Donni Wang

Donni's work in ancient Greek history aims to uncover the voices that challenged one of the major turns in Western civilization: the closing of a free, vibrant community to all outsiders at the moment of birth. Her research has been directly influenced by the rise of “history from below,” which emphasizes the multiplicity and contested nature of the past. As it is widely known, the Greek polis by in large was made of citizens born within the small community. This fact, however, should not obscure the forces that constantly fractured this hegemonic ideology, such as practices of asylum, guest-host friendship, kinship, religious affiliation, and most importantly, a Western humanism that provided the moral and intellectual foundation for the polis in the first place. These narratives of resistance, though often not stated explicitly, call into question a political order based on a fixed identity derived from parentage. To highlight this struggle, different approaches are combined to give voice to those who were, and still are, on the "outside."