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

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

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.   

(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):