Winston Berg is a political scientist (University of Chicago) who studies modern American conspiracy theories about politics and the deep state; his dissertation studied the movement known as QAnon. Given our political moment, I thought it would be interesting to discuss with him the different contours and valences that conspiracy theories and deep state notions took in the east Roman polity and in the United States. Check out Winston's recent article 'Origins of the “Deep State” Trope,' Critical Review 35:4 (2023) 281-318.

A conversation with Cliff Ando (University of Chicago) about the revenue models of American research universities and the dangers to advanced research posed by the freezes recently placed on federal funding. While the biggest cuts are to scientific and medical research, the humanities will also be significantly impacted. Cliff has published a number of op-ed articles on what is happening and how universities should respond; see, for example, here.

A conversation with Gavin Kelly (University of Edinburgh) about the corpus of Latin literature from antiquity down to the present, where we discuss the reasons why most scholars focus on the period before 200 AD, why late antiquity is overlooked (despite having some first rate authors), and what can be done about that. Similar issues, we find, emerge from the study of Greek literature too. The conversation is based on Gavin's recent study of 'Periodisations' in R. K. Gibson and C. L. Whitton, eds., The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature (Cambridge 2024) 97-157.