Category Archives: General

Annual Meeting Welcome Note from CAAS President

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Please click here to view/download PDF format or read below the Welcome Note from CAAS President Dan-el Padilla Peralta:

A Welcome Note from CAAS President Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Dear all,

It’s my delight to welcome each of you to the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States (CAAS), hosted at the Heldrich Hotel and Conference Center in New Brunswick, NJ. Our meeting would not be possible without the steadfast efforts of our Program Coordinator, Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos, and the Program Committee. We are also indebted to our longtime Executive Director, Mary Brown, and our Treasurer Henry Bender; the Awards Committee, chaired by Maria S. Marsilio; the Clack Committee, responsible for the coordination of this year’s Clack Lecture; our webmaster Jennifer C. Ranck and Social Media Coordinator Talia Chicherio; and the many members of our CAAS community who have been hard at work to ensure a successful annual meeting.

We have a rich and exciting program lined up. I wish especially to draw your attention to our Clack Lecture on Friday, October 18, when Professor Yopie Prins (Irene Butter Collegiate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan) will present “Sappho Echoes.” The author of Victorian Sappho (Princeton 1999) and Ladies’ Greek: Victorian Translations of Tragedy (Princeton 2017), and co-editor of multiple volumes, Professor Prins is a leading figure in the study of classical reception – which will be a salient theme in Saturday’s programming. At the plenary session on October 19, I’ll be in conversation with Dr. Mathura Umachandran (Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter) and Dr. Chella Ward (Lecturer in Classical Studies at the Open University) about Critical Ancient World Studies: The Case for Forgetting Classics, their game-changing open access edited volume that will push us to think about and beyond the boundaries of the discipline. We are grateful to our guests for traveling to join us and share their wisdom, and to each of you for making the journey to the Annual Meeting.

I took to heart the call of members at last year’s annual meeting for greater organizational transparency. One of my objectives as President has been to promote such transparency in the communication and application of our Bylaws and Regulations – primarily in dealings with the Board and Executive Committee, and in dialogues with members who have sought illumination about specific procedures and protocols. With this commitment to transparency in mind, I close this letter on one note of clarification. Beginning at our April meetings, the Board committed to a reexamination of the charges for different positions as specified in our regulations, and to the formalization of a reappointment process for stipendiary Officers. As our Executive Director’s current term comes to a close, it has seemed to me especially urgent to get moving on this front, and to implement – in keeping with Bylaws Art. V Sec. 3 – a procedure for reviewing the performance of officers that could then guide the Board in making determinations about reappointment. I am pleased to announce that one outcome of that procedure’s first phase was the generation of a report on the Executive Director’s performance. This report, which distilled a robust dialogue at our April Board Meetings, commended some aspects of this performance and identified other aspects for improvement. When the Board reconvenes this week at the Annual Meeting, it will have an opportunity to evaluate both the report and the Executive Director’s (solicited) response to it prior to deciding on reappointment.

It is important to stress that this procedure is meant to be part of any stipendiary officer’s reappointment. Such a procedure has historically entailed (and will continue to entail) closed-door discussions in which the Directors fulfill their obligations to the organization and to the membership by evaluating thoroughly each stipendiary officer’s performance, whenever they are up for reappointment.

I see my exposition of this proceduralist work in this letter as integral to the promotion of that transparency and professionalism that I understand many of our members to be seeking. I would welcome any and all feedback from CAAS members on how we can strengthen our protocols for review and constructive criticism – of officers and of the organization as a whole – now and in the future. 

Wishing each of you well,
Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Professor of Classics, Princeton University

ACL (American Classical League) 2024-2025 Exams – Registration Now Open

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The ACL Exams registration (NCEE, NRCE, Pegasus, Medusa, Exploratory Latin and Greek) are now open.

Please refer to ACL Exam Page for all information, dates, costs and registration links – https://www.aclclassics.org/Exams/Student-Exams.

Please email ACL staff for further information – Rhonda Sizemore sizemor@aclclassics.org – Vicki Curler curlerv@aclclassics.org

The 2024 Fall Annual Meeting of The Classical Association of the Atlantic States

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When: Thursday, October 17 to Saturday, October 19, 2024

Where:  The Heldrich Hotel & Conference Center, New Brunswick, NJ

Program: Click here to view current draft of program (updated October 9, 2024)

Letter from CAAS President: Click here to view welcome letter from CAAS President Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Letter from CAAS Executive Director: [forthcoming]

Election/Ballot Form: [forthcoming]

Exhibitors and Vendors:  Please register via the registration form below and then email the Executive Director, Mary Brown (mbrown@sju.edu) to request a table/space in the exhibit hall.

Fall 2024 Meeting Registration Form (register online – options for meals deadline 9/25/2024): https://caas.press.jhu.edu/membership/conference

Reservations link and info for The Heldrich Hotel & Conference Center: 

  • Direct Booking Link: CAAS Annual Conference Room Block
  • Phone Booking: Reservations Line (866) 609-4700 
  • Cut-off Date to Book: 09/25/24
  • NOTA BENE: Guests may reference the group name: CAAS Annual Conference Room Block OR Group Code: 550201

Nominations for ovatio/gratulatio at the 2024 Annual Meeting are still open – deadline May 1 2024

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Reminder: Nominations for ovationes or gratulationes for 2024 Annual Meeting are due May 1, 2024 (11:59pm ET).

The CAAS Awards Committee warmly invites you to nominate a colleague to be considered for an ovatio or gratulatio, to be lauded at the CAAS October 17-19, 2024 Annual Meeting at The Heldrich Hotel and Conference Center, New Brunswick, NJ. 

The CAAS Awards Committee accepts nominations drafted by single members in good standing. A CAAS member may submit no more than two nominations each year. 

Current CAAS members who nominated a colleague not selected for an ovatio or gratulatio in the past are welcome to resubmit a revised and updated nomination for 2024.

Recipients of awards will be celebrated with a Latin award script composed by the Latin Citations Committee, which will be read by a colleague of their own choice at the CAAS 2024 Annual Meeting. 

The Awards Committee’s charge is to “select honorees from the CAAS membership who meet the following criteria: long and/or distinguished service to CAAS and/or to the Classics community by those in the CAAS region.”

To nominate a colleague for an ovatio (an ovation and rejoicing of excellence in service to CAAS and to our discipline) or a gratulatio (congratulations and celebration of a colleague’s service to CAAS and to our profession), you are asked to provide the name of the person nominated, accompanied by a brief (one paragraph) rationale for the nominee’s worthiness for an award. 

You may submit your nominations using the google form at this link: (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftTWM30uwEyxZk7_J0tklA3DRDDrTf0pa4yx-Y2xIGsrLmLQ/viewform).

Also, a full listing of recent honorees and an archive of past honorees is available here: https://caas-cw.org/caas/awards/


The firm deadline for submission of all nominations is 11:59 pm on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.   

2023 Annual Meeting Presentation Awards

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In accordance with the Board’s decision at the April 2023 meeting, CAAS recognizes the excellence of papers delivered in person at the annual meeting by means of monetary awards.  Presiders nominate outstanding individual presentations in their sessions.  Members of the Awards Subcommittee and/or members of the Program Committee with expertise in the subject nominate outstanding presenters at organized panels refereed by the Program Committee.

The Awards Subcommittee of the Program Committee is delighted to announce the winners for 2023 in the following categories:

  1. Undergraduate Student: Jasmine Bao

Jasmine Bao, an undergraduate student at Swarthmore College mentored by Professor Jeremy Lefkowitz, won an award for her presentation “Animal Cognition in the Collectio Augustana.” Conducting close readings of the Aesopic fables contained in the collection, Jasmine analyzed the concept of animal implied by the fables’ figures under the categories of cognition, learning, and self-reflection. Her well-organized, clear, and thoughtful examination of how the fables conceptualize animals prompted especially lively discussion among the audience.

2. Graduate Student: Paul Eberwine

A Ph.D. candidate in the Princeton University Classics Department, Paul Eberwine won an award for “Reading Death in Aeschylus’s Libation Bearers,” an original and insightful examination of the drama’s reflection “on ancient slavery by highlighting the essential role of the socially dead in shaping the political claims of the free, as well as that role’s subversive potential.” Demonstrating mastery of the text of the play, of pertinent scholarship in German and English, and of bibliography outside of the field of Classics, Eberwine adventurously but judiciously explored the contours of the “dangerous kind of power” social death confers on enslaved people in the play.

3. Post-Ph.D.: Elena Giusti

Dr. Elena Giusti, Associate Professor in Latin Literature and Language at the University of Warwick, UK won an award for “Ethnographic Discourses: Rome’s Racialized Africa.” Offering wide-ranging and convincing evidence in texts and images, Giusti argued that racialized discourse depicting Africa as a land of marvels, desolation, and monsters emerged in the early Roman imperial period and served to distort perceptions of Africa during the age of European explorations in the 15th and 16th centuries. Giusti built on the work of the African philosopher and classicist Valentin-Yves Mudimbe to challenge credibly Frank Snowden’s contention that race was inapplicable to Greco-Roman antiquity. The evidence and argument presented in Dr. Giusti’s paper are sure to be relevant to disciplines outside of Classics.

Program Committee Awards Subcommittee: David Rosenbloom (Chair), Andrea Kouklanakis, Karin Suzadail, Konstantinos Nikoloutsos (ex officio).

Guidelines for Latin Teacher Preparation

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(borrowed from the SCS post: https://classicalstudies.org/education/guidelines-latin-teacher-preparation)

The American Classical League (ACL) and the Society for Classical Studies (SCS) are pleased to present the Guidelines for Latin Teacher Preparation.

This document, which is a 2023 revision of the 2010 Standards for Latin Teacher Preparation, sets out what a beginning-career Latin teacher should know and be able to do, and includes the addition of an Addendum of Resources.

The document organizes a beginning Latin teacher’s knowledge, skills, and understanding under four main guidelines:

  • Content Knowledge
  • Pedagogical Knowledge, Skills, and Understanding
  • Other Areas of Responsibility
  • Professional Development and Lifelong Learning

The Guidelines will be useful to:

  • College & university faculty and students of Classical Studies
  • Faculty of Latin teacher preparation programs and schools of education
  • Students in Latin teacher preparation programs
  • K-12 Latin teachers

Below you will find links to the Guidelines for Latin Teacher Preparation, the Addendum of Resources, and a one-page flyer available for printing and display in departments or for sharing online. Please share the Guidelines with students and colleagues:

Guidelines for Latin Teacher Preparation (PDF)

Addendum of Resources (Google Doc)

One-Page Flyer (PDF):

Presidents of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States

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PRESIDENTS OF THE CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE ATLANTIC STATES

This document (attached and posted below) was produced to provide a single and accessible list of CAAS presidents as part of the organization’s history and commitment to transparency. Information for 1906 through 2007-2008 comes from “Presidents of CAAS,” CW 75.1 (1981) 38-40 and Heverly, W. Gerald, “The Last Twenty-Five Years of CAAS,” CW 101.1 (2007) 7-20. Ronnie Ancona, CAAS Past President, added the data for 2008-2024 and created the single list. Updates will be made by CAAS.  

Click here to view the list page

Click here to view/download list in PDF format

This will soon be expanded from this introductory post to a permanent section of the website.

In Memoriam: Daniel P. Tompkins

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Submitted by Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Professor and Chair, Department of Greek and Roman Classics, Temple University

Daniel P. Tompkins passed away on Saturday, June 10th, following a long illness. Dan was born in New York, NY and raised in Montclair, NJ. 

Dan received his BA from Dartmouth College in 1962. After completing his doctorate at Yale University in 1968, where Adam Parry in particular was a great influence, he taught first at Wesleyan University (1965–1973) and then Swarthmore College (1974–1976), before finally landing at Temple University. In between Wesleyan and Swarthmore, he was a fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C.

Temple’s small Classics department had disappeared in the early 1970s when its faculty departed in a burst of mid-career changes, but then, after a hiatus, faculty in other departments asked Temple’s administration for its return. Dan was hired to resurrect the discipline here from scratch. While this was certainly no small task, Dan, with a legendarily wide-ranging intellect and boundless energy, was ideally suited to this project. His gentle humility and warm, optimistic humanity generated both respect in and affection from others. Dan’s first hire, in 1978, was Martha Davis, and together they forged a student-centered culture that persists to this day. While Dan retired from teaching in 2010, his intellectual DNA has proven remarkably durable in the department.

His magnanimity touched many, as Associate Professor Karen Hersch recalls:

His generosity and goodness to us truly knew no bounds. Some recent kindnesses to us here at Temple: In 2021 and 2022, he graciously agreed to speak as part of our panels on diversity and justice, “Teaching Race in the Ancient Mediterranean at Temple.” I saw him last in person at our winter holiday party, and he was profoundly grateful to be there–suffused with light is an understatement—and all he could talk about was how amazed he was to see such happy, excited and involved students. I was delighted that he continued to write me to share wonderful musings and citations, and I was humbled that he would ask me questions. His last email to me was typical of him, quintessential Dan: he sent me congratulations on our Carleton-Temple conference on women, and added that he wished he had more time with my younger colleagues. We will cherish those words.

Dan’s affable curiosity and concern for his students also made him an outstanding teacher. He was recognized for this work twice: first, with the Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Philological Association in 1980, and, second, with Temple University’s Great Teacher Award in 2009.

Dan wore many different hats at Temple, especially during the latter part of his career when the department’s growth allowed him to spread his wings a bit. He was one of the founders of Temple’s core humanities program, Intellectual Heritage, and served as its director twice (1980–1983, 2000–2005). In between, his passion for student learning led him to the Provost’s office, where he worked as Faculty Fellow for Learning Communities (1993–2000), while also serving on important committees, often chairing them.

The burden of this important work meant that Dan usually did not have enough time for his own research. That said, what he did manage to complete is generally still considered to be significant, especially his work on Thucydides, which is still cited regularly (e.g. “Stylistic Characterization in Thucydides: Nicias and Alcibiades,” Yale Classical Studies: Studies in Fifth Century Thought and Literature, ed. Adam Parry, 22 [1972], pp. 181–214”). After retiring from teaching, Dan pursued his passionate interest in the work of Moses Finley and his intellectual circle, about which he had earlier already published (“The World of Moses Finkelstein: The Year 1939 in M.I. Finley’s Development as a Historian,” Chapter in Michael Meckler, ed., Classical Antiquity and the Politics Of America. Baylor State University Press, 2006. Pp. 95–126). His keen interest in pedagogy and work on learning communities also led to a half-dozen related articles.

Dan had an astonishing range of interests and was capable of enthusiastic and insightful discussion about everything from Wallace Stevens to Thucydides to the Philadelphia Eagles. Many people, both at Temple and around the world, regularly woke up to find a long e-mail message from Dan composed at some odd hour during the night when he had become excited after reading an article about a subject that you had no idea was an concern of his. Such messages persisted to the end of his life.

He is survived by his wife Drew Humphries, his sister Tory Byrne, his daughter Tory Tompkins, and his grandson Tristan. 

Daniel Tompkins was a remarkable intellect, a terrific teacher, a tremendous colleague, and, most importantly, a great human being. May his memory be a blessing. 

Remembering Dan Tompkins, by Martha Davis, Associate Professor Emerita 

Most persons hearing about the death of Dan Tompkins will immediately regret the loss of continued research by him into the work of Thucydides and Finley. He was the expert par excellence in that. But his inquisitive mind ranged over a much wider territory, both of the ancient world and our modern one. He had a prodigious memory and read constantly, so his command of knowledge broadened continuously.

I remember his mastery of the field of Classics, but also his willingness to share what he knew. He answered my questions many times—patiently¬–and often brought me articles and information he knew I would be interested in. His comments for the listserv Classics-L were perceptive and could provoke lively discussion.

Dan was a good colleague and an outstanding chair of the department he founded. He never shrank from administrative duties and service to the university far beyond our department level. His many honors were well deserved. He pioneered in the development of the Freshman Interdisciplinary Studies Program and was almost solely responsible for creating and maintaining the Intellectual Heritage Program, both of which introduced beginning students to basic knowledge necessary for success in any major. 

From a personal standpoint, I thank him first of all that I was hired. He worked to see me through tenure, and I owe him much in the consideration of my own career. He thought it fun that our birthdays were very close together and did not forget to mark the days. The spoon rest on my kitchen counter in the shape of a fish was a small gift from him, one that reminds me daily of his thoughtfulness. He helped me move household—twice. Most of all, he cheered me up. Though I groaned loudly at his awful puns, they punctuated even the dreariest days with humor. The smell of his French press coffee still drifts through my memory of the department.

My own sorrow is great, so it is difficult even to imagine how his death has affected Drew and Tory and the rest of his family. Friends and acquaintances will miss him, and those who knew him only by his work will sense that an important voice is stilled. When we celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Department of Greek and Roman Classics, we presented Dan with a medal. The inscription remains appropriate to this day for those who worked with him: Sine quo non.

CFP: 2023 AIMS International Online Conference

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The 2023 Antiquity in Media Studies International Online Conference

Submission deadline: Friday, August 11, 2023

From “mirror of antiquity” to antiquities on screens:
shaping self, persona, society through media/ted encounters with imagined pasts

See the full CFP at our website: antiquityinmediastudies.wordpress.com

Americas, UK, and EU

Friday-Saturday November 10-11 & 17-18: regular conferencing days

Monday-Thursday November 13-16: special events

Australasia

Saturday-Sunday November 11-12 & 18-19: regular conferencing days

Tuesday-Friday November 14-17: special events

For our 2023 annual meeting, the conference committee of Antiquity in Media Studies invites contributions that engage with this year’s theme, whether through individual case studies, trend analysis, experimental processes, theoretical frameworks for broader inquiry, or creative interpretations. AIMS welcomes contributions from scholars, educators, and creatives that treat a wide variety of media, including but not limited to: the products and production of film, television, analog and video games, novels/genre fiction, fan fiction, comics, manga, anime, animation, fashion, music, theater, dance, cooking, and social media.

AIMS welcomes a variety of formats for the presentation of research, pedagogy, and creative responses to the reception of antiquity, including but not limited to: individual 20-minute papers, three-paper panels, roundtables, workshops, poster sessions, lightning sessions, play-throughs, live multi-player games, technical demonstrations, creative showcases, creator interviews, and other activities that can fit within a 60-90 minute time slot and be delivered remotely at this online conference. NOTE: Research papers will be pre-recorded and available with captioning in advance of the conference, while discussions of these papers will be live.

To submit proposals, please visit our website. AIMS is committed to creating an environment that supports participants of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and we encourage submissions from scholars, educators, and creatives from underrepresented backgrounds. Submissions are due by Friday, August 11.

Questions about the conference? Contact AIMS President Meredith Safran at presidentaims@antiquityinmediastudies.org.