Catherine Conybeare

Scattered references in writings throughout his life show that Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) was intensely aware of himself as an African. Yet his intellectual legacy has been subsumed into the purported universalism of a Eurocentric history of ideas. This book reconsiders Augustine's works, particularly the letters and sermons, which are less formal and less well-known than his grand treatises, to produce a detailed account of the Africanness of Augustine. The focus on an African perspective, rather than a Roman or “universal” one, yields a completely new account of Augustine’s thought and significance.

This project is designed to restore and fortify relationships between Bryn Mawr College and two institutions in Philadelphia that have been severely affected by the pandemic and that serve a wide socio-economic demographic: the Community College of Philadelphia and E. M. Stanton School (K-8) in South Philadelphia. We are creating a year of vibrant outreach programming including classes, talks, workshops, and informal mentoring, and will build to a collaborative production of a play inspired by and adapted from Medea, a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. The play has been reconceived to place at its center questions of race and familial conflict and their impact on Medea's children: this is “Greek theater through Black eyes.”