The 2020-21 AIA Niagara Peninsula Society lecture series is being conducted virtually. Fall lectures will be held online using MS Teams. Over the course of the year, a link will be added to each of the events on our AIA Niagara webpage.
If you would like to join us for an event, please visit the AIA Niagara webpage and click on the link associated with that event. This link will take you to a registration form that will give you the MS Teams link needed in order to join the event. Please save the link in order to use on the day to join us. You will need to register for each AIA event that you want to attend.
Lectures are free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend!
Abstract: Perhaps the greatest difficulty of Democracy, ancient or modern, is that it requires ordinary people to make impactful decisions — often between unpalatable options. This talk examines a number of familiar Greek tragedies to demonstrate that the ancient Athenians attempted to solve this problem through theatre: creating a low stakes, experiential education wherein individual audiences members were allowed to listen to the clashing arguments of towering figures and ultimately choose between options which were at once both morally repellent and righteous. This focus on ambiguity, choice, and education further demonstrates the relevance of tragedy to contemporary society and government.
