Nunc Bibendum Est, Latin teachers toast to Rudy Masciantonio’s legacy at ‘Nova’s The Refectory

Villanova’s The Refectory was the November 20th site for the annual Fall Professional Day and Luncheon dedicated to Dr. Rudolph Masciantonio, benefactor of The Philadelphia Classical Society.

Guests from 25 area schools gave a toast “in honorem et in memoriam” Dr. Masciantonio, Philadelphia Classicist and Philanthropist, whose Trust has bequeathed annual distributions to PCS and other non-profits, through The Philadelphia Foundation.

The Refectory located at the intersection of Lancaster and Ithan  avenues is relatively new to the Main Line restaurant scene.

Click here to read the full article by Mary Brown, CAAS Executive Director

Brown: IO Saturnalia! Latin students herald the ancient Roman festival of peace and harmony

During the dark days of December, in many schools throughout the Main Line, students will be heard exclaiming the celebratory “IO SATURNALIA!,” a clarion call throughout the centuries of the Roman festival of the Saturnalia.

The commemoration originated in ancient Rome in honor of an early king-god named Saturnus who was renowned for the goodwill and prosperity of his reign.

According to tradition, the ancient Romans honored Saturnus as the god of seed and sowing, after the autumn planting was completed.

Click here to read the full article by Mary Brown, CAAS Executive Director

ASCSA Advanced Fellowships

Deadline: February 15, 2022

Several fellowships for the full academic year at the School are available to students who plan to stay on or return to the School to pursue independent research, usually for their Ph.D. dissertation. Please note that some fellowships are designated for specific areas of research. Regular Members and Student Associate Members who wish to stay another year in Athens are encouraged to apply for the following fellowships:

The Samuel H. Kress Fellowship in art and architecture of antiquity (stipend $15,000)

The Gorham Phillips Stevens Fellowship in the history of architecture (stipend $11,500)

The Ione Mylonas Shear Fellowship in Mycenaean archaeology or Athenian architecture and/or archaeology (stipend $11,500)

The Homer A. and Dorothy B. Thompson Fellowship in the study of pottery (stipend $11,500)

The Edward Capps Fellowship, the Doreen Canaday Spitzer Fellowship, and the Eugene Vanderpool Fellowship (unrestricted in area of research) (stipend for each is $11,500)

Eligibility: Advanced graduate students in classical studies, ancient Mediterranean studies, post-classical Greek studies, or related fields who have a specific project that requires extended residence in Greece. All applicants must have completed the Regular Program or one full academic year (Sept. – May) as a Student Associate Member. (Regular or Student Associate Members resident in Athens from Sept. 2019 through March 2020 are also eligible to apply).

Terms: Stipend of $11,500 plus room and board (in Loring Hall) and waiver of fees. The Kress Fellowship specifically provides a stipend of $15,000 plus room and board (in Loring Hall) and waiver of fees. A final report is due at the end of the award period, and the ASCSA expects that copies of all publications that result from research conducted as a Fellow of the ASCSA be contributed to the relevant library of the School. Fellows are required to give a public presentation of their research.

Application: Submit an online application. The application will include the following:

An up-to-date curriculum vitae;

A project statement of no more than three single-spaced pages in length. A bibliography of not more than one page may be submitted along with the project statement;

A list of other fellowships, if any, applied for with dates of notification of these awards;

A letter of reference from your dissertation advisor on the feasibility of your work. Applicants who are not at the School during the current academic year should also obtain a second letter of reference, in addition to the advisor’s letter, from a scholar who can evaluate your academic progress since leaving the School.

Questions? Contact: application@ascsa.org

The awards will be announced by April 1.

Call for Proposals: CAAS 2022 Fall Annual Meeting

Call for Proposals: CAAS 2022 Annual Meeting

The Classical Association of the Atlantic States
Dates: October 6-8, 2022
Venue: HOTEL DU PONT, Wilmington, DE

Deadline for all proposals (individual papers, panels, workshops): (extended) Monday, March 28, 2022.

Click here to read/download CFP in PDF format

Submit here: The CFP is now closed and no longer accepting submissions.

We invite individual paper, panel, and workshop proposals on all aspects of the classical world and its reception, as well as on new strategies and resources for improved teaching.  Especially welcome are presentations that aim at maximum audience participation and integrate the interests of K-12 and college faculty, that consider ways of communicating about ancient Greece and Rome beyond our discipline and profession, and that reflect on the past, present, and future of Classical Studies in the CAAS region.

The meeting will take place at the historic HOTEL DU PONT in Wilmington, Delaware.  When it opened on January 15, 1913, this magnificent 12-story Renaissance-style hotel was one of the most lavish hotels of America’s Gilded Age.  In its first week, 25,000 visitors toured the elegant rooms to see their rich woodwork, terrazzo floors, handcrafted chandeliers, and gilded hallways, which had been created by French and Italian craftsmen.  Breathtaking scenery and a wealth of history and cultural attractions are a short walk from this venue.

The 2022 Jerry Clack Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Emma Dench, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History and of the Classics, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University.  Her lecture is entitled: “Life and Leadership Lessons from Ancient Rome: Reflections on an Experiment in Applied Classics.”

How could ancient Rome possibly help us with our modern-day lives and challenges, with its mad emperors, tight hierarchies and snail-pace communications?  Is it a valid exercise to look to antiquity for lessons, and, if so, what kinds of lessons are worth pursuing?  Emma Dench reflects on a year-long experiment co-teaching an MBA elective course at Harvard Business School with Frances Frei (UPS Professor of Technology and Operations Management), and on the impact that that experience has had on her own life and career.

SUBMISSION DETAILS

Eligibility to submit a proposal:  All submitters must be members of CAAS when they submit their proposal.  The CAAS membership year is January 1-December 31.  Organizers of panels and workshops must verify participants’ membership status before submitting the proposal.  If the submission is accepted for presentation by the Program Committee, prior to the October 2022 meeting all the speakers must register and pay the registration fee.

Single appearance policy:  Each submitter must not submit more than one abstract (whether single- or co-authored).  Authors of individual paper proposals cannot simultaneously submit an abstract as part of a panel or workshop proposal.  Panel and workshop organizers should ensure that participants in their proposed sessions do not appear anywhere else on the program.  Serving as the presider of a paper session appointed by the Program Coordinator is not treated as an appearance on the CAAS Program.

Additional requirements:  All authors of accepted individual papers are required to send a full draft of their presentation and handout or PowerPoint to their presiders by Friday, September 30, 2022.  Submitters of accepted proposals who are unable to attend should inform their presiders as soon as they can and arrange to have their presentations delivered by another CAAS member attending the meeting. 

All authors of proposals that will be accepted by the Program Committee for presentation at the 2022 Annual Meeting are expected to attend the meeting and deliver their presentation in person.  In an emergency, presenters who are unable to attend should inform their presiders as soon as they can and arrange to have their presentations delivered by another CAAS member attending the meeting. 

Due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants, all meeting participants are, at this time, expected to be flexible in preparing for and adjusting to on-ground, fully virtual, or hybrid meeting in October 2022.  

Individual Paper Proposals must be no more than 15 minutes in length.  Submissions must be uploaded as a single PDF (.pdf) file of no more than 300 words and must:

  • Include a clearly indicated thesis and original contribution(s) made by the presentation, situating it in a larger scholarly context.  The Program Committee expects to see this in the introductory paragraph.
  • Be accompanied by a bibliography of up to five items (not included in the word limit).  The expectation of the Program Committee is that submitters incorporate these references into the abstract (using parenthetical citations) in order to build the argument, rather just listing them at the end of the abstract.  
  • Be anonymous. The author’s name should not appear anywhere in the submission except when citing a publication by the author, which should be done in the third person.  Abstracts that include the names and/or institutional affiliations of their authors will be rejected automatically.   
  • Indicate specific audio-visual needs for the presentation. CAAS is able to supply only a screen and a digital light projector (presenters will need to bring their special adapter plug to connect to the projector).  DVDs can be played only from your laptop.  Be advised that sound played from a laptop without special speakers may not be audible in the room.

If you are an undergraduate student, please indicate this by selecting “undergraduate paper” as the submission type, so that undergraduate submissions can be read separately, and in relation to one another.

For further guidelines, please see: https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/suggestions-authors-abstracts-program-committee and https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/guidelines-authors-abstracts 

Panel and Workshop Proposals may be 1 ½ or 2 hours in length, depending on the number of speakers.  Submissions must be uploaded as a single PDF (.pdf) file of no more than 700 words and must include:

  • The title of the session and titles of each individual presentation.
  • A description that clearly indicates the thesis and original contribution made by the panel or workshop, situating the proposal in a larger scholarly context.
  • Brief abstracts of the individual presentations.
  • A bibliography of up to five items (not included in the word limit) following each of the abstracts included in the proposal.  The expectation of the Program Committee is that participants in the panel or workshop proposal incorporate these references into their abstract (using parenthetical citations) in order to build the argument, rather just listing them at the end of their abstract.
  • Specific audio-visual needs for the session.  CAAS is able to supply only a screen and a digital light projector (presenters will need to bring their special adapter plug to connect to the projector).  DVDs can be played only from your laptop.  Be advised that sound played from a laptop without special speakers may not be audible in the room.

Panel and workshop proposals must be anonymous.  The names of those involved in the proposal — organizer, presenters, and respondent (if any) — must not appear anywhere in the submission except when citing a publication by them, which should be done in the third person.  Abstracts including the names and/or institutional affiliations of the organizer, presenters, and respondent will be rejected automatically.

For further guidelines, please see: https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/suggestions-authors-abstracts-program-committee and https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/guidelines-authors-abstracts 

All authors of paper and panel presentations, presiders/co-presiders are advised to read the CAAS Anti-Racism Committee statement on condemning the use of the texts, ideals, and images of the Greek and Roman world to promote hateful ideology, as follows:

The Classical Association of the Atlantic States is committed to fighting against all forms of racism and bigotry, including anti-Blackness, anti-Semitism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, ableism, and all other kinds of bias, in order to make our discipline fairer and more inclusive for all, as we strengthen the position of Classics through the development of better methods of teaching and the fostering of public support of the Classics. In addition, CAAS expects that all Annual Meeting participants treat each other with respect and afford everyone the dignity of being included in presentations and public discussions and not target, disrespect, or exclude anyone. The Program Committee therefore asks authors to be mindful of the language used in preparing abstracts and papers and to edit for biased phrasing and diction that are discriminatory or harmful tohistorically marginalized groups — be they racial, class, ethnic, financial, gendered, religious, or social. We call to the attention of all authors CAAS’s statement on anti-racism; the Society for Classical Studies’ statement on systemic racism, which CAAS also endorses; and the Principles of Antiracist Teaching and Reflection curated by the Multiculturalism, Race and Ethnicity in Classics Consortium (MRECC), which offers pathways for educators to advance learning and scholarship while building equity and inclusivity for historically marginalized groups in furtherance of the mission of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States. Abstracts and proposals that run counter to these values will not be accepted. Authors seeking additional information about language of equity in their submissions are invited to contact the Program Coordinator.

Submit here: The CFP is now closed and no longer accepting submissions.

For academic questions, please contact CAAS Program Coordinator Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos (knikolou@sju.edu).  Please contact Webmaster Jennifer Ranck (webmaster@caas-cw.org) with technical questions regarding submission.

CAAS Travel Subsidies: CAAS offers generous travel subsidies (up to $600) to successful submitters who can demonstrate a need for funds. Call for applications will be announced in late Spring.

Click here to read/download CFP in PDF format

ASCSA 2022 Summer Seminars

The Summer Seminars of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens are 18-day programs that focus on specific cultural themes, historical periods, or geographical regions. The Seminars are led by exceptional scholars of Classics and related fields. Under their direction, participants study texts, visit archaeological sites and museums, and engage with expert guest speakers in order to deepen their understanding of Greece’s landscape, history, literature, and material culture. Past seminars include Greek SculptureMyth on SiteGreek Religion, and Finding the Spartans.

Application Deadline: January 7, 2022

2022 Seminars:

Thanatopsis: Greek Funerary Customs Through the Ages (June 6-24, 2022)

The Northern Aegean: Macedon and Thrace (June 30 – July 18, 2022)

For more information, please refer to the ASCSA Website or Summer Programs flyer (PDF).

ETC – Nationwide (virtual) Game Event – December 16, 2021

ETC is at it again! In celebration of National Classics Week, Excellence Through Classics (ETC) is running another nationwide online gaming event for Latin students across the nation on December 16, 2021, 6:30 pm -7:30 pm EDT. For more information please refer to the ETC Ludus website (click here).

In order to play, students will need a device with internet access. The theme, code to access the game, the live stream video, and more detailed instructions including registration link have been or will be posted on ETC Ludus website. The contest will focus on the cultural theme listed above. The code to access the game, the live stream video, and more detailed instructions will be posted on the site. Nota Bene – The game will not include Latin questions related to vocabulary or grammar. 

Please ask your students to take pictures while playing; students winners should stay after the game so we can get their contact information. Send your pictures to our PRIMA Publication Editor at prima@etclassics.org. Let’s break last year’s record of 646 student participants from over 16 states!!!! Citius, Altius, Fortius!!!!