Awards for Excellence in the Teaching of the Classics
In the current state of res militaris, a good officer needs to be more Odysseus than Achilles: able to exercise sound judgment independently; able to apply old knowledge to new situations; ready to apply all available resources for the task at hand. Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy have one who can teach them these things, by precept and example, in the Academy's only classicist and ancient historian, Professor Phyllis Culham.
From her post as Professor of History, Professor Culham has taught surveys in Western civilization and courses in ancient history since 1979, but the intellectual range of her courses goes beyond even these boundaries. Her students visit art exhibits, with study questions challenging them to see what they can deduce from the art about kingship in medieval France, or the openness of Persian culture under the Safavid dynasty. They do role-playing exercises, in which they might need to define their interests and policies as "a surreptitious inter-city group of Dutch bourgeoisie who would like to secure political independence" in 1560. To understand Greek poetry as political evidence, students in one class were assigned to write a song about the Navy football team; instruments and backup singers permitted. Quotations from Condoleeza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz appear on her finals in ancient history. One question invited students to explain to President Bush how studying Alexander the Great could be helpful for fighting a war in Afghanistan.
These exercises are not simply diversions. Like a good commander, Professor Culham has a clear view of her objectives-in this case, bringing classical antiquity to bear on the work of an unusual college with a high percentage of engineering majors. Her courses follow the Academy's mission and the standards set out in Better Naval Writing. They challenge students to use all their abilities in learning and interpretation, and to use them on a high level. Students and colleagues testify to the rigor of her courses, which often include readings fit for graduate seminars. Papers from these courses have won awards for undergraduate research and been read at meetings of classicists; some have been published as articles. As befits one who teaches scholarship, Professor Culham has remained an active scholar herself.
Missions change, and so do Professor Culham's courses and her ways of teaching. She redesigns her classes from year to year, even the survey course in Western Civilization which may highlight murder trials, from the Attic orators to the Middle Ages one year and focus on cultural relations between East and West in another. She has also been active in the Academy's Teaching and Learning Seminar, keeping abreast of new developments in assessment and pedagogy and adopting them herself, even after over a quarter-century at the Academy.
These efforts have paid off. Students describe her courses as inspirational, and too much fun to miss. Using lecture and discussion, Professor Culham seeks to provoke thought. As a former student describes it, she "pitched her assignments just high enough to stretch us intellectually, but not so high that we grew discouraged. . . . She let us cut our critical teeth in open discussion, unobtrusively posing questions that must have seemed obvious to her, but which perplexed us and forced us to see dimensions of the problem we would never have thought of on our own."
Professor Culham's students recognize the value of these experiences for their own work in life, and their testimony shows that "life-long learning" is not just an empty cliche reserved for mission statements. She has not simply taught courses, she has touched and influenced lives. One former student says that he could deal effectively with people from "dozens of cultures" over his career abroad because he could navigate cultural differences and see "the social and historical dynamics that she so effectively painted in the classrooms of Annapolis" in action. This is strategic learning indeed, and we should recognize in it the polytropia demanded of one who "saw the towns and learned the minds of many men." Thanks to Phyllis Culham, classical learning at the Naval Academy keeps alive the ways of Homer's famous sailor.
The University of California at Santa Barbara is blessed with a teacher who packs students into large lecture courses and reaches over 1300 students every year. It is blessed with a teacher who cares greatly about his students as individuals, keeping his office door open for those who need extra help on papers, a sympathetic ear, or simply a chance to talk about Greeks and Romans. It is blessed with a teacher who takes on extra work as mentor, adviser, committee member, and project-supervisor, serving as a fully active university citizen and "ambassador of Classics." It is particularly blessed that these qualities describe the same person, Dr. Ralph F. Gallucci.
Professor Gallucci came to Santa Barbara in 1997, holding a PhD, but was appointed to a position as lecturer in which he still serves. A full list of his activities since then would demand the power of all nine Muses, or the push of a late-night television commercial with its formulaic refrain, "But that's not all!"
His position carries a teaching load of nine courses a year, from Greek and Latin to Classical Civilization. He is his department's workhorse for large lecture courses, often drawing 300 students, sometimes 500, in general education classes. Under these challenging conditions, he teaches with passion, inspiring his classes with his enthusiasm and love of his subject. Attendance stays high, even at 8 a.m.
But that's not all. Professor Gallucci's success owes a lot to his easy rapport with his students, even in a class of hundreds. A colleague describes him roaming the aisles of his lecture hall "Phil Donahue-style, asking questions, provoking discussion, and encouraging students' personal reactions to the material." A student describes him as "patient, thorough, and always aware of just how much his students are understanding," and willing to change his pace if needed. This is not teaching by rote; on the contrary, he has developed new courses to meet changing needs and interests in the department. His focus is always on getting students to think for themselves. To that end, he assigns papers, even in large classes, and gives prompt feedback. Helping his students think and understand is clearly his top priority; sparing himself work is not. His efforts are noticed and appreciated: he has won three university-wide teaching awards in the last five years.
One of the qualities that defines Professor Gallucci's teaching is his personal touch and humanitas. Students find him approachable, and they approach him often. He keeps long office hours- often two a day, five days a week, with extra time as paper deadlines approach. Even so, lines form outside his office door. They find him an exacting teacher, but sympathetic and understanding about personal emergencies and family problems. They often ask him for recommendations, certain that he knows them and their abilities better than most of their other professors.
But that's not all. Professor Gallucci also has a long service record, much of it in activities that strengthen teaching and learning on campus. He has served as faculty adviser to student organizations, supervised undergraduate research projects, led discussion sections in his own lecture courses, directed a program to help incoming freshmen, and taken part in panel discussions on teaching. That is not all, either, but it shows how thoroughly committed he is to helping his students in any way possible. From the many letters written on his behalf, one wonders when he finds time to sleep or eat.
One student, who changed his major from Business and Economics to Classics and English after taking one of his classes, reports that Professor Gallucci received a "standing ovation . . . at the final class of every course I have taken with him.". In the eyes of a colleague, "He is one of three or four great teachers I have come to know in my nearly forty years of teaching"; to a former student, his epithets are "awesome lecturer, nice guy, tough grader, terrific teacher." The American Philological Association adds its applause and honors him today with this award for teaching excellence.
As she enters into her second decade of teaching at the university level, T. Davina McClain continues to display the verve and engagement of a stellar teacher. She is in the words of a colleague at Loyola University in New Orleans, Òa wizard teacher,Ó one Òwell on her way of becoming a campus legend.Ó In truth, she seems to enchant her students for they are as attached to her as they are to their study of the classics. Under her spell they delight in showing their affection for her in both words and deeds. In 2003 two of them decided to nominate her for a campus award. In two days they had a petition of 140 signatures and five letters of recommendation. They apply similar energies to their studies as well. Over the past five years Professor McClainÕs students have won Mellon and Goldwater Fellowships. One student, who took a double major in classics and psychology, won a ChancellorÕs Fellowship in 2003 to study psychology at Indiana University. News sent via email of the most recent Mellon award won by a classics major last spring was greeted with cries of joy at a conference terminal at a CAMWS meeting.
Her students speak of her in superlatives and sometimes with hyberbole. One wrote after taking a third class with her that ÒI would take a million more.Ó Another came away with a keen appreciation for the difference between mere instruction and inspired teaching by attending Professor McClainÕs classes. There the student was taught to Òlearn, not just remember,Ó which is Òan experience that you will carry with you throughout your life.Ó A third said that Professor McClain became Òa role model and a valued friendÓ who encouraged her to challenge herself Òand to always search for understanding by digging deeper.Ó
Professor McClain has also played a very large part in bringing the very tiny department of Classical Studies at Loyola University back to life. She brought digital technology early on into her classroom, put her hand to rewriting the curriculum, and cultivated all of her students with care, going so far as to take some of them in during a hurricane. She has also forged new alliances across the campus of Loyola University through service on a variety of committees, and is known as one of the most effective recruiters on campus. In the late 1990s she developed two mock classes entitled ÒItÕs Greek to YouÓ and ÒName that RomanÓ that were presented at the PresidentÕs Open House for incoming freshmen scholarship winners.
In addition to her dynamic work at her University, Professor McClain has supported the efforts of classicists on the city, state and regional levels. She has advised her schoolÕs chapter of Eta Sigma Phi for five years and currently serves on its scholarship committee. She has also given talks at local junior high and high schools. In 1999 with a coveted grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, she conducted a summer teaching institute at Loyola University entitled ÒContexts of Greek Myth.Ó She has also lent her support to the Louisiana Classical Association, hosting its meeting in 2000 and serving as a judge for a number of years. Two years ago Professor McClain and her husband Wilfred E. Major, helped to make our meeting in New Orleans the success that it was by chairing the local planning committee.
Of late she has been working hard on behalf of the APAÕs Committee for Minority Student Scholarships to welcome minority students with genuine warmth and sincerity into our discipline, work that is vitally important to our future success as demographic studies of the United State continue to show a steady shift in population from white to brown. Clearly, this young wizard teacher is as powerful as any encountered by Harry Potter at Hogwarts School. With this award for excellence in the teaching of classics, the APA is delighted to acknowledge the magic of Professor T. Davina McClain.
Michelle V. Ronnick, Chair