The Past in Practice: Interpreting the Ancient World
This exhibition presents final projects from Death and Dying in the Ancient World, Introduction to Neo-Assyrian Art, and Fakes and Forgeries: The Art of Replication. Both courses are taught by Assistant Professor of Classics Bianca Hand.
In place of a traditional final exam, students created original works grounded in sustained research, bringing ancient material culture into dialogue with their own identities and contemporary concerns. The projects on view demonstrate how the study of antiquity can become embodied, interpretive, and creative while remaining historically rigorous.
Several works explore ancient practices of memory and commemoration.
- One student recreated the urn her mother chose for her grandmother and adorned it with iconography inspired by Classical Greek funerary monuments, merging personal mourning with ancient visual language.
- Another transformed the lyrics of My Chemical Romance’s “The Black Parade” into an Ancient Greek-style inscribed tablet, using all capital letters without diacritics, Attic letterforms, and boustrophedon writing that alternates direction line by line.
- A project from Introduction to Neo-Assyrian Art reimagines elite Assyrian iconography in the modern world, adapting motifs such as the sacred tree, protective genii, and the king’s composed authority to examine how status and spectacle are constructed today.
- In Fakes and Forgeries, one student fabricated a series of letters between museums, collectors, and dealers that “fill in the gap” behind major acquisitions, exposing how documentation, negotiation, and narrative produce the appearance of legitimacy.
Together, these works demonstrate that the ancient world is not distant or static.
Through research, critical reflection, and creative production, students transform historical study into living practice. By merging scholarship with personal narrative and contemporary form, the exhibition invites viewers to see antiquity not only as a subject of analysis but as a dynamic source of meaning that continues to shape and challenge the present.
Visit the exhibit on the first floor of Shields Library!
Funding for this exhibition was generously donated by Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS); the College of Letters and Science Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Success; and the UC Davis Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference.
