APA Members in the News
APA Member in the News: Peter Burian
From newsobserver.com:
For 44 years, Burian, a professor of classical studies, has transported his students to the ancient world, a place inhabited by emperors and slaves, gods and heroes. And along the way, he has taught them about their own time and place, and maybe a bit about themselves.
Burian’s last class at Duke was Wednesday. At 68, he’s retiring from the classroom, but will spend a year as dean of humanities at Duke, where he will put his wisdom to work on larger questions about the study of languages, literature, history, philosophy, religion.
APA Member in the News: Alexander Loney
Congratulations to Alexander Loney, one of 39 ACLS New Faculty Fellows for 2012 (http://www.acls.org/research/nff.aspx?id=5556). He received his Ph.D. in Classics at Duke and will hold his NFF position at Yale. As defined by the ACLS, "the New Faculty Fellows program allows recent Ph.D.s in the humanities to take up two-year positions at universities and colleges across the United States where their particular research and teaching expertise augment departmental offerings. This program is an initiative of ACLS to address the dire situation of newly minted Ph.D.s in the humanities and related social sciences who are now confronting an increasingly 'jobless market.' The generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation makes this program possible."
APA Member in the News: Greg Crane Appointed as Humboldt Professor
From Informationsdienst Wissenschaft:
Universität Leipzig erhält hochkarätige Humboldt-Professur
Susann Huster
Die Universität Leipzig hat eine mit fünf Millionen Euro ausgestattete Professur der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung erhalten, um den renommierten Altphilologen und Informatiker Prof. Dr. Gregory Ralph Crane von der Tufts University in Medford/Boston, USA, zu berufen.
Crane gilt als führender Pionier der eHumanities, der Entwicklung von Computerprogrammen für die Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. Er kombiniert in einem innovativen Ansatz Altphilologie und Informatik. So wendet er Methoden der Informatik zur Systematisierung der kulturellen Entwicklung des Menschen an. Seine Reputation als Pionier der Digital Humanities, der digitalen Geisteswissenschaften, verdankt er der Entwicklung der Perseus Digital Library, einer umfangreichen und frei zugänglichen Online-Bibliothek für antike Quellen. Als einer der innovativsten Forscher in seinem Gebiet ist er wie kein Zweiter in den Geisteswissenschaften und der Angewandten Informatik bewandert.
In Leipzig wird er mit einem Informatiklehrstuhl für Digital Humanities dazu beitragen, die Verbindung der Informatik mit den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften als einen zentralen Schwerpunkt voranzubringen. Das Institut für Informatik soll so zu einem international sichtbaren Zentrum der Digital Humanities ausgebaut werden. "Durch ein hochrangig besetztes Gutachtergremium wird damit das besondere Potenzial der im Freistaat einzigen geistes-,
sozial- und kulturwissenschaftlich geprägten klassischen Volluniversität für eine derart innovative Profilentwicklung nicht nur anerkannt, sondern auch nachhaltig unterstützt", sagt Prof. Dr. Matthias Schwarz, Prorektor für Forschung und Nachwuchsförderung an der Universität Leipzig.
In seinem Fach hat Crane grundlegende Beiträge zum Aufbau digitaler Bibliotheken und der Anwendung moderner Text Mining Verfahren in den Geisteswissenschaften geleistet.
Dank seiner langjährigen Erfahrung in der interdisziplinären Lehre wird er eine wechselseitige Befruchtung der Geisteswissenschaften und der Informatik befördern. Der Wissenschaftler ist weltweit als Vordenker in den eHumanities gefragt und bringt internationale Kooperationen mit, so mit Google Books und der Mellon Foundation.
Der international höchst angesehene Preis für Forschung in Deutschland wird von der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in einem strengen Wettbewerbsverfahren vergeben, um deutsche Hochschulen in die Lage zu versetzen, weltweit führende, im Ausland tätige Forscher zu berufen und ihnen international konkurrenzfähige Bedingungen für zukunftsweisende Forschung zu bieten. Das Preisgeld ist für die Finanzierung der ersten fünf Jahre in Deutschland gedacht.
Weitere Informationen zur Person:
Prof. Dr. Gregory Ralph Crane, geboren 1957, ist derzeit Lehrstuhlinhaber am Department of Computer Science der Tufts University, Medford/Boston, USA. Seine Promotion legte er im Bereich klassische Altertumswissenschaften an der Harvard University 1985 vor, danach war er dort Assistant Professor. Seit 1985 war er als Co-Director an den Planungen zum Perseus-Projekt beteiligt, seit 1992 als Assistant Professor tätig, dann als Associate Professor an der Tufts University. Seit 1998 ist er Inhaber des Winnick Family Chair of Technology and Entrepreneurship. Für seine Leistungen wurde er unter anderem mit dem Google Digital Humanities Award 2010 ausgezeichnet.
APA Member in the News: Alexandra Pappas
From the San Francisco State University News:
Alexandra Pappas has been selected by the Department of Classics to be the first endowed Raoul Bertrand Chair in Classics. Currently a fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C., Pappas will join SF State this fall as an assistant professor.
Pappas will teach courses in Greek and Latin language, Greek art and archaeology and courses on Greek and Roman culture.
"Dr. Pappas is a dynamic teacher who is sure to attract new students to study ancient Greece, Rome and the broader Mediterranean," said classics Chair David Leitao. "Her exciting interdisciplinary research will help keep the classics department at the cutting edge of humanities in the 21st century."
Pappas has an extensive background in Greek poetry, art and archaeology as well as word and image studies. Although currently in residence at the Center for Hellenic Studies, she has also been an assistant professor in ancient Greek at the University of Arkansas since 2006 and is completing a book titled "Graphic Art: Alphabetic Images in Ancient Greece." She was previously a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting assistant professor at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in classics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her bachelor's degree in classics from the University of Oregon.
Having grown up on the West Coast and with family in the Bay Area, Pappas praised SF State for its diverse student body, its enthusiastic faculty, its history of promoting social justice and the reputation of its graduates. "I've been looking forward to a homecoming like this for a long time," Pappas said.
The endowed chair is named after the late Raoul Bertrand, who taught classics at SF State from 1958 to 1999. Following his death in 2007, Bertrand's estate donated $1.41 million to the University, 80 percent of which will fund the endowed chair in classics. The remainder will fund scholarships and other department expenses.
APA Member in the News: Skateboarding Professor Becomes Internet Sensation
From the JournalStar.com:
Tom Winter finished a lecture on passive and past-tense Latin verbs on Thursday, pulled his skateboard from the desk and rolled into a cool spring afternoon.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln classics and religious studies professor became an Internet sensation Wednesday when a photo of him skateboarding across campus became the top item on the social news website Reddit.com. The photo inspired dozens of memes -- photos with humorous text superimposed.
"Nine pages of memes and a site I never knew about before yesterday," Winter said. "It's a pretty good photo."
By Thursday afternoon, the photo had gotten more than 756,000 views on Imgur.com, the Internet image hosting site on which it originally appeared, and 1,300 comments on Reddit.com. Users of Imgur.com wrote mock captions for the image, which features a skateboarding Winter, arms out and holding a briefcase.
The top-rated caption: "They see me rollin,' I'm gradin.'" On Reddit.com, users created memes using the photo of Winter with captions such as, "Write a two-page paper on shredding the gnar," and, "Has a PhD in righteousness."
Kudos to APA Member Jeffrey Beneker
Jeffrey Beneker recently received a Distinguished Teaching Award at the University of Wisconsin. Read about it in the University of Wisconsin-Madison News.
In the News: Barbara Gold
Inside Higher Ed's academic minute today features APA member Barbara Gold speaking on the subject of love in ancient Rome. Listen to the audio clip at http://www.insidehighered.com/audio/2012/02/14/love-ancient-rome.
James H. Tatum Wins Book Award
James H. Tatum, Dartmouth College, has won the American Book Award for 2011 for his book African American Writers and Classical Tradition, Chicago, 2010, co-authored with William Cook. The American Book Awards, established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation, recognize outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America's diverse literary community.
Questions for the APA Award Winners, 2010
By Kathleen Coleman, President, 2011
The citations for the APA award winners are eloquent testimony to their excellence. But what do the winners themselves think about the job they do and how to do it? Along the lines of the former “Questions for . . .” column by Deborah Solomons in the New York Times Magazine and its successor, “The interview” by Andrew Goldman, the President set about finding out over the course of the year via Skype.
Click on the links below to read the Q&A for …
- Peter Anderson, winner of the Collegiate Teaching Award. (Read the citation here)
- Nita Krevans, winner of the Collegiate Teaching Award. (Read the citation here)
- Max Gabrielson, winner of the Pre-Collegiate Teaching Award. (Read the citation here)
- Peter Meineck, winner of the Outreach Prize. (Read the citation here)
- John Miller, winner of the Goodwin Award. (Read the citation here)
In the news: Rebecca Resinski of Hendrix College
"How do you take a discipline that's been around as long as higher education itself and make it fresh, interesting, and new? Ask classics professor Dr. Rebecca Resinski. Through Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning and other engaged learning programs, classics students at Hendrix have participated in archaeological excavations and on-site study in Greece, Italy, and Portugal. One student group studied the Parthenon by travelling to Nashville, Tenn., where there is a life-size replica of the Parthenon; to London, where the Parthenon Marbles are kept in the British Museum; and to Athens, where the Parthenon itself stands on the Acropolis. Another group gave readings of Greek tragedies for the campus community and designed costumes for updated versions of Greek drama." Read more of the feature on Prof. Resinski at http://www.hendrix.edu/news/news.aspx?id=57174.
In the news: Christopher Craig receives Outstanding Service Award
"Sixteen faculty in the University of Tennessee’s College of Arts and Sciences were honored for their extraordinary accomplishments at the college’s annual celebration of faculty on November 29, 2011. Awards were presented for excellence in teaching, research, student advising, outreach, and service. … Among the other honors presented, the Outstanding Service Award was given to Christopher Craig, professor and head of the Department of Classics, for his commitment to advancing the mission and goals of the college." Read the story at Tennessee Today.
In the news: Program sparks global collaboration
"John Bodel, chair of the classics department, is one of only a few scholars in the world working to digitize ancient manuscripts. On the other side of the Atlantic ocean, Michele Brunet, professor of Greek epigraphy at University of Lyon 2 in France, is working on a similar project, looking at ancient documents housed in Paris' Louvre Museum. Now, thanks to a new global exchange program launched by the University, professors like Bodel and Brunet will be able to share expertise in all disciplines by traveling to far-flung campuses to learn from their international colleagues." Read more at The Brown Daily Herald.
In the news: Late UT professor commemorated in ceremony Friday
The late professor Douglass S. Parker was a professional jazz ragtime pianist, but he strayed from his musical career to teach at the University in order to support his family, said Stephen White, Department Chair and professor of Classics.
Douglass S. Parker taught at UT for 40 years and was commemorated Friday by a lecture and performance in light of his passing. The lecture and performance called “The Story of the Music in James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912)” was given by James Tatum, a Dartmouth professor. Tatum played excerpts of classical piano pieces in honor of Parker’s talent for performance.
Read more in The Daily Texan
Baylor Undergrad Students Get Rare Chance for In-Person Research on Ancient Manuscripts
"Fragments of ancient, rare manuscripts of Greek classical poetry, Greek philosophy and Judeo-Christian Scriptures are being retrieved from papier-mâché-like mummy wrappings on loan to Baylor University -- all part of an international project that will give undergraduate humanities students rare hands-on research. The project, called the Green Scholars Initiative, eventually will include more than 100 universities, with Baylor University as the primary academic research partner. Professor-mentors will guide students through research and publication of articles about rare and unpublished documents, among them an ancient Egyptian dowry contract on loan to Kent State University and an ancient papyrus of Greek statesman Demosthenes' famed "On the Crown" Speech, said Dr. Jerry Pattengale, initiative director and a Distinguished Senior Fellow with Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion." Read more at baylor.edu …
Scanning Device Could Reveal Secrets of Historical Documents
"New technology developed by Oxford University’s classics department could help reveal the secrets of historical documents. A spin-out firm is commercialising the scanning device, which uses different wavelengths of light to detect faded or erased ink, for analysing manuscripts and archived documents, as well as modern forgeries. ‘The technical leaps we made mean many ancient documents that were previously unreadable can now be scanned and read,’ said Dr Dirk Obbink, head of the research group that developed the scanner."
Teaching Classical Languages
From John Gruber-Miller:
I am pleased to announce that the latest issue of Teaching Classical Languages, the online journal sponsored by CAMWS, is now available at http://www.tcl.camws.org. This issue features two articles and a review article. The first article asks us to consider the broader question of how do we teach, using the metaphor of genre to frame our reflections. And the second article explores how we teach Latin to students whose first language is Spanish and second language is English. Finally, the third article reviews eight new Latin readers published as part of the Bolchazy-Carducci new Latin Readers series.
This issue lets readers take advantage of TCL's electronic publication. Readers now have the opportunity to download each article to an e-reader so that they can read TCL in the comfort of their home or favorite coffee shop. And through the advice and hard work of CAMWS webmaster Alex Ward, readers can make comments on the articles and join in a conversation with other readers (and the author) about ideas raised in each article.
In this issue:
- Yasuko Taoka, "Classroom as Text: What Genres Do We Teach In?"
- Tracy Jamison Wood, "Third Language Acquisition: Spanish-Speaking Students in the Latin Classroom"
- Judith Lynn Sebesta, "Aliquid Novi: The New Series of Bolchazy-Carducci Latin Readers"
To read the articles in this issue, download them to your e-reader, or to comment on an article, click on http://www.tcl.camws.org and then go to Current Issue.
Teaching Classical Languages welcomes articles offering innovative practice and methods, advocating new theoretical approaches, or reporting on empirical research in teaching and learning Latin and Greek.
John Gruber-Miller
Editor, Teaching Classical Languages
Classical and Modern Languages
Cornell College
600 First St. SW
Mount Vernon, IA 52314
jgruber-miller@cornellcollege.edu
http://www.tcl.camws.org
Book Review: ‘A Most Dangerous Book’? Depends who’s reading it.
"No woman, according to New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, was ever ruined by a book. But Christopher B. Krebs, a classics professor at Harvard, makes a strong case that an early ethnological monograph, written in the first century in Latin by the Roman historian Tacitus, may have warped the cultural identity of an entire nation. In my old Penguin translation, 'Germania'—'On Germany'— runs fewer than 40 pages, but, like other comparably short documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and 'The Communist Manifesto,' its influence has been earthshaking. As the Penguin translator, H. Mattingly, frankly writes in his 1947 introduction, the book is 'a detailed account of a great people that had already begun to be a European problem in the first century of our era.'"
Read more of the review of A Most Dangerous Book at The Washington Post online.
In One Classics Department, Translation by the ‘Crowd’
"Two years ago, an archivist at Tufts University was sifting through manuscripts in the library's special collections when he came across a lone, unlabeled folder. To his surprise, it contained a stack of documents that no one then at the library had ever seen, some of them dating back to the 12th century. The Tisch Library Miscellany Collection was born. Now, Marie-Claire A. Beaulieu, an assistant professor of classics, has a novel way of identifying the documents and translating them from Latin to English—she's having her students do it. The 15 undergraduates and graduates she enlisted became historical sleuths, opening the cold case of the centuries-old texts; their work has been published online in the project's digital archive." Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education online.
Miami professor aims to tell Cleopatra’s full story
"When the name Cleopatra is mentioned, images of a powerful, exotic seductress may come to mind. While that may not necessarily be false, a Miami University professor is looking to flesh out the infamous femme fatale in a presentation working in conjunction with the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal’s exhibit of the Egyptian queen. Associate professor of classics Denise McCoskey’s presentation, “Cleopatra, a fatale monstrum? Encountering the Egyptian Queen in Roman Literature and Propaganda,” examines Cleopatra’s entire person, both as an able, multicultural ruler of a powerful state as well as how the Augustan propagandists presented her in the midst of Rome’s civil war — an image McCoskey said endures to this day."
Read more at middletownjournal.com…
‘Spelling Is a Gateway ... to Learning’
"Jacques A. Bailly, an associate professor of classics at the University of Vermont, is the department's director of graduate studies. He has also been the official pronouncer of words at the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2003. He won the annual bee as an eighth grader in 1980." Read the interview with Prof. Bailly at The Chronicle of Higher Education's web site.
Got it in writing: A surprising Bronze Age discovery
"Listening to Cynthia Shelmerdine describe the writing on a Greek tablet from more than 3,000 years ago, it’s like she was looking over the scribe’s shoulder as he worked. She points out details and nuance of technique, the condition of the tablet and what it means, literally, and for the world of Greek archaeology." Read more …
Proposed Changes to Latin Miss the Mark
"The State College Area School District faces controversial choices about program reductions in next year’s budget. To meet this challenge the district administration recommended phasing out the four-year Latin program at State College Area High School beginning next year. But the vox populi — students, parents, and the community — vigorously defended the importance of Latin to high school education." Read more of Stephen Wheeler's letter here: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/05/05/2691912/proposed-changes-to-latin-miss.html#ixzz1O3aMAaLD.
William F. Wyatt Jr., Brown classics scholar, dies at 78
"William F. Wyatt Jr., 78, professor emeritus and former chairman of the department of classics at Brown University, and a prolific contributor to the op-ed page of The Providence Journal, died March 25 in The Miriam Hospital, Providence." Read the full obituary at the Providence Journal Online…
