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From President Denis Feeney: Gateway Campaign’s End is New Beginning for APA
After three weeks, the 144th Annual Meeting in Seattle is receding into history, and it is a good moment to take stock of what a successful meeting it proved to be. The host department from UW-Seattle, led by Ruby Blondell and Alain Gowing, did a superb job, and we thank them all for helping to make the Meeting such a success. Even the Northwest weather cooperated to make Seattle a great venue for us: on my fourth visit to Seattle I finally got to see Mt. Rainier. There was a tremendous program of panels and performances, even if your officers, including the President, were unable to emerge from their seclusion in committee rooms to enjoy more than a small fraction of the riches on offer.
In the Plenary Session, we honored a remarkable group of teachers and scholars for their achievements (see a full list of the APA Awards for 2012 here: From the point of view of our Association’s history and future, the most significant moment in the Plenary Session was the celebration of the triumphant conclusion of the Gateway Campaign, steered to its harbor by President Jeffrey Henderson. It was a delight to see the Campaign Committee members being honored, and to see Distinguished Service Awards presented to the three visionary and energetic APA members who provided such outstanding leadership from the beginning to the end of the Campaign: Ward W. Briggs, David H. Porter, and Michael C.J. Putnam.
The Campaign has been such a part of our lives for the last few years that it is important to take stock of what a remarkable achievement it has turned out to be. For a comparatively small society such as ours to raise over $3 million is truly extraordinary. Major sums were contributed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ($625,000), NEH ($650,000 in matching funds), and by our sister organization in the UK, the Classical Association ($265,000). But of particular note, I think, is that we received contributions from over 1,200 donors, and that more than 1,000 of these donors were members of the APA. This means that more than a third of our individual members contributed to the Campaign—a signal achievement. Not many colleges or universities can claim such a high response to an appeal, and the response of our members is a significant testimony to the loyalty that members of the APA feel towards their organization and towards the cause of Classics overall.
It is, after all, the cause of Classics that this Campaign has been all about, and it is already changing the APA, and what we all do as Classicists, for the better. Thanks to the Gateway Campaign, the future of the American Office of L’Année philologique is now secure right into that indefinite future for which development campaigns have to plan. Every time you read, or write, a work of scholarship you are indebted to L’Année philologique, and it was absolutely right that the foundation of the Campaign should be the goal of securing the future of this indispensable bedrock of what we do. Worth noting also is that, in addition to its generous support of the Campaign, the Mellon Foundation has independently provided a number of other grants that are making the online version of L’Année even more useful.
It was also part of our goal from the start to develop the next generation of inspired, diverse teachers of Classics and Classical Languages. The new awards for teachers are an important commitment to that objective, encouraging and acknowledging outstanding teachers. Every member of the APA is in the field, ultimately, because of at least one inspirational teacher. The importance of these life-changing individuals was attested by the success of the various Friends Funds to which members contributed so generously in honor of the teachers who inspired them: the Friends of Zeph Stewart Fund is being dedicated to the Awards for Classics Teachers.
We also made a commitment to increasing support for the Minority Scholarship in Classics, and a gift from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation to the Campaign is permitting us to fulfill that promise. Have a look at the list of previous recipients to see what a difference these awards can make to young people at a crucial phase in their development. Read about the impact that digging at Stabiae and attending the Epigraphical Congress in Berlin made on the formation and motivation of Mahmoud Akeen Samori (awardee in 2012); or read about the possibilities opened up to Timothy Castillo (2010) by an award that made it possible for him to take an intensive Greek summer course in preparation for graduate school. Many more young people will be able to have such doors opened for them in the future thanks to APA members’ support.
More broadly, we aim to make the APA website a gateway for anyone classical for anything classical. We are working on this now, aiming to transform our website so as to provide access to research tools and make it possible for individuals to reach the groups or the sites that they need. These individuals will of course include our usual current constituency of graduate students and faculty, but they will also range from the high school student writing a paper on Cleopatra to the former Classics major who wants to check up on what’s happening in the area in which she once wrote a Senior Thesis. Classics was the leader in Digital Humanities from the very beginning, and we will continue in that role. There are plans in place for a Digital Latin Library, for example; read here for a taste of what will be possible for students and scholars once this resource is enabled.
None of this would have been possible without the well-informed and movingly generous support of the members of the APA. Thank you, everyone.
Denis Feeney
CONF: Space, Time, and Language in Plutarch’s Visions of Greek Culture
The International Plutarch Society announces its 10th international congress , to be held on the topic SPACE, TIME AND LANGUAGE IN PLUTARCH’S VISIONS OF GREEK CULTURE: INTROVERSION, IMPERIAL COSMOPOLITANISM AND OTHER FORMS OF INTERACTION WITH THE PAST AND PRESENT. The conference, organized by the University of Patras, will take place at the European Cultural Centre in Delphi, 16-18 May, 2014. For more information contact: Aristoula Georgiadou (University of Patras) ageorgia.gm@gmail.com or Katerina Oikonomopoulou (Humboldt University of Berlin) katerina.oikonomopoulou@gmail.com. See the pdf for more information).
New Journal: Lingue Antiche e Moderne
International on-line refereed journal of ancient and modern languages
Editor-In-Chief, Renato Oniga (Università degli Studi di Udine)
The new journal Lingue antiche e moderne aims to create a virtual meeting place of discussion for classical and modern linguists and philologists to promote the spirit of collaboration and partnership among different languages and cultures.
This journal is a unique and original scientific initiative because it aims to overcome the current tendency towards divisive specialization among disciplines. In particular, the journal welcomes submissions which investigate how classical languages are still essential and have been highly vital and influential throughout our modern world, from Humanism to Classicism, thus becoming the languages of the modern world. A privileged focus will be given to language teaching and learning, since in Europe Latin has always been the language par excellence in schools and universities. More specifically, the journal will focus on how present-day language theories influence the analysis of ancient and classical languages and are influenced by it, thus representing a link between the world of school education and academia and fostering the connection between scientific research and language teaching.
Contributions may be sent to: lam.all@uniud.it.
Guidelines for submissions.
CFP: Greeks and Romans on the Latin American Stage
International Conference
University College London, 24-26 June 2014
Organized by Rosa Andújar (University College London, UK) and
Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos (Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, USA)
Call for Papers
Over the past few decades, scholars have examined the reception of classical drama across various continents, and in a variety of colonial and postcolonial contexts. Most of the research, however, has focused on Europe, Africa, North America, and Australasia. Given its vast geographical size and cultural diversity, Latin America remains relatively unexplored, though it has garnered some attention in Anglophone scholarship in recent years (e.g. Croce 2006; Torrance 2007; Nelli 2009, 2010, 2012; Nikoloutsos 2010, 2012; Fradinger 2011; Barrenechea 2012; Brunn 2012; Poulson 2012).
This international conference seeks to explore the broad afterlife of Greek and Roman tragedy and comedy in Latin American theater in the modern period. Latin American dramatists have repeatedly engaged with their classical forebears in order to interrogate and debate new political, social, and religious paradigms. Especially in the past decades, the region has seen a number of pioneering theatrical adaptations of classical drama that directly address the turbulence of the twentieth century and the dilemmas of postcolonial reality. Latin American ‘Antígonas’, for example, make use of their Athenian prototype as a means to explore issues that are pertinent to the region’s painful history of social and political conflicts.
We invite papers that examine case studies and approach the topic from a variety of theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives. Papers that explore the intersections between gender, race, and politics are especially welcome. We also welcome papers that examine the ways in which ancient drama has been used to articulate issues pertaining to violence in modern societies. Other questions to be addressed by each individual paper include, but are not limited to, the following:
- What is the artistic and socio-historical context for these modern rewritings?
- Are these direct derivatives of the Greek or Roman original, or are they in dialogue with other modern plays and artistic traditions (local and/or global)?
- Are these reworkings dominated by or emancipated from the ancient prototype in terms of narrative structure, character development, and ideology?
- Have these rewritings initiated a chain of modern receptions through which ancient themes and ideas have migrated across national or regional borders?
By bringing together scholars from Europe, North and South America, the conference — the first of its kind to be organized at an international level — seeks to address the broad appeal and continuing relevance of classical drama in a diverse and multicultural region such as Latin America. By focusing on plays that are relatively unknown in the Anglophone world, the conference aims to fill an important gap in the scholarship on the afterlife of classical drama. We also hope to establish lasting links between scholars working in the northern and southern hemispheres.
The conference will be held in English. Papers are expected to be 20-25 minutes in length with 10 minutes for questions immediately following the presentation. Please submit an abstract of approximately 600 words, along with a selected bibliography, to the following email address: greeksromanslastage@gmail.com. The deadline for receipt of abstracts is Monday, 1 July 2013. The abstracts will be reviewed by the conference organizers and an anonymous referee. Submitters will be notified by the end of July.
Questions should be addressed to Rosa Andújar (r.andujar@ucl.ac.uk) or Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos (Konstantinos.Nikoloutsos@sju.edu).
For the list of confirmed speakers and session chairs, please visit the conference website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/events/ConferenceJune2014
Lorna Hardwick (The Open University) will deliver the keynote address.
Loss of Kathryn Bosher
On behalf of Ruth Scodel:
With great sadness we announce the untimely death of Kathryn Bosher, from metastatic lung cancer. Kathryn came to Michigan from the University of Toronto in 1998 and finished her PhD in 2006. She was an assistant professor at Northwestern and was going to start a new position at OSU in August 2013.
Kate’s great love was the theater, and the center of her scholarly work was the Greek theater in Sicily and Magna Graecia. In 2012 she published Theatre Outside Athens: drama in South Italy and Sicily, proceedings of a conference she organized at Northwestern. Nobody who saw the production of Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen that she directed for the 2008 Feminism and Classics conference will forget it.
Nobody who had the good fortune to know her will forget her kindness, joy in life, and modesty. She could even seem diffident, but she had the drive to row in national competitions in single sculls, and her scholarly arguments were energetic as well as thoughtful. We will miss her, and we offer our deepest condolences to her husband Dale and her young son Ernest.
2013 Latin Summer Language Institute at the University of Virginia
In the summer of 2013 the Department of Classics at the University of Virginia will again offer Latin as one of the University's Summer Language Institutes. The Latin program, which will take place from June 10 through August 2, is an intensive course designed to cover two years of college-level Latin (12 UVa credit hours earned) in only two months. Students who wish to acquire experience in reading Latin but do not require course credit may also choose a non-credit option. No previous knowledge of Latin is required for participation. The Latin Institute is an excellent opportunity for motivated students to achieve rapid proficiency in Latin and serves a broad range of students from all over the United States. In addition to undergraduate and graduate students, enrollment is open to advanced high school students and individuals interested in learning a new language. The program is also ideally suited for recent college graduates about to begin a post-baccalaureate program in Classics, as well as graduate students in other disciplines who need to acquire rapid but sound proficiency in a secondary language.
The Institute begins with the fundamentals of Latin grammar, including elementary readings and composition. In the second half of the program, students read extensively from prose and verse authors at the intermediate level, in addition to completing more advanced exercises in prose composition and metrics. There are two three-hour blocks of formal instruction per day and supplementary review sessions in the evenings. Attendance and participation in class is required of all students, regardless of whether they are enrolled for credit or non-credit.
Applications, which are due on April 5, are available online at www.virginia.edu/summer/SLI. For additional information, you may also visit our departmental website (http://www.virginia.edu/classics/sli.html) or contact the Director of the Latin SLI, Harold Reeves (hsr6a@virginia.edu).
Ancient Greek Online at the University of Colorado
The University of Colorado at Boulder is offering an introductory ancient Greek course. The class will be offered *entirely online* and no affiliation with the University of Colorado at Boulder is necessary. For more information, go to http://classics.colorado.edu/news-and-events/08-12/classical-greek-be-offered-online-summer-2013.
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Classics in Israel
The Joint M.A. Program in Classics in Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, Ben Gurion University and Haifa University sponsored by the Yad Handiv Foundation invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Classics for 2013-2014.
Scholars who have received their Ph.D. in Classics or Ancient History within the past five years are invited to apply for a postdoctoral fellowship in Classics for the academic year 2013-2014. All fields and specialties within the wide range of Classics and Ancient History (from Archaic Greece through Late Antiquity) are acceptable. This fellowship is offered within the framework of a new M.A. Program in Classics offered cooperatively by Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, Ben Gurion University and Haifa University. The postdoctoral fellow will be formally based in one of the participating universities but will be part of the general program coordinated among the four campuses. The successful candidate will be expected to:
- pursue his/her research, using the rich array of scholarly resources in the four universities and other relevant institutions in Israel;
- teach one undergraduate class (in Hebrew) on any topic of his/her choosing, in consultation with the relevant departments;
- offer ideas and advice on improving the joint M.A. program.
Experience in developing internet resources for teaching and research is especially welcome. Functional knowledge of Hebrew required in order to teach the undergraduate course.
The postdoctoral fellow will receive a salary of NIS 90,000 over twelve months. Interested candidates should send, by 21 May 2013, a CV, list of publications, research proposal, writing sample (published article or chapter from dissertation), title and brief description of proposed course and the names and contact information of three referees to:
Nava Cohen, Secretary of the Joint M.A. Program in Classics
Classics Department, Tel Aviv University,
Ramat Aviv 69978,
Israel
972-3-6409779
classics@tauex.tau.ac.il
Christopher Krebs Wins Book Prize
APA Member, Christopher B. Krebs, Stanford University, has won Phi Beta Kappa's Christian Gauss Award for his work A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus’s Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich. Phi Beta Kappa has given the Gauss Award since 1950 for books in the field of literary scholarship and criticism.
Summer Intensive Greek & Latin Programs at University of Arizona
The Department of Classics will offer its usual Summer Intensive Language Programs in Greek and Latin this summer:
Summer Session I, June 3-July 3
Intensive Greek 112 (Hansen & Quinn), 1-4:45 daily, 6 units [= Greek 101-102]
Intensive Latin 112 (Moreland & Fleischer), 9-12:50 daily, 6 units [= Latin 101-102]
Summer Session II, July 8-August 7
Intensive Greek 212 (Prose and Poetry), 1-4:45 daily, 6 units [= Greek 201-202]
Intensive Latin 212 (Prose and Poetry), 9-12:50 daily, 6 units [= Latin 201-202]
Students may enroll for one or both sessions in either language. Those who successfully complete Session II will be prepared to enroll in upper level undergraduate or perhaps graduate Latin or Greek courses. No prior knowledge of Greek or Latin is necessary to enroll in Greek 112 or Latin 112, but previous foreign language experience may be helpful. The cost of the summer intensive programs is low, as is the cost of living in Tucson during the summer.
For registration information: http://summer-winter.arizona.edu/default.htm. Registration for the 2013 University of Arizona Summer Sessions begins March 18, 2013.
Contact Information
Professor Cynthia White
(520-626-8296
)
Professor John Bauschatz
(520-621-7422)
