REPORT FROM THE SECRETARY-TREASURER:

Status Quo and Novae Res

 The 106th Annual Meeting of CAMWS took place on March 24-27, 2010, in Oklahoma City.  Comfortably housed in the Renaissance Hotel, 430 CAMWS-ians enjoyed Sooner hospitality and a wide-ranging program featuring more than 350 presentations.  We were honored to have with us Nigerian classicist James Eezzuduemhoi, whose work was a focus of the Presidential Panel; the theme of Black Classicism continued to resound in President Michele Ronnick's after-dinner address.  Our hosts from the University of Oklahoma had everything superbly organized, and the student guides in their matching t-shirts ensured that no one wandered too far astray.  Special thanks go to Sam Huskey, who chaired the local committee so ably.  Kudos also to Tyler Jo Smith for singlehandedly raising more than $2000 from her relatives and friends in Oklahoma City; those generous donations helped pay for meals and snack breaks.  And how could I fail to mention Latin Orator Jim May, whose singing of "Oklahoma!" delighted the audience at the banquet--and nearly burst the eardrums of Master of Ceremonies Chris Craig!

At the business meeting we congratulated the many winners of CAMWS awards and scholarships; you can read about their honors elsewhere in this newsletter and on the CAMWS website.  We also thanked Douglas Olson, Editor of The Classical Journal, for his five years of stellar service and welcomed Laurel Fulkerson as the new editor of CJ.  John Gruber-Miller announced the good news that Teaching Classical Languages (http://tcl.camws.org/), an online pedagogical journal sponsored by CAMWS, has been launched-a credit to John's vision and determination and to the computer skills of Webmaster Andrew Reinhard.  In addition the CAMWS Newsletter has moved to an electronic platform and is in the capable hands of Stephanie McCarter.  One last announcement:  Tom Sienkewicz has gallantly agreed to take over the job of Secretary-Treasurer two years from now.  The move of the CAMWS office from St. Olaf to Monmouth will be made gradually during the course of the academic year 2011-12.

Meanwhile we are looking forward to two CAMWS gatherings in 2010-11:  the 90^th Anniversary Meeting of the Southern Section, October 28-30, in Richmond, Virginia, hosted by the University of Richmond, and the 107^th Annual Meeting of CAMWS, April 6-9, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, co-hosted by Calvin College and Grand Valley State University.  June 1, the deadline for Southern Section abstracts and panel proposals, will be here soon; to complete the online submission form, go to:  http://www.camws.org/southernsection/index.html.  

We are grateful to the 75 schools that chose to become institutional members of CAMWS for 2009-10; your support means a lot.  To Michele Ronnick, whose dynamic leadership contributed so much to the success of the past year, and to all the other officers, committees, subcommittees, and individual members who cheerfully devote their time and talents to CAMWS-including Sue Newland, my administrative assistant extraordinaire-thanks a million!    

 PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM OKLAHOMA CITY

 

 

The helpful University of Oklahoma students who made sure we found our way around campus and who were easily identifiable by their cute red shirts!

 

 

 

 

The reception at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

 

 

   

 

 

     From left to right: Michele Ronnick, Patrick Lake, Hunter Nielsen, Elizabeth Greene,& Daniel Griffin

Book Prize Winners (alphabetically, with school and teacher)

• Amith Ananthran, Thomas Jefferson HS for Science and Technology, VA (Christine L. Conklin)
• John Appledorn, St. Ignatius HS, OH (Joseph V. Zebrak)
• Spencer Brown, Shawnee Mission East High School, KS (Dr. Athanasia Worley)
• Emma Burd, Yorktown HS, VA (Kevin Gushman)
• Quinton Burks, Montgomery Bell Academy, TN (Dennis DeYoung)
• Kenneson Chen, Flint Hill School, VA (Howard Chang)
• Anne Marie Creighton, Thomas Jefferson HS for Science and Technology, VA (Christine L. Conklin)
• Caroline Gill, Charlotte Latin School, NC (Karen McQuaid and Lawrence Wall)
• Ratna Gill, Flint Hill School, VA (Howard Chang)
• Laura Hogikyan, Greenhills Schools, MI (Michael Powers)
• Sam Howes, Barrington HS, IL (Chris Condrad)
• Nora Kassner, Greenhills Schools, MI (Michael Powers)
• Melissa Luttmann, St. Mary's Episcopal School (TN)- Patrick McFadden
• Lauren MacGuidwin, Flint Hill School, VA (Howard Chang)
• Thomas Moore, Montgomery Bell Academy, TN (Dennis DeYoung)
• Grace Paquelet, Brookfield Academy, WI (Ruth Osier)
• Stephanie J. Ralston, Clarke Central High School, GA (Ellen Harris)
• Max Ramage, Durham Academy, NC (Edith Keene)
• Naomi Wills, Eastside HS, GA (Eric Adams)
• Marshall Kelly Winchester, Master's Academy, NC (Sherri Madden and Dr. Bruce A. McMenomy)

Letters of Commendation (alphabetically, with school and teacher)

• Ashley Aycox, Eastside HS, GA (Eric Adams)
• Joe Bailey, The Lovett School, GA (Kenneth Rau)
• Charles Baker, St. George's Independent School, TN (Tonia Anderson)
• Caroline Christian, St. George's Independent School, TN (Tonia Anderson)
• Dallas Denny, The Lovett School, GA (Kenneth Rau)
• Sarah Edwards, Durham Academy, NC (Edith Keene)
• Hannah Everett, St. George's Independent School, TN (Tonia Anderson)
• Patrick Ford, Eastside HS, GA (Eric Adams)
• Alayah Glenn, Eastside HS, GA (Eric Adams)
• Will Henry, Montgomery Bell Academy, TN (Edward Gaffney)
• Spencer Hobson, Hawken School, OH (Nick Fletcher)
• Ralston Medouze, Eastside HS, GA (Eric Adams)
• Clint Montgomery, Memphis University School, TN (Trey Suddarth)
• Farrar Pace, St. Catherine's School, VA (Lee Perkins)
• John Patterson, Summit Country Day, OH (Larry Dean)
• Zach Schaffer, University School, OH (Darren Keefe)
• Will Taylor, Memphis University School, TN (Trey Suddarth)
• Austin Wheeler, St. George's Independent School, TN (Tonia Anderson)
• Avery Wiens, The Lovett School, GA (Kenneth Rau)
• Stephen Wood, St. Catherine's School, VA (Lee Perkins)

AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME APPOINTS SUSANN S. LUSNIA ITS CLASSICAL SUMMER SCHOOL DIRECTOR FOR 2011-2014

 

The Classical Summer School of the American Academy in Rome was established in 1923 for high school teachers and graduate students of Latin, ancient history and the classics, but its audience has become more varied over the years, including college teachers and those working in related fields. It is designed to provide participants with a well-founded understanding of the growth and development of the ancient city of Rome and its immediate environs from the earliest times to the age of Constantine through a careful study of material remains and literary sources. For information on the upcoming 2010 program, please visit http://www.aarome.org?rt=program&rid=27.  

THE WOMEN'S CLASSICAL CAUCUS

• SCOLT:  The Southern Conference on Language Teaching is seeking to develop a strand of Latin presentations at its 2011 Conference in Baton Rouge, La on March 10-12, 2011.  Perspective presenters may submit a proposal online at http://www.scolt.org. 
• The 90th anniversary meeting of the Southern Section of CAMWS will take place on October 28-30, 2010, at the invitation of the University of Richmond and in conjunction with the Centennial Meeting of the Classical Association of Virginia. The Richmond Omni Hotel will host the meetings. Click here to read the full Call for Papers and to submit your abstracts online.
• CAMWS 107th annual meeting, 2011 April 6-9; Grand Rapids, MI, at the Amway Grand Plaza at the invitation of Grand Valley State University and Calvin College.
• The Classical Association of New England (CANE) will hold its 2010 Summer Institute at Darthmouth College from July 12-17. Click here for more information and to register.
• Call for Papers: "Adaptation in the Ancient World." The 2011 meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians will be held at Mercyhurst College, Erie PA, May 5-8, 2011. Papers are solicited in the following areas: Maritime interconnectivity in the Mediterranean (Chair, E. Green, Brock University), Greek and Roman Historiography (J. Marincola, Florida State University), Ancient Political Theory (R. Balot, University of Toronto), Tyranny and Response (S. Lewis, University of St. Andrews), New Directions in the History of War (L. Brice, Western Illinois University), Swords and Sandals: The Ancient World in Modern Media (R. Goldman, CUNY), Religious Innovation and Empire (R. von Thaden, Mercyhurst College), Women and Religion in Greece and Rome (M. Salzman, UCLA), Egypt (C. White, Slippery Rock University), The Ancient Near East (C. Nimchuk, Mercyhurst College). Send one page abstracts and recent Vita by email to the chief organizer, R. S. Howarth, by November 1.
• The Brackenridge Classics Symposium will be held on November 5-6 at the University of Texas at San Antonio, on the theme of "Language, Myth and Society in the Ancient World". Participants are invited to examine and reflect upon the interconnectedness of language, myth and society in the ancient world from any disciplinary perspective-art, archaeology, linguistics, philology, philosophy, anthropology or any other area of study within Classics-above all in ways that combine multiple such perspectives to bring innovative and fresh understandings to this theme. Papers that take an "emic" approach, to cast light on how the Romans and Greeks themselves conceived these categories and their interrelation, are particularly encouraged. The keynote speaker will be Maurizio Bettini, Professor of Classics at the Universit� degli Studi di Siena (Italy) and Director of the Center for Anthropology of the Ancient World. Please send abstracts of no more than one page (bibliography may be added on a second page) to classics at utsa.edu by Tuesday, June 15th, 2010. More information is available here. Questions may be directed to Dr. Joal Christensen or Dr. William Short.
• Ancient Drama in Performance: Theory and Practice will coincide with the 2010 Randolph College Greek Play: Euripides' Hecuba, an original-practices production. The play and response to it will be the culmination of a day of scholarly and practical exchanging of ideas on ancient theatre on October 9, 2010. We are inviting proposals from scholars and practitioners of all levels for papers on topics to do with ancient drama in performance, including but not restricted to the staging, texts, design, repertory, personnel, and the social impact of plays in the ancient Greek and Roman world, as well as of plays as re-performed in the modern world. Papers will be delivered in an outdoor Greek theatre (or a round indoor space if it rains), which means that papers that deal with original practices in some way would find a comfortable setting, but all topics concerned with the plays as a practice are welcome. Presenters who would like to demonstrate their performance ideas will be provided with student actors (with or without masks), with whom arrangements can be made prior to the meeting. Papers are limited to 10 minutes (presentation without actors) and to 13 minutes (presentations with student actors). Presenters should be aware that they will hear the sound of a drum when two minutes remain and will exit pursued by a Fury when time is out. The conference will feature a keynote address by Kenneth Reckford, and a response to Hecuba by Mary-Kay Gamel. Please submit a 300 word abstract and a short bio to ancientdrama at randolphcollege dot edu by 21 May 2010. A longer description of the conference is here. 

The plot of "The Lightning Thief" begins with the premise that the Greek gods are real and still alive today, living in their headquarters, which has moved from Mt. Olympus to the 500^th floor of the Empire State Building.  The story does not center on the gods, though, but on their semi-divine children, of whom Percy, i.e., Perseus, Jackson is our unwitting protagonist.  The series is not without its flaws, of course:  perhaps most obviously, it's pretty closely patterned after Harry Potter, complete with supernatural adventure, bosom buddies, budding romance, and of course the eponymous misfit messiah. "Percy Jackson" hovers somewhere between homage and rip-off, though this can hardly be a fatal criticism for classicists who remember Virgil's statement, facilius esse Herculi clavam quam Homero versum subripere.  And truthfully, there's more of Homer and Hercules than of Harry in Riordan's books.

Like other "half-bloods," Percy is troubled.  He has never met his divine parent and has been bounced from one school to another due to ADHD-related problems, although, as it's explained to him later when he arrives to Camp Half-Blood, his impulsiveness is connected to "his battlefield reflexes," and his dyslexia comes from the fact that his "mind is hard-wired for ancient Greek."  It's eventually revealed to him that he is the child of Poseidon, that his friend Grover is a satyr and that another, Annabeth, is Athena's daughter, that his teacher is none other than Chiron, that Zeus' lightning bolt has been stolen, that Percy himself is the prime suspect, that the theft is in fact a cover-up for a much larger plot to unseat the gods and place Kronos in charge of the universe again, and that, of course, it's all up to Percy to stop it.  Along the way, Percy and his friends encounter the Minotaur, the Laestrygonians, Furies, Cerberus, etc., as well as three old ladies who (as one of the chapters is entitled) "knit the socks of death." 

My bald summary hardly does justice to the genuinely engaging, witty, and even learned tone of the series, and alas, neither does Chris Columbus' film.  Not that "The Lightning Thief" is without its charms.  For those of us in middle Tennessee, there was the frisson of local interest in seeing the Nashville Parthenon used as set (a few cheers went up in the Tullahoma Regal), although the decision to replace Alan Lequire's enormous painted Athena Parthenos with a more "traditional" white statue rankled at least one classicist in the audience.  To my mind, however, the movie's true highlight was seeing Uma Thurman as the Medusa.  (And why not Uma?  Hadn't Ovid praised Medusa's clarissima forma, Met. 4.794?)  As I watched Uma as Medusa-Umedusa?-I couldn't help thinking of her in Terry Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," where she played Venus to Oliver Reed's Vulcan; her dea ex machina arrival, via an enormous ascending clamshell, still strikes me as one of the finest entrances in film.  In this update of the legend, Umedusa runs a garden gnome emporium that sells amazingly life-like yard statuary, and she is undone in a suitably 21^st century manner, with Percy looking not into a mirrored shield but rather the silvery flipside of his Ipod.

But, all in all, the movie was a disappointment, and my 7-year old son Daniel grumbled throughout it.  "Her hair's supposed to be blonde," he complained of Annabeth.  "Where's his scar?" he objected of another character, not so sotto voce.  And with deep frustration he groaned when Percy's mother instead of his best friend Grover was left behind in the Underworld.  "That's not what happened in the book," he kept saying.  Yeah, I wanted to reply, now you know how I felt when Briseis killed Agamemnon in Wolfgang Pedersen's "Troy."  But I held my tongue.  It's a wearisome fact of life that even good movies stray from the books on which they're based, and the frustration is worst when it happens with books we love.  What's frustrating about this movie is that, where it follows the book, it's very good.  So, for instance, the movie's depiction of the Lotus Casino (a clever adaptation of the Homeric way-station) is deftly handled:  Percy is deep into an absorbing video game when he realizes that the hippie-ish guy beside him is at a very retro-looking pinball machine.  "What year is it?" he asks him, and the response-"1974"-jolts Percy out of his stupor.  It's a pleasing visual sequence, as is the sight of Grover, Percy's satyr friend, stomping away on the dance-floor to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face."  So, so far so good.  But where in the book Annabeth had spent her time at the Lotus engrossed in "this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board," in the movie she is simply playing the same old video game everybody is, hardly a fitting activity for the daughter of Athena.

It's this flattening of the characters, ultimately, that is what's wrong with "The Lightning Thief."  To begin with, the actors are all just a little too old for the parts, and they seem to have been cast less for how they might portray Riordan's characters than how they might look in Tiger Beat magazine.  Again and again, the tendency is to pitch the film not to the books' grade-school fans, who want swashbuckling heroes, but rather to a teen and 'tween' audience, who seem to prefer emo vampires.  As a friend joked on the drive home from Tullahoma, "Lightning Thief" perhaps should have been called "Twilight of the Gods."  But still more fundamentally, the movie utterly fails with Percy.  Riordan's books, it must be pointed out, are all told in the first person, by Percy.  He is not just a hero, but also a twelve-year old boy, one who has grown up without a father, who is just coming to some self-awareness and find himself giving voice to complicated interests that he barely understands, especially when he is the object of them.  It is not too much to say that the demons he is fighting throughout the books are not those just drawn from Greek mythology, but none of this is really captured in the film.

So, the summer is now upon us, and if you are looking for some beach reading, you could do worse than to pick up a few of the Percy Jackson books.  Better still, read them aloud to your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or neighbors of elementary school age.  They will have many questions about the mythology which readers of the CAMWS newsletter are uniquely qualified to answer.  You may find yourself breaking out images of monsters and heroes from classical vases, and working through the complexities of mythological genealogies.  But be forewarned:  if you later decide to show these kids the movie (the DVD will be released June 29^th), be prepared for the muttering.