Category Archives: Regional: District of Columbia

In Memoriam: Dr. Elizabeth Ann Fisher

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We are sorry to share the recent passing of Dr. Elizabeth Ann Fisher, professor and department chair at the George Washington University’s Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Dr. Fisher received a CAAS ovatio in 2019. Her obituary is available at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/washington-dc/elizabeth-fisher-12935205. The text of the 2019 ovatio can be found below Dr. Fisher’s photo.

Ovatio: Elizabeth A. Fisher

Nunc est ovandum, nunc grato animo pulsanda mensa, ut laudemus hanc feminam, humilem sed eruditissimam, sodales. Adepta gradum Baccalaureae Artis apud universitatem quaerentem quaecumque sint vera, propinquam ventosae urbi in horto, tunc attinuit apud universitatem Veritate insignem, propinquam fabarum oppido, gradus Magistrae Artis Doctorisque Philosophiae. Illuminavit opera scriptorum Byzantinorum luculentissime, apud docta domicilia consecrata investigandis et explicandis litteris Graecis per multa saecula, et in scribendo dicendoque. Multas per gentes, multa per aequora vecta, summo studio servivit universitati proclamanti deum nobis fiduciam, fulciens et fovens disciplinam non solum linguarum sed etiam sententiarum Romanorum Graecorumque. Sustinendis magistris linguae Latinae et studiis classicis ipsis locuplevit et discipulos et professores in hac regione, et in nostra societate. Plaudamus igitur Elizabeth A. Fisher.

Now, companions, an ovation must be delivered, now with grateful hearts our tables must be pounded, so that we may praise this woman, modest but extraordinarily learned. Having received her BA degree at Northwestern University, she then obtained her MA and PhD degrees at Harvard. Her scholarship—recognized as distinguished by fellowships from Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies and the Center for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks; and shared in numerous publications, conference papers, and invited talks—has brilliantly cast light on the writings of such authors as Michael Psellos and Maximus Planudes. Exploring remote classical and Byzantine sites, she has also traveled extensively throughout eastern Turkey and Syria. As department chair, she invested immense energies in keeping the Classics program alive and well at The George Washington University; she also has taught its courses in both ancient languages and on literature and culture in translation. Her support for secondary school Latin at the School Without Walls, and for university-level research through her leadership of the Washington-area Ancient Mediterranean Seminar, has greatly enriched our region and organization. Let us thus applaud Elizabeth A. Fisher.

Judith P. Hallett and Denis Sullivan, University of Maryland, College Park, and John Ziolkowski, The George Washington University

Call For Papers: NeMLA 2019

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Panel 1: Reading and Writing the Classics in Antiquity and Beyond
NeMLA 2019, March 21-24 in Washington, D.C. 
Chair: Claire Sommers, csommers@gc.cuny.edu
Abstracts Due: September 30, 2018
 

The literature of ancient Greece and Rome has survived for thousands of years. As a result, Classical literary and philosophical works have served as a profound influence on the writings of subsequent time periods. Indeed, in many subsequent time periods, the ability to quote from Classical sources became a marker of status and intelligence. However, many works of ancient Greece and Rome are not wholly original, but in fact flaunt their use of source materials, citing earlier versions of myths and epics. Often, Classical and post-Classical authors would modify their source materials, and we are able to see them not only as writers, but as readers in their own right.

This panel will explore the use of ancient sources in Classical literature and its descendants. We will examine how Classical works engage with previous sources and how ancient works of literature and philosophy became important source materials in subsequent time periods. Possible approaches include:

· Allusions to other ancient sources in Classical literature and philosophy

· The use of Classical works in the texts of later time periods

· Alterations and revisions that are made to Classical sources

· The overlap between writer and reader in the use of Classical sources

· The status of Classical sources throughout the ages

· The use of satire and/or parody to engage with the Classics

· Classical texts and the creation of new genres

Please submit a 300 word abstract and 100 word bio by September 30, 2018. You will need to create an user account through the NeMLA account in order to submit an abstract. Contact Claire Sommers (csommers@gc.cuny.edu) with any questions.

Panel 2: Classical Metanarrative, Aesthetics, and the Creative Process
NeMLA 2019, March 21-24 in Washington, D.C. 
Chair: Claire Sommers, csommers@gc.cuny.edu
Abstracts Due: September 30, 2018
 

Ancient Greece and Rome have had a profound influence on subsequent literature. While our analyses of Classical literature, philosophy, and art often focus on the characters and stories they depict, these works often served as a means to examine the aesthetic process itself. One of the earliest surviving Greek texts, Homer’s Iliad, goes so far as to depict its protagonist Achilles singing of ancient heroes and strumming his lyre as a means of determining the effect of being remembered in epic.

This panel session will explore how ancient art, literature, and philosophy utilize metanarrative and meditate upon the act of creation, and how it serves as a means of examining the creative process in subsequent time periods. Possible approaches include:

· Classical reflections on their own genres and media

· Classical critiques of sources

· Metanarratives in Classical texts

· Classical theories of aesthetics and their influence

· Discussions of contemporaneous art, music, literature, and drama in Classical literature

· The use of Classical sources in subsequent literature as a means of reflection

Please submit a 300 word abstract and 100 word bio by September 30, 2018. You will need to create an user account through the NeMLA account in order to submit an abstract. Contact Claire Sommers (csommers@gc.cuny.edu) with any questions.

Part-time lecturer position for Fall 2016 at NYU Washington, DC

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Cultural Foundations I” course description

“Cultural Foundations I” introduces the arts from their origins to the end of antiquity, as defined for these purposes by the roughly coincident dissolutions of the Gupta, Han, and Western Roman empires, focusing on how individuals and social relations are shaped in literature, the visual, plastic, and performing arts, and through music. Conceptions of the divine, the heroic, power and disenfranchisement, beauty, and love are examined within the context of the art and literature of East and South Asia, the Mediterranean world, and contiguous regions (such as Germania, Nubia, and Mesopotamia).

The Cultural Foundations sequence (CFI, CFII, and CFIII) is taken one per semester (sequentially, from the fall of the first year through the fall/spring of the second year) and investigates literary, musical, visual, and performing arts from prehistory to modernity, treating the works of cultures from around the globe as texts in their own right, as contexts for each other, and as ways of understanding the civilizations in which they were produced. In these interdisciplinary courses, we pose a central two-part question: What is art, and why do people produce it? Instructors for CFI prepare the way for Cultural Foundations II by giving some attention to the modes by which cultural transmission occurred across these regions prior to the rise of Islam.
Interested applicants should contact Mark Nakamoto at mark.nakamoto@nyu.edu

GWU Summer Latin Opportunities

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During George Washington University’s 2012 Summer Sessions, a second semester of on-line Classical Latin instruction will be offered to supplement the existing Latin 1001 that has been taught during each of the past two summers. These courses may be taken separately or together as an intensive 12-week introduction to the subject. The paired courses will provide eight semester hours of Classical Latin, the equivalent of a full year of college-level language instruction.

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