25/05/2026
On May 12 we were delighted and honoured to welcome at our premises the Director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome (DNIR), Dr. Han Lamers, Professor of Classics at the University of Oslo, within the framework of our joint lecture series ENCOUNTERS. Prof. Han Lamers opened the festive evening by presenting DNIR to our audience including Embassy diplomats, colleagues from the community of the Foreign Archaeological Schools at Athens and the Nordic Library and friends of the NIA while Dr. Christina Videbech, postdoctoral scholar at the University of Bergen, delivered a stimulating lecture titled "Inventing the Martyrial Colosseum. Cultural Memory and the Fragility of Early Christian Heritage". ENCOUNTERS, launched in Rome in October 2025, is a series of alternating guest lectures by early-career scholars from Norway, Italy, and Greece on topics connecting cultures, histories, and academic traditions of the Mediterranean and Nordic countries. Twice a year, emerging researchers from all three countries take the floor in Rome and Athens to present their recent work. We would both like to warmly congratulate Christina for her ongoing research on the Colosseum's (hi)story, which aims to critically reassess common beliefs about the famous amphitheatre as quintessentially related to Christian martyrdom and early Christian suffering. All presentations are uploaded on the Institute's YouTube channel while our next ENCOUNTERS lecture will be held in Rome, in November 2026!
