Andrew M. Riggsby

Andrew M. Riggsby

National Endowment for the Humanities/Roger A. Hornsby Post-Doctoral Rome Prize
September 6, 2010–August 1, 2011
Profession
Professor, Department of Classics and Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin
Project title
Think Like a Roman: Essays in Cognitive History
Project description

The essays in this book address issues in Roman cognition by a combination of traditional philological methods and insights from modern cognitive science. The specific areas are: (1) deliberate organizational devices; (2) the organization of time and space; and (3) the role of general cognitive factors in persuasion. The grouping of previously diverse inquiries under the head of cognition allows important new insights. The ensemble illustrates the interaction of cognitive and noncognitive factors in the use and evolution of information (and other) technologies. It also illustrates the contingency of construals of particular situations, events, and persons. This arises from different framings tied to different use contexts, but that diversity can then be harnessed rhetorically to negotiate agents’ desired outcomes. The value of these general claims is illustrated in novel readings of a variety of texts, objects, and features of classical Roman culture.