Coping with Life: Ancient Tools for Modern Problems? A Series of Online Talks and Shared Reflections

“Coping with Life: Ancient Tools for Modern Problems? A Series of Online Talks and Shared Reflections.” - an online lecture series at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

The series is part of the Lebenshilfe project at JGU (carried out by Christine Walde, Annemarie Ambühl and Matthias Heinemann), an interdisciplinary initiative that explores how ancient texts, ideas, and practices are a form of Lebenshilfe—practical orientation and support in dealing with fundamental challenges of human life both in antiquity and today. Bringing together perspectives from Classics, Philosophy, Theology, Literary Studies, Psychology, Psychotherapy and related fields, the project asks how ancient reflections on suffering, happiness, illness, ageing, or loss can still resonate with, challenge, or enrich modern experiences.
The lecture series aims to create a shared space for dialogue across disciplines and perspectives. Each session will focus on a broadly relevant life theme and approach it through ancient texts and their reception, with a clear eye toward questions of coping, resilience, and the good life. We are aiming to publish the series (whether as a digital recording or in another form).

Each event is planned as follows:

  1. Two speakers address the same ancient text or text passage, which will either be jointly agreed upon or provided by us in advance.
  2. Each speaker gives a 20-minute talk, approaching the text from their own disciplinary or methodological perspective.
  3. The session then opens into discussion and interaction, exploring how different readings, contexts, and receptions transform the meaning and potential Lebenshilfe of the text.

Our goal is not to arrive at a single “answer,” but to see what emerges when ancient sources are read through different lenses and brought into conversation with contemporary concerns.

Programme:

  1. Mourning and Consolation (15 April) - Stephanie Holton (Classics / Milton Keynes), Fabio Tutrone (Classics / Palermo)
  2. Exhaustion and Sleep (29 April) - Emma Scioli (Classics / Kansas), Christine Walde (Classics / Mainz)
  3. Mental Health and Illness (27 May) - Chiara Thumiger (Classics / HU Berlin), Jessica Wright (Medical Humanities / Independent)
  4. Childhood and Coping with Life (17 June) - Vered Lev Kenaan (Classics / Haifa), Katarzyna Marciniak (Classics / Warsaw)
  5. Ageing (24 June) - Kathrin Gabler (Egyptology / Mainz), Albertina Oegema (Theology / Mainz)
  6. Pain (8 July) - N.N., Elina Pyy (Ancient History / Helsinki)

Practical Details

  1. Time: Wednesdays, 6:00–8:00 pm (CEST)
  2. Format: Online (via MS Teams) via this link:
    https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/389477821316625?p=jJXSjKNgM4XHDtpesA