# Facere


## Posts

- [Woodworking in the Roman Imagination - Registration for workshop now open!](https://facere.site/woodworking-in-the-roman-imagination-registration-for-workshop-now-open/): Registration is now open for the workshop “Woodworking in the Roman Imagination” at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) on the 18th and 19th of June, 2026. This workshop examines how woodworking and human-wood interaction were imagined, described, and represented in artistic, literary and epigraphic media. Papers range from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity and consider themes such as human-tree relations, woodworking and the divine, the relationship between technological practice and imagination, or wood as a metaphor. The workshop highlights Roman ways of thinking about materiality and the cultural significance of working with wood in varied contexts. It forms […]
- [Return to Groningen](https://facere.site/return-to-groningen/): With Spring approaches the reunion of the FACERE team: Friederike will return to Groningen at the beginning of May, after a semester of research in Marburg (Germany). The classicists in Marburg have been truly welcoming and supportive, with many opportunities to exchange ideas and fruitful discussions. Many thanks go especially to Prof. Dennis Pausch, who made this research stay possible, and to Dr. Helge Baumann, who reached out with an invitation to join the department’s study trip to Greece. The remaining time in Marburg, Friederike will prepare further research about the impact of materials and materiality on making processes in […]
- [Just Art Lectures - No. 1: Erin O’Connor, "A Geoanthropology of Studio Glass"](https://facere.site/just-art-lectures-no-1-erin-oconnor-a-geoanthropology-of-studio-glass/): 17 February, 15.30, Groninger Museum, Auditory Free entrance upon showing this announcement! The Just Art Lectures are part of the JUST ART PROJECT (www.justart.info). The first lecture takes place in collaboration with the Groninger Museum, ERC Facere, and Minerva Art Academy. Abstract An Geoanthropology of Studio Glass offers an account of studio glass that integrates the human experience of self-determination and creativity with the living (and dying) ecological world. Methodologically, this employs ethnogeology, a qualitative research method combining ethnography (the mapping of social interactions, material culture, and systems of social relations) and geology (the study of the earth) to show how a […]
- [FACERE overseas](https://facere.site/facere-overseas/): In January 2026, after having presented at the SCS in San Francisco, Hylke will travel to Ithaca, NY for a research stay at Cornell University for the spring semester (January – May). His research stay is made possible by the Cultuurfonds, in particular the Reiman-de Bas Fonds. At Cornell he aims to bring his research to the next level, inspired by the knowledge and expertise of scholars and fellow PhD-students overseas. Hylke will be working on perceptions of the invention of metalworking and the labour of blacksmiths as part of his research on Roman literary representations of the impact of […]
- [FACERE at the SCS Vol. 2](https://facere.site/facere-at-the-scs-vol-2/): This year it is Hylke’s turn to deliver a paper at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Classical Studies, to be held in San Francisco on 7-10 January 2026. On January 8, Hylke will give a paper on labour in the Roman world titled Acting on a hunch: Subversive labour values in Roman funerary reliefs.
- [FACERE at the Antiquity day: making moretum](https://facere.site/facere-at-the-antiquity-day-making-moretum/): On October 31st 2025, the study of Classics at the University of Groningen has organised a special day for Dutch high school students who have Greek or Latin in their curriculum. The theme was “De Oudheid: Natuurlijk!” (“Antiquity: Naturally!”). Around a hundred high school students, most of them from schools in the northern provinces of the Netherlands, took part in this day, which was filled with fun activities and engaging lectures. They could sign up for several workshops, such as Greek theatre or a tour through the special collections of the University Library, and they could attend small talks by […]
- [Meet us at the FIEC](https://facere.site/meet-us-at-the-fiec/): Members of the FACERE project have organised two panels at the FIEC conference (the 17th Congress of the Fédération internationale des associations d’études classiques) in Wrocław, Poland, which will take place in July. One panel will focus on “Making and Invention Narratives”, the other will analyse “Sacred Making”. The full programme will be posted here as soon as it is available.
- [FACERE at the SCS](https://facere.site/facere-at-the-scs/): Bettina and Friederike will both deliver papers at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Society for Classical Studies, to be held in Philadelphia on 2-5 January 2025. Bettina is contributing a paper on Vitruvius to a panel on Hidden Labour and Precarity in the Roman World, while Friederike will speak on performances of food preparation in Athenaeus at a panel entitled The Feel of Luxury: The Sense-scape of Roman Convivia.
- [FACERE on the ground](https://facere.site/facere-on-the-ground/): For his research on iron and blacksmiths in Roman cultural discourse, Hylke de Boer did a course in blacksmithing at Kunstsmederij Bos in Veendam. There, he learned the tricks of the trade and got a sense of what it is like to work at a blacksmith’s shop. The blacksmith’s trade is a conservative trade. Tongs, hammer and anvil were as essential to a Roman blacksmith as they are to a modern practitioner. The fire, which the instructor Fred Bos stoked on coals rather than gas because it felt ‘real’, is still the heart of a blacksmith’s shop. Bos taught his […]
- [FACERE at the Villa Virgiliana](https://facere.site/facere-at-the-villa-virgiliana/): The FACERE team travelled to Naples in October to attend the inspiring Symposium Vesuvianum 2024, which focused on the topic of labor invisus. Bettina contributed a paper on Non-human agency and hidden labour in Vitruvius’ De Architectura .
- [Article about FACERE](https://facere.site/article-about-facere/): The Groningen Faculty of Arts recently covered the launch of FACERE in an accessible news article by Lieke van den Krommenacker. Read more on the faculty website.
- [FACERE in Berlin](https://facere.site/facere-in-berlin/): The FACERE team participated in the Thinking Techne conference at the Technical University Berlin from 1 to 4 November 2023. Bettina contributed to a panel on definitions, systems and orders of techne, while Hylke and Friederike presented posters on the cultural value of iron in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History and on cooking as art-making in the poster round for early career researchers.

## Pages

- [Woodworking in the Roman Imagination - Registration for workshop open](https://facere.site/events/woodworking-in-the-roman-imagination-registration-for-workshop-now-open/): Registration is now open for the workshop “Woodworking in the Roman Imagination” at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) on the 18th and 19th of June, 2026. This workshop examines how woodworking and human-wood interaction were imagined, described, and represented in artistic, literary and epigraphic media. Papers range from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity and consider themes such as human-tree relations, woodworking and the divine, the relationship between technological practice and imagination, or wood as a metaphor. The workshop highlights Roman ways of thinking about materiality and the cultural significance of working with wood in varied contexts. It forms […]
- [Just Art Lectures - No. 1: Erin O’Connor, "A Geoanthropology of Studio Glass"](https://facere.site/events/previous-talks-events-etc/just-art-lectures-no-1-erin-oconnor-a-geoanthropology-of-studio-glass/): 17 February, 15.30, Groninger Museum, Auditory Free entrance upon showing this announcement! The Just Art Lectures are part of the JUST ART PROJECT (www.justart.info). The first lecture takes place in collaboration with the Groninger Museum, ERC Facere, and Minerva Art Academy. Abstract An Geoanthropology of Studio Glass offers an account of studio glass that integrates the human experience of self-determination and creativity with the living (and dying) ecological world. Methodologically, this employs ethnogeology, a qualitative research method combining ethnography (the mapping of social interactions, material culture, and systems of social relations) and geology (the study of the earth) to show how a […]
- [Previous talks, events etc.](https://facere.site/events/previous-talks-events-etc/): 17 February 2026: Just Art Lectures – No. 1: Erin O’Connor, ‘A Geoanthropology of Studio Glass’, co-organised by FACERE at the Groninger Museum (Groningen) 15 January 2026: Deadline for Call for Papers for “Woodworking in the Roman Imagination”. 8-11 January 2026: Jessica Plant, ‘Lime kilns and the knowledge of (de)construction in Late Antiquity’, In ‘Technological Change and Professional Knowledge in Late Antiquity’ at AIA Annual Meeting, (San Francisco, USA). 8 January 2026: Hylke de Boer, ‘Acting on a Hunch: Subversive Labour Values on Roman Funerary Reliefs’ at SCS Annual Meeting (San Francisco) 22-24 October 2025: Hylke de Boer, ‘Acting on […]
- [Other Events](https://facere.site/events/other-events/): No other upcoming events.
- [Upcoming Talks](https://facere.site/events/upcoming-talks/)
- [Publications](https://facere.site/publications/): On this page, we list all published research produced as part of the FACERE project. All FACERE publications will appear in immediate and full open access. de Boer, H. (2025). Acting on a hunch: Alternative labour values on Roman funerary reliefs. Poster presented at the Biennial International Conference for the Craft Sciences, Mariestad. See here. Reitz-Joosse, B. (2024), ‘Meaning in the Making: Representing Glass Production in Imperial Rome’, in Valuing Labor in Antiquity, edited by Flohr, M. & Bowes, K. Leiden: Brill, p. 131-149. Read here. de Boer, H. (2024), review of Plants, Politics and Empire in Ancient Rome by […]
- [Jobs](https://facere.site/jobs/): With questions or for an informal chat, get in touch at B.L.Reitz-Joosse@rug.nl
- [Events](https://facere.site/events/)
- [News](https://facere.site/news/): The FACERE team participated in the Thinking Techne conference at the Technical University Berlin from 1 to 4 November 2023. Bettina contributed to a panel on definitions, systems and orders of techne, while Hylke and Friederike presented posters on the cultural value of iron in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History and on cooking as art-making in the poster round for early career researchers.
- [The project](https://facere.site/the-project/): The project FACERE (the Latin for ‘to make’) analyses the discourse of making found in ancient Roman literary texts (poetry and prose written in Greek and Latin, the two main languages of the Roman empire) and in Roman visual culture (paintings, reliefs, mosaics or other visual representations of processes of making). By ‘making’, we refer to processes in which someone creates a lasting physical product by the work of their hands. This includes processes that might now be categorised as artistic (e.g. painting or sculpting), as craft (e.g. carpentry, glassblowing, spinning, forging), and as construction (e.g. the building of wooden […]
- [Team](https://facere.site/team/): Our team consists of the principal investigator, two doctoral researchers, one postdoctoral researcher, and two research assistants. Principal investigator: Prof. Bettina Reitz-Joosse Bettina Reitz-Joosse is the Aletta Jacobs Professor of Latin literature and culture at the University of Groningen. She is the author of Building in Words, a 2021 monograph on architectural process in Roman literature. Her research within the FACERE project particularly focuses on the concept of ‘madeness’, on intermedial making, and on the constructions of makers in ancient texts. More information about her publications and projects can be found here. PhD candidate: Friederike Brunzema Friederike Brunzema studied German […]
- [](https://facere.site/): FACERE is a research project at the University of Groningen, directed by Bettina Reitz-Joosse. We investigate ideas about making and makers in the ancient Roman world. FACERE is funded through an ERC Starting Grant. How did the ancient Romans experience the material world around them – objects, buildings, or even artworks? This project, FACERE, proposes a new way of approaching this question. It focuses on ‘making’ – the processes by which the objects and buildings which surrounded Romans in their daily lives were produced. How things were made in ancient Rome is widely studied in terms of its technologies, economies, […]


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