitivity to the forgotten, invisible or abandoned. This lecture will touch upon the ecological value of natural history as it relates to current issues, such as the environmental crisis.
In addition to her position as a professor at Cornell University, Platt is also the humanities scholars program director for undergraduate students. This fall, Oxford University Press is publishing Platt’s most recent work, "Epistemic Impressions: Making and Mediating Classical Art and Text." She is currently working on a monograph about Pliny the Elder. In recognition of Pliny’s 2000th birthday, Platt organized "Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder," an exhibition at Cornell’s Johnson Museum of Art.