We are delighted to invited you to our first event this term. We will have a talk by Dr Alfonso Moreno, Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, Magdalen College who will speak about “Democracy’s Debt to Aristocracy and Tyranny: a Look at Athens”
The talk will be preceded by Juan Manuel Uribe, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Colombia.
Date: Friday 8th November from 4 to 6 pm
Place: Magdalene College, New Room Ante-Room.
Juan Manuel Uribe, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Colombia to the United Kingdom
Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Colombia in London since 2011. Not a diplomat by career, the focus of my work, for over 25 years, as researcher, university professor, and government counsellor and advisor has been on urban and regional issues. These include regional geography and the definition of homogeneous territories to develop regionally differentiated public policies; the promotion of a collaborative work of local SMEs for economic and social development; the development and strengthening of local and regional institutions; urban regeneration, public space, time and mobility; land use plans and natural disaster prevention policies. This work has been carried out, among others, as a consultant and advisor to the city of Bogotá, the Department for National Planning, and Fundación Buen Gobierno, where I was also the director of the “Revista del Buen Gobierno” for three years. I have a BA in Political Science from both Universidad de los Andes and University of Illinois U-C, an MA in Sociology from the same University of Illinois, and a Specialisation in the Economics of Coffee from Universidad Autónoma, Manizales (Colombia).
Dr Alfonso Moreno, Fellow & Tutor in Ancient History, Magdalen College
“I grew up in [Medellín] Colombia, but my first contact with Latin and Greek was in secondary school in the US, at Phillips Exeter Academy. Spending the summer before university backpacking around Greece and Turkey impressed me indelibly. It pushed me to get a BA in Classics at Harvard, where I was taught by Ernst Badian and so began to gravitate towards ancient history. For some years I took a detour into law, receiving a JD from Georgetown and joining the New York Bar. In 1998, finding that the Internal Revenue Code could not push the Mediterranean out of my head, I came to Oxford (Balliol College), and wrote my DPhil thesis under Oswyn Murray. I have been lucky to work on topics that require wide travel, from Athens to the Black Sea, and interaction with archaeologist colleagues. My present focus on aerial photography as a source for ancient history (see below), has led to an interest in photography generally. I came to Magdalen in 2003, after brief stops at the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá, Balliol and St. John’s Colleges, Oxford, and Royal Holloway College, University of London. My main research interest is in the interplay of politics and the economy in Classical Athens. I am currently working on World War II aerial photography as a source for Athenian topography, settlement, and trade.