Dr. Carolyn M. Laferrière

The USC Center for the Premodern world is delighted to announce our 2020-22 postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Carolyn M. Laferrière, who will join us this fall. A specialist in the history of art in ancient Greece, Dr. Laferrière comes to us from Yale University, where she is a Postdoctoral Associate with Archaia, Yale University’s program for the interdisciplinary study of the ancient world, as well as a Lecturer in the Departments of the History of Art and of Classics. Previously, she received her Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale in 2017.

Dr. Laferrière’s book project, “Seeing the Songs of the Gods: Divine Music in Archaic and Classical Greek Art”, examines the significance of divine music in ancient Greek art, exploring how musical sounds are communicated in a visual medium and the effect that images of the gods’ performance had upon ancient viewers. She focuses in particular on Archaic and Classical Athenian vase-paintings and relief sculptures that depict the gods most frequently shown as musicians, namely Apollo, the Muses, Dionysos, and Pan. According to history professor Jay Rubenstein, director of the Center for the Premodern World, “The selection committee was absolutely blown away by the originality and dynamism of Dr. Laferrière’s work. Her article on the Vari Cave was especially remarkable for the way it brought the experience of Greek religion to life—not just the sights, but the sounds, the sensations, and the movements.” The committee noted as well the highly interdisciplinary character of Dr. Laferrière’s research and its potential to spark discussions across all of its programs, including the Premodern Mediterranean, Sacred Ground, and the Prehistory of the Book.

While at USC Dr. Laferrière plans to complete an academic monograph based on her dissertation. Already, her publications have appeared in Classical Antiquity and Greek and Roman Musical Studies, as well as in various edited volumes. She will also complete several articles that discuss representations of female dancers on Greek vases, the intersection of gesture and space on relief sculpture, and the depiction of black-figure vases embedded within red-figure painted scenes. Her second book project will explore the role sensation and memory play in conceptualizing the relationship between the living and the dead. In 2018-19 she curated an exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery entitled Sights and Sounds of Ancient Ritual, which investigated and sought to recreate the sensory experience of ancient ritual practice in the Mediterranean, China, the Americas, and the Indo-Pacific region.

Housed in the Classics Department, Dr. Laferrière will be offering classes related to her research to both undergraduate and graduate students. “I am excited to be joining the community of students and scholars here at USC and the Center for the Premodern World,” Dr. Laferrière comments, adding, “I’m always ready to talk about art, music, and sensation, and I’m very much looking forward to exploring the collections of ancient art in the Los Angeles area.”