Laus ac vituperatio - praise and blame through the ages

From antiquity to the present day, praise and criticism have been central and ubiquitous phenomena in literature, rhetoric, and culture—not least when universities celebrate their anniversaries. Although they are often portrayed as opposites, both praise and criticism are forms of evaluative discourse aimed at invoking social norms. Both are also strategic endeavors shaped by performance, context, situation, and intention.

This conference takes the opportunity of our 500th anniversary to analyze the formal, functional, and sociocultural dynamics of praise and criticism in Greek and Latin texts spanning all eras of history up to the present.