American
Philological Association
Excellence in the
Teaching of the Classics Awards for the year
2001
Pamela Vaughn was educated at St. Olaf College and
received her Ph.D., from the University of California at
Berkeley, in 1988. She has served on the faculties of the
California State University at Fresno and, since 1993, at
San Francisco State University, where she is associate
professor and chair of the Department of Classics and of
the Department of Comparative and World Literature. And
she has done everything that a dedicated and innovative
teacher of the classics can do. She has enriched our
profession through her devotion to students at her
university and to students in the schools -- and, owing
to her extraordinary commitment to academic leadership,
she has become a mentor for faculty in more than one
discipline. As one of her colleagues describes her, "She
is teaching excellence in action." A student evaluation
makes essentially the same point, though with a less
inhibited degree of enthusiasm: "Pam is a Classics
goddess!" Excellence in the classroom is the essence of
superb teaching.
But there are many contributions to teaching, as we
all know, that look very much like administration and
organization, yet these contributions must never go
unnoticed or uncelebrated. Dr. Vaughn instituted and
continues to direct San Francisco State's Student Forum
on the Ancient World, in which undergraduates and
graduates from all disciplines on campus submit papers
for public presentation. She has established an annual
Ancient World Day, a program that introduces Bay Area
Latin teachers and their students to specialized areas in
classics, like archaeology and numismatics. And she is,
of course, an accomplished author for the classroom: each
of us will be familiar with Finis Rei Publicae:
Eyewitnesses to the End of the Roman Republic (Focus
Classical Texts, 1999), the excellent textbook written by
Dr. Vaughn in collaboration with R.C. Knapp.
Let us turn now to Dr. Vaughn's more obvious, and
certainly no less impressive, accomplishments in the
classroom. In 1993, Dr. Vaughn completely redesigned the
Latin and Greek curriculum at San Francisco State, in
which curriculum she actively teaches Latin and Greek
authors, as well as courses in translation and in
classical mythology. Especially innovative are her
Seminar in Roman War Narrative and her course in Critical
Approaches to Caesar. One student described that class in
this way: "I was astounded at how many critical roads to
Rome she entertained. Beside Caesar's narrative, we set
hypertext Latin search-engine programs, sub-textual
theory-laden interpretations, inter-textual comparisons,
and meta-textual modern parallels, to name a few.
Combining her expertise in Caesar with the gumption to
explore new territory made for one of my most memorable
classes ever." Dr. Vaughn is not an easy A . Her syllabus
for Elementary Latin makes the point succinctly: "I do
not grade on the curve; there is no extra credit…it
is all about YOU and the LATIN!" Yet she is not unduly
intimidating or off-putting: as one of her colleagues
puts it, "Her students learn very early on that they can
be serious and hard-working or they can leave. And yet
they never leave." They certain do not leave the
profession. One former student is on the faculty of
Temple University. Several are in doctoral programs at
Stanford, UC Berkeley, Washington, Ohio State and the
University of Chicago. And many are teachers in the
schools, on both coasts. Her students give us the truest
portrait of this superlative teacher, for whom the
commonest accolades celebrate her passion and compassion.
"I am continually impressed by her vast reservoir of
knowledge, her expertise, and her passion and love for
all that she does." "I had never seen such joy in
teaching before." "Every time she conjugates a verb or
corrects a pronunciation, she does it with love -- for
the verb and for the student." It is especially moving to
read about Dr. Vaughn's distinctive combination of
fellow-feeling with good sense: "After she heard I was
hospitalized by a motorcycle accident, she mobilized
students with materials and organized study sessions for
me while I convalesced. She personally came to me bedside
to make sure that her class would not get
dropped…She did not let me lose heart when I did not
have much else. Who would have ever thought Greek
morphology and syntax could be medicinal!" "I came to Dr.
Vaughn after a class one day because my grandfather, who
had been very sick with cancer, had taken a turn for the
worse. As soon as I told her that I had to go home to
Minnesota she knew that I needed more than my upcoming
assignments. She gave me a hug and told me she was sorry.
We then worked out a way that I could finish my Latin
class, while still spending time with my grandfather
before his death. Those last few weeks with my
grandfather were the most precious of my life, and Dr.
Vaughn's understanding and compassion made them much
easier." What can one say after words like that? One of
her former students expresses matters perfectly: "She is
a born teacher. And her students love her. Perhaps that
is the best definition of success." It is a pleasure, and
an honor, to present the 2001 Award for Excellence in the
Teaching of Classics to Pamela Vaughn.
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