Carolyn M. Laferrière is a Postdoctoral Associate with Archaia as well as a Lecturer in the Departments of the History of Art and Classics. She earned her Ph.D. in 2017 from Yale University, in the Department of History of Art. She was a visiting scholar in the Faculty of Classics at Oxford University in 2015, and a Student Associate Member at the American School of Classical Studies in 2016-17. She has also studied at the University of British Columbia for an M.A. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology (2010), and Carleton University for a B.A. in Art History and Classics & Religion (summa cum laude, 2008).
She works on Archaic and Classical Greek art and archaeology, giving particular attention to the relationship between art and ritual. Her current book project, Seeing the Songs of the Gods: Divine Music in Archaic and Classical Greek Art, examines the significance of divine music, exploring how the sounds of divine music are communicated in a visual medium and the subsequent effect that images of divine musical performance had upon the ancient viewer. She is also at work on a number of articles, including the soundscape of the Vari Cave, the relationship between art criticism and music theory in scenes of Apollo Kitharoidos, the intersection of art and myth in ancient musical education, and the depiction of black-figure vases embedded within red-figure painted scenes and their ability to evoke and elaborate upon the sensory experience of the symposium.
In 2018-19, she organized the Archaia Ancient Societies Workshop, a year-long series that investigated “Sensory Experiences in Ancient and Premodern Ritual,” as well as a one-day workshop, “New Approaches for Studying the Past.” She is the co-President of the Archaeological Institute of America New Haven Society, a member of the AIA Societies Committee, and an AIA Lecturer for the 2019-2020 academic year.
She recently curated an exhibition, Sights and Sounds of Ancient Ritual, which was on view at the Yale University Art Gallery from November 9, 2018 to March 3, 2019. The exhibition took a sensory approach to its investigation into ancient ritual practice by focusing upon objects that would have engaged the worshippers’ senses of sight and sound, since both visual and sonic modes of perception were routinely enhanced within religious ritual. The exhibition included objects from cultures representative of the entire ancient world, including Mesoamerica, the Mediterranean, Egypt, the Near East, India, and Asia. Each object depicts the divine, features representation of religious ritual, or was itself used within ritual. By displaying these objects together, the exhibition explored points of contact among ancient religious practices, examining how ancient cultures used visually and sonically evocative works of art to create powerful experiences of the sacred.
In conjunction with Sights and Sounds, she organized a programming event, Sounding Ancient Ritual. Over 100 visitors attended a performance by Barnaby Brown and Stef Conner, who played fragments of ancient music on reconstructed ancient instruments. For more information on this event, see https://artgallery.yale.edu/calendar/events/performance-sounding-ancient-ritual
For more information on the exhibition, see: https://artgallery.yale.edu/exhibitions/exhibition/sights-and-sounds-ancient-ritual
Reviews
Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/sights-and-sounds-of-ancient-ritual-review-art-meant-to-excite-the-soul-1544476497
Republican American: https://www.rep-am.com/local/arts-entertainment/local-arts/2018/12/01/yale-exhibit-examines-ways-ritual-engaged-the-senses/
New Haven Register: https://www.nhregister.com/entertainment/article/Eat-pray-shake-your-sistrum-Yale-Art-Gallery-13396577.php
Yale News: https://news.yale.edu/2018/11/16/wine-song-and-gods-abound-yale-art-gallery-exhibit-ancient-ritual
Yale Daily News: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/11/09/yuag-appeals-to-the-senses-in-new-exhibit/
Yale Daily News: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/11/16/the-curator-behind-yuags-sights-and-sounds/
Links
Academia.edu: https://yale.academia.edu/CarolynLaferriere
Personal page: https://carolynlaferriere1.wixsite.com/carolynmlaferriere
Student Testamonials
Evelyne Koubkova, PhD Student, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Assyriology)
“Dr Laferriere has created a wonderful atmosphere in which all our voices felt heard and listened to. Each class focused on a different culture while staying within the established interdisciplinary frame. Sensory experience as a topic was a great unifier, relatable and engaging for all of us. For some of the classes specialists from the respective disciplines were invited to contribute to our class discussions and helped us stay grounded. Moreover, scholars working on related topics gave a number of inspiring lectures throughout the semester in the Ancient societies workshop which showed us even more concrete examples of application of the sensory approach. I felt encouraged by seeing such original, thought-provoking papers warmly received in a shared community of students and scholars of the ancient world.
As part of the class, we tasted some of the richness of sensory experience ourselves. An exhibit at the YUAG shared its theme with our seminar and was curated by Dr Laferriere herself. Giving presentations on objects in the exhibit oriented us towards materiality and space, while a complementary performance of reconstructed ancient music was an incredible experience on its own.
Going through that seminar revealed to me completely new ways of understanding and a space where I could intellectually meet with others. I finally met a range of students from different fields of ancient studies and saw how they interacted with the same materials. The final paper gave me an opportunity to rethink some of my research topics from this new perspective. I benefited largely from the instructor´s feedback and now feel confident developing my ideas into a dissertation topic. It is hard to overstate the importance this whole seminar has had for me.”
Camille Angelo, PhD Student, Religious Studies
“During the spring 2019 semester, I had the pleasure of taking this year’s Archaia Ancient Societies Core Seminar, Sensory Experiences in Ancient Ritual, taught by the formidable Carolyn Laferrière. The seminar brought graduate students from an array of disciplines and departments, all working on ancient societies, into conversation with each other about questions of phenomenology, ancient experience, and the relationship between the material and the immaterial. This course provided me with the opportunity to be a conversation with colleagues with whom I would not have otherwise connected because of traditional disciplinary and departmental boundaries. As a graduate student focused on embodied experiences of ancient ritual in late antique Egypt, I often feel siloed from other scholars of the ancient world who might share my theoretical interests, but work on dissimilar periods or regions. The seminar exposed me to different approaches and theoretical frameworks, providing me with new paradigms through which to analyze the material that I study. For example, I was inspired me to engage with approaches rooted in sensory archaeology, which conceptualize the senses as multi-temporal. This in turn enabled me to engage with the archaeological record diachronically in new ways and with greater ease. I also found the structure of the class to be productive for my learning. Each week, our class considered a different cultural tradition, and scholars with expertise in a particular area often joined us as guest lecturers. Prof. Laferrière also incorporated material from the Yale University Art Gallery into the seminar. Learning about a diverse array of rituals from various geographic and temporal contexts from several incredible scholars exposed me to a variety of styles of teaching and talking about objects. Over the course of the semester, I became more adept at examining and presenting on material outside my immediate area of expertise. I believe I have grown immensely as a scholar because of this course.”
Publications
“Hermes Among Pan and the Nymphs on Fourth-Century Votive Reliefs.” In Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury. Edited by Jenny Strauss Clay and John Miller, 31-48. Oxford University Press. 2019.
“Sacred Sounds: The Cult of Pan and the Nymphs in the Vari Cave.” Classical Antiquity (Forthcoming 2019).
“Painting with Music: Visualizing ‘harmonia’ in Representations of Apollo Kitharoidos.” Greek and Roman Musical Studies 8.1 (Forthcoming 2020).
“Looking at Divine Song: The Aesthetics of Music in Greek Vase-Painting.” The Beauties of Song: Aesthetic Appreciations of Music in the Greek and Roman World, edited by D. Creese and P. Destrée. Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming 2020.
“Education: Myth, Ritual, and Socialization.” A Cultural History of Music in Antiquity, edited by Sean Gurd and Pauline LeVen. Bloomsbury Publishing. Forthcoming 2021.
Recent Courses
Spring 2019: The Sensory Experience of Ancient Ritual. ARCHAIA graduate seminar. Cross-listed among History of Art, Classics, Religious Studies, History, East Asian Languages and Literatures, Anthropology, Archaeology, Judaic Studies, and Near Eastern Studies.
Spring 2018: Apollo and Dionysos in Art and Cult. Graduate directed reading course. History of Art.
Fall 2017: Ancient Greek Festivals. Graduate seminar, included an on-site trip to Greece. Cross-listed among History of Art, Classics, Religious Studies, Archaeology.