APA Outreach


Updated 15 October 2009


Overview


The Division of Outreach seeks to promote a wider public understanding and appreciation of classics. Its goal is to strengthen the APA's ability to communicate with a broadly constituted audience. We are eager to reach out to teachers and students in secondary and elementary schools; academics in a variety of other disciplines; K-12, college, and university administrators; lawyers, physicians, the clergy and members of other learned professions; journalists and the mass media; and public policy makers and public opinion shapers. We also hope that our outreach efforts will attract the interest of individuals from a diverse group of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.


The Division would be grateful for suggestions about to widen this interest as broadly as possible. There is much that our organization -- by drawing on the talents, creativity, and energy of its membership -- can do to heighten awareness of our field and to expand our intellectual community by pooling these resources. The Vice President for Outreach, Judith P. Hallett, is eager to hear from members who would like to work with the Committee on Outreach in its various initiatives, as well as from nonmembers who can let us know what programs and information would be of particular interest.


The rosters of the several committees in the Outreach Division are published in the APA's list of Officers, Directors, and Committees.


Current Programs


The Division currently sponsors a number of programs that link professional classicists with others interested in the ancient Greco-Roman world and its later legacy.


It produces Amphora®, a publication aimed at a broadly constituted audience becoming acquainted with the excitement that Classics has to offer as well as those with longtime interests in the field. The first issue of Amphora® appeared in Spring, 2002; its Editor T. Davina McClain (mcclaind@nsula.edu) welcomes comments on the journal and ideas for future articles. Amphora®'s editorial board is: T. Davina McClain, Louisiana Scholars College, Northwestern State University, Editor; Diane Johnson, Western Washington University, Assistant Editor; Adam Blistein, ex officio as Executive Director of the APA; Jane Cahill, University of Winnipeg; Sally Davis, Arlington County (Virginia) Public Schools; Edmund F. DeHoratius, Wayland High School (Massachusetts); Mary-Kay Gamel, UC-Santa Cruz; John Gruber-Miller, Cornell College; Judith P. Hallett, University of Maryland ex officio as Vice President for Outreach; Anne-Marie Lewis, York University; Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, Brandeis University; Chris Ann Matteo, The Edmund Burke School; Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Wesleyan University.


The Division is developing a list of other print venues where classicists can publish for a general audience. Both APA members knowledgeable about writing in such venues and representatives of interested publications are encouraged to contact Judith Hallett (jeph@umd.edu), the coordinator of this effort.


The Division's Speakers Bureau helps interested groups to find enthusiastic speakers who are prepared to give talks on a variety of classical topics to a general audience. Anyone with any information about current classically-related events (lectures, films, plays) is encouraged to contact Judith Hallett (jeph@umd.edu) or Mary Kay Gamel (mkgamel@ucsc.edu).


Each year, the Division arranges one or two sessions or performances at the annual meeting of the APA, held jointly with the Archaeological Institute of America, that are open to the public. At the next annual meeting (January 6-9, 2010, in Anaheim, California), the Division is hosting a session on "Classics and the 'Great Books'". This session will focus on a longstanding, influential and highly successful classics outreach initiative in undergraduate institutions of higher education: the "Great Books" / "core curricula" programs of teaching selected ancient Greek and Roman texts in translation. The presentations at this panel will examine these programs from the larger historical perspective of American higher education as well as in their specific institutional contexts, considering their academic and intellectual limitations as well as their strengths.


Future Plans


Future plans include expansion of the "Agora" section of this web site, a listing of the growing number of newspaper and magazine articles; radio/television segments and programs; documentaries and feature films; and comments by public figures that deal with the languages, literature, history and culture of classical antiquity.


For Reference


A bibliography of books about classics -- including ancient history, literature, and other major subfields of classical studies -- recommended for public libraries is available here. Prepared by The Forum for Classics, Libraries, and Scholarly Communication, an affiliated group of the APA (web site: http://library.nyu.edu/fclsc/), the bibliography is an attempt to reach out to public librarians, especially to those with responsibilities for materials selection.