CAMWS Logo

 

CAMWS

NEWSLETTER

 

 

The Classical Association of the Middle West and South

Winter Edition

Top2011

In This Issue
107th Annual Meeting
From our Secretary-Treasurer
Meeting Information
Teaching Classical Languages
Forthcoming in Classical Journal
Summer Programs
CFP: Feminism and Classics VI
CFP: Re-creation: Musical Reception of Classical Antiquity
Latin for 2011
Latin Literature for All Ages
Classics in the News
Necrology
Submissions
Quick Links

107th Annual Meeting of CAMWS

 

at the invitation of 

 

Calvin College

 

and 

Grand Valley State

 

 April 6-9, 2011

 

Amway Grand Plaza Hotel

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Back to Top

From our Secretary-Treasurer

 Grand Rapids

Grand Times in Grand Rapids!

 

The Classical Association of the Middle West and South will hold its 107th Annual Meeting in Grand Rapids, beginning on the evening of Wednesday, April 6, 2011, and ending on the afternoon of Saturday, April 9, at the invitation of Calvin College and Grand Valley State University.  All sessions will be held in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel except those on Friday afternoon.  Temperatures in Grand Rapids in early April range from 35o to 55o F.

 

After the pre-convention workshop, sponsored by GSIC, a reception hosted by the former presidents of CAMWS will officially open the meeting, 8:00-10:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 6, in the Amway Grand Plaza.  Between Thursday morning and Saturday afternoon there will be 70 paper sessions (including two undergraduate student panels) on a variety of pedagogical and scholarly topics, plus a happy hour for graduate students and special events sponsored by the Vergilian Society, the Women's Classical Caucus, and the Committee for the Promotion of Latin.  Free transportation will be provided on Thursday for anyone wishing to attend a 7:30 p.m. performance of Plautus' The Braggart Soldier on the GVSU campus in Allendale. 

 

Friday afternoon's sessions will be held in the Prince Conference Center on the Calvin College campus, followed by a reception in the Eberhard Center on the GVSU downtown campus, within walking distance of the Amway Grand Plaza.  The CAMWS banquet on Friday evening will feature President David Tandy's address and the ovationes for 2010-11, presented in Latin by CAMWS Orator Jim May.  More awards will be announced at the Annual Business Meeting on Saturday morning.  As an outreach to the Grand Rapids community, two of the Saturday sessions, "Teaching Civilization" and "AP Latin:  Vergil and Caesar", will be open to the general public.

 

Meet you in Michigan!    

 

Anne Groton

St. Olaf College

Secretary-Treasurer, CAMWS

 

Back to Top

Meeting Information

 

Meeting schedule: The program can be viewed via the CAMWS website here.

 

Local Committee:

Peter J. Anderson, Grand Valley State University, Chair

Jason Albaugh, East Grand Rapids High School

Ken Bratt, Calvin College

John Breuker, Western Reserve Academy, Retired

Umit S. Dhuga, Calvin College

Barbara Flaschenriem, Grand Valley State University

William Levitan, Grand Valley State University

Sue Miller, East Grand Rapids High School, Retired

Melissa Morison, Grand Valley State University

Davie Noe, Calvin College

Jane Osman, Holland High School, Retired

Charles Pazdernik, Grand Valley State University

Steve Price, St. Joseph High School

Diane Rayor, Grand Valley State University

Kelli Rudolph, Grand Valley State University

Mark Williams, Calvin College

Jeff Winkle, Calvin College

 

Hotel Information:

Amway Grand

The Amyway Grand Plaza is located at 187 Monroe, NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503-2666.  With 682 rooms, this elegant four-diamond, preferred hotel takes up a whole block!  Its east section, built in 1913 as the Pantlind Hotel, was restored in 1978.  The 29-story west tower, completed in 1982, offers "grand" views of the Grand River.  Each guest room is equipped with an iron, ironing board, and hair dryer.  The common areas and all guest rooms have free wireless internet access.  No pets are permitted.  The hotel is smoke-free.  Self-parking for registered guests costs $16 per night, valet parking $25 per night.

 

The hotel's fitness center ($5 charge per room per day, up to four guests per room) features an indoor swimming pool with two hot tubs, lighted tennis courts, a racquetball court, nautilus machines, a wide selection of advanced cardio equipment, and a tanning bed.  Copiers, work stations, laser printers, and fax service are available at the hotel's business center.  Also located in the hotel are Vasaio Spa and Salon, several shops, and a range of dining establishments.

 

Local Attractions:

For comprehensive information on attractions, shopping and tourist activities, visit www.experiencegr.com and the websites listed below.

 

Downtown Grand Rapids 

Eastown Shopping District

Ford Museum

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum 

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

Grand Rapids Ballet Company

Grand Rapids Art Museum

Grand Rapids Public Museum

Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra

John Ball Zoological Garden

Opera Grand Rapids 

Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts

Heritage Hill Historic District

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Parks

 

Back to Top

In this issue of Teaching Classical Languages

 

  
The Classical Association of the Middle West and South is pleased to announce the most recent issue of Teaching Classical Languages (www.tcl.camws.org).  In this issue are three articles.  The first describes field tested exercises to help beginning and intermediate students become more efficient readers of Latin.  The second introduces teachers to form-focused instruction, a pedagogy that integrates grammar instruction within a communicative context.  Finally, the issue concludes with an analysis of students' strengths and weaknesses on the 2010 College Greek Exam. 
  
In this issue of Teaching Classical Languages:
  • Rebecca Harrison, "Exercises for Developing Prediction Skills in Reading Latin Sentences"
  • Peter Anderson & Mark Beckwith, "Form-Focused Teaching for the Intermediate Latin Student"
  • Albert Watanabe, "The 2010 College Greek Exam"

To access the latest issue and read the abstracts, go to www.tcl.camws.org and click on "current issue."

 

Teaching Classical Languages welcomes articles offering innovative practice and methods, advocating new theoretical approaches, or reporting on empirical research in teaching and learning Latin and Greek.  Please submit articles and queries to:

 

John Gruber Miller, editor

Teaching Classical Languages

Cornell College

Mount Vernon, IA 52314

[email protected]

  

 

 Back to Top

Forthcoming in

CJ  

The following articles are in CJ 106.3:
  
CHARLES E. MUNTZ: The Invocation of Darius in Aeschylus' Persae
GREGORY S. JONES: Perikles and the Sexual Politics of Hermippos' Moirai: A New
     Interpretation of Fr. 47
LOCHLAN SHELFER: Crime and Punishment in the Aeneid: The Danaids and  the
     Legal Context of Turnus' Death
ADAM R. MARSHALL: Spectandi Voluptas: Ecphrasis and Poetic Immortality in
     Statius Silvae 1.1
  
FORUM 
EMMA M. GRIFFITHS: Tradition and Originality: How to Deal with Classical
     Plagiarism
  
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
MICHELE VALERIE RONNICK: Black Classicism: "Tell Them We Are Rising!"
  
BOOK REVIEWS
JOHN WATKINS: Craig Kallendorf, The Other Virgil: Pessimistic Readings of the
     Aeneid in Early Modern Culture
DAVID MANKIN: S.J. Heyworth, Sexti Properti Elegi 
  

Vergil Week

Vergil Week

Tradition: Vergil in Literature and the Arts

 

Sunday, April 17-Friday, April 22, 2011

Case Western Reserve University

 

Sunday, April 17: Vergilian Footrace/Cursus Vergilianus

     4:00 p.m.  Sudeck Track, Northside Athletic Facilities

     5-kilometer footrace over the north side of campus

 

Monday, April 18: Art Contest and Exhibition

     3:00-6:00 p.m.  Art Studio, 2215 Adelbert Rd. (Room 201)

     Exhibition of student and faculty art inspired by Vergil and Greco-Roman civilization

     Contest judged by graduate students in Art Education

 

Tuesday, April 19: Latin Recitation Contest

     4:00-6:00 p.m. Clark Hall 206

     Latin recitation contest for high school and university students

 

Wednesday, April 20: Lecture, Staged Reading, and Concert

     5:30-8:00 p.m. Cleveland Museum of Art

     5:30 p.m. Lecture in the Recital Hall: Timothy Wutrich, "Theatricality in the Cleveland Ddo 

     and Aeneas Tapestries."

     6:30 p.m.  Staged Reading in the Armor Court: Aeneid Book IV: "The Dido Tragedy"

     7:30 p.m.  Concert in the Armor Court: The Early Music Singers conducted by Debra Nagy

 

Thursday, April 21: Continuous public reading of the Aeneid in English / Exhibition of Art Inspired by the Aeneid

     8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.  Crawford Hall, SAGES Cafe

     All are invited to join in a complete reading of the Aeneid in the English translation by Allen

     Mandelbaum.

     Vergil Week Art Contest Exhibition

 

Friday, April 22: Symposium: "Tradition: Vergil in Literature and the Arts"

     2:00-4:00 p.m. Clark Hall 206

     "Ars as eros in Dante and Vergil," Florin Berindeanu, CWRU

     "Epic Interruptions: Vergilian Allusion in Petrarch's Bucolicum Carmen," Ricardo Apostol,

          CWRU

     "Arms and the Men: Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage," Timothy Wutrich, CWRU

     "Excavating Vergil in Counter-Reformation Rome: Domenico Mazzocchi's Aeneid Dialoghi

          (1638)," Susan Shrimp, Independent Scholar

     "Vergilian Themes in Willa Cather's Shadow on the Rock," Edith Foster, Ashland University

 

Friday, April 22: Keynote Address

     5:30 p.m. Clark 309

     "Annotated Manuscripts of Vergil in the Middle Ages," Jan Ziolkowski, Chair, Department 

     of Classics, Harvard University

 

Registration forms for the footrace, art contest, and recitation contest can be downloaded from the Vergil Week link at www.case.edu/artsci/clsc/

 

For further information contact Professor Timothy Wutrich ([email protected]) or 216-368-6026.

 

Sponsored by the Department of Classics with Support from the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities and the Ohio Humanities Council

 

Thanks to Random House for permission to read publicly from Allen Mandelbaum's The Aeneid of Virgil (Bantam, 1971)

 

Back to Top

SUMMER PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENTS 

Randolph College 

 The Randolph College Department of Classics Announces

the Randolph College

 

Summer Latin Institute

 

JUNE 13 - JULY 22, 2011

 

Six credit hours of college Latin in six weeks of intensive study on the beautiful campus of Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA.

 

Course Offerings:

 

Latin 188: Elementary College Latin.  The equivalent of two semesters of beginning college-level Latin (Latin 101 & 102) in six weeks, covering grammar, basic vocabulary, and reading of passages from Latin literatire.  Open to college undergraduates, qualified high-school students, and others with an ambition to learn Latin.

 Virgil

Latin 388:  Vergil's Aeneid.  An intensive reading of the entire poem in the original Latin.  Open to qualified undergraduates and college graduates.  Especially suitable for teachers of Latin and those wishing to qualify to teach Latin in high school. 

 

Successful completion of either course earns six hours of college credit.

 

For more information, visit www.randolphcollege.edu/x17091.xml or contact us at [email protected] or

 

Summer Latin Institute

Randolph College

Department of Classics

2500 Rivermont Ave.

Lynchburg, VA 24503

 

Back to Top

UVA 

 2011 Latin Summer Language Institute 

In the summer of 2011 the Department of Classics at the University of Virginia will again offer Latin as one of the University's Summer Language Institutes.  The Latin program, which will take place from June 12 through August 5, is an intensive course designed to cover two years of college-level Latin (12 UVa credit hours earned) in only two months.  Students who wish to acquire experience in reading Latin but do not require course credit may also choose a non-credit option.  No previous knowledge of Latin is required for participation.  The Summer Latin Institute is an excellent opportunity for motivated students to achieve rapid proficiency in Latin and serves a broad range of students from all over the United States.  In addition to undergraduate and graduate students, enrollment is open to advanced high school students and individuals interested in learning a new language.  The program is also ideally suited for recent college graduates about to begin a post-baccalaureate program in Classics, as well as graduate students in other disciplines who need to acquire rapie but sound proficiency in a secondary language. 

 

The institute begins with the fundamentals of Latin grammar, including elementary readings and composition.  In the second half of the program, students read extensively from prose and verse authors at the intermediate level, in addition to completing more advanced exercises in prose composition and metrics.  There are two three-hour blocks of formal instruction per day and supplementary review sessions in the evenings.  Attendance in the morning and afternoon sessions is required of all students, regardless of whether they are enrolled for credit or non-credit.  Furthermore, every student, regardless of type of enrollment, must earn a passing grade in each class of the first half of the SLI in order to participate in the second half of the program.

 

For additional information please visit www.virginia.edu/classics/sli.html or contact the Director of the 2011 Latin SLI, Daniel Moore ([email protected]). 

 

 

UT Austin
Summer courses 

 

Each summer the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin offers its renowned course in Summer Intensive Greek: three semsters of Greek in ten weeks.  The department also offers Latin at the Beginning through Advanced Levels; Beginning and Intermediate Modern Greek; and various courses in Classical Civilization.  For more information contact Lynn Gadd ([email protected]); 512-471-8502).  See also the Department's website at www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/classics/

 

Back to Top

 

Summer Spoken Latin Program in Rome

 

Living Latin in Rome is a new five week intensive Latin course that combines traditional classroom instruction, active oral production of Latin, and an introduction to the major monuments of Ancient Rome and it surrounding areas. The course meets twice a day. In the morning session, students read through a famous passage from Latin literature in the classroom reviewing grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. Each passage selected is connected with a site in the ancient city. In the afternoon session, students meet at the site mentioned in the morning's reading to practice Latin orally in situ and interact with and describe the ancient city of Rome and its monuments.  Every Saturday, there is a trip to a famous site outside of Rome from Latin literature.

 

For more information please visit http://www.spokenlatin.org/ .

 

Back to Top

Call for Papers: Feminism and Classics VI

Crossing Borders Crossing Lines

 

Brock University (St. Catharines,Ontario), May 24-27, 2010

 

Ancient Mediterranean society was crisscrossed by multiple boundaries and borders.  Firm boundaries between male and female, slave and free, gods and mortals (to name just a few) defined social identities and relationships, even as these lines were regularly crossed in religious ritual, social practices and artistic imagination.  In current scholarship, Feminism is now Feminisms, encouraging multiple, and even transgressive, approaches to the study of women, gender, and sexuality in the ancient world.  But has Feminism itself become a boundary, diving fields of study or generations of scholars?  Or is it a threshold, encouraging crossings between literary, historical, and archaeological evidence?  What new approaches are scholars using to push the boundaries of the evidence and the limits of our knowledge of the ancient world?

 

This conference will focus on boundaries, liminality, and transgression. What kinds of crossings did ancient people experience and what control did they have over such crossings?  How did borders and border crossings differ in relation to gender, ethnicity, age, or legal status?  If the masculine and feminine were clearly demarcated categories of being, how do we interpret homosexual, transvestite and gender-labile aspects of the ancient world? What points of contrast and connection exist between different types of gendered space (literal or metaphorical) and do they change when geographical or national boundaries are crossed?

 

We invite submissions for abstracts of papers and workshops that explore these and related themes, and encourage proposals from a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives. Abstracts of 300 words can be submitted electronically to the conference website: www.brocku.ca/conferences/feminism-classics-vi.  Deadline for receipt of abstracts is June 30, 2011.

 

For inquiries, please contact [email protected] or visit our website at www.brocku.ca/conferences/feminism-classics-vi/CFP.

 

Back to Top

Call for Papers: Re-creation: Musical Reception of Classical Antiquity

 

The University of Iowa, October 27-29, 2011

 

Conference organizers:  Robert Ketterer (University of Iowa), Andrew Simpson (Catholic University), Greg Hand (University of Iowa)

 

The power of music in Greek and Roman myth to move gods, men and even inanimate objects, and the descriptions of music in the imaginative and theoretical literature of antiquity, have inspired musicians since the Middle Ages to interpret and transform the ancient experience.  Composers, librettists, and song writers have responded to the passions of the ancients in every available genre and style of musical expression.  This conference will explore ways that vocal and instrumental music throughout the world has received and recreated the art and culture of the Greeks and Romans.  A concomitant goal of this conference is to bring together artists and scholars in many fields - classics, music, theater, film - to engage in meaningful dialogue about the ways in which classical antiquity informs and shapes their own work.  Presenters whose specialty is classics are asked to emphasize musical examples in support of their arguments; specialists in music and other performing arts are requested to focus their presentations on the ancient paradigms that have influenced the music of their particular field.

 

Conference activities will include lectures, paper sessions, live concerts, and a screening of silent fims accompanied by live music composed by Andrew Simpson.  Speakers who have already commited to the project include Mary-Kay Gamel (UC Santa Cruz), Simon Goldhill (King's College, Cambridge), Wendy Heller (Princeton Unviersity), Jon Solomon (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne), and Reinhard Strohm (Wadham College, Oxford).  Concerts will include a performance by Iowa's Center for New Music, and the first opera for which music survives, Jacopo Peri's Euridice, premiered in Florence in 1600. 

 

Scholars and artists interested in participating are asked to submit abstracts on relevant subjects that include, but need not be limited to:

 

     -Stage Music (e.g. Opera, musical theater, incidental music)

     -Choral and vocal music

     -Instrumental music (e.g. chamber, orchestral, wind ensemble)

     -Music for film, including silent film

     -Electronic and digital music

     -Popular and folk music

     -World (i.e. non-Western) musical responses to classical antiquity

     -Social or political uses of antiquity in musical settings

     -Ancient music theory and modern musical practice

 

 The University of Iowa Classics Department's journal Syllecta Classica will publish a collection of refereed papers from this conference.  Syllecta Classica is available through Project Muse.

 

One-page abstracts should be sent as an electronic attachment to Professor Robert Ketterer, University of Iowa by April 15, 2011 ([email protected])

 

Back to Top

Latin for 2011: Fresh Ideas for Fresh Kids

 

Friday, April 1, 2011; 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Glen Urquhart School

Beverly, MA

 

We'll explore fresh ideas in Latin teaching through engaging, standards-connected, and rigorous activities.  Topics to be explored include grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and translation.  Methods to be explored include learning games, kinesthetic activities, listening and speaking activities, multimedia and technology-based activities, and adaptations of modern language techniques.  The presentation style is fast-paced, with plenty of multimedia integration, hands-on interaction for participants, and opportunity for group discussion and analysis.  Participants will receive myriad materials that can be used immediately in the classroom.  Register by mail or online.  Deadline: 3/21/2011.  Cost: $50 (includes registration, all materials, coffee, lunch).

 

Visit our website to get additional workshop details, to purchase publications, or to find out about schedule and other professional development opportunities or student programs!

 

www.ascaniusyci.org/

 

Back to Top

Latin Literature for All Ages: Using Authentic Texts to Challenge and Engage Your Students

 

Friday, April 29; 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools

Williamsburg, VA

 

Yearning to use high-interest authentic texts in your exploratory, lower, and intermediate classes?  Want ways of studying culture that are steeped in the primary sources?  Wondering how to spice up your literature classes with fun activities and interdisciplinary connections?  This workshop is designed to meet all these needs and more by exploring ways of 1) selecting and incorporating authentic texts at any level of Latin, 2) expanding the study of culture by marrying it with relevant and engaging texts and related extension activities, 3) integrating art, music, and comparative literature into the study of Latin literature, and 4) using authentic texts to promote not only rigor but also interest and excitement.  Participants will receive myriad materials that can be used immediately in the classroom.  Register online.  Deadline: 4/24/2011.  Cost: $40 (includes registration, all materials, coffee, lunch).

 

Visit our website to get additional workshop details, to purchse publications, or to find out about and schedule other professional development opportunities or student programs!

 

www.ascaniusyci.org/

 

Back to Top

CLASSICS IN THE NEWS

Chuck Pazdernik

Chuck Pazdernik (Photo by Eric Coulter/GVL)

Classics Prevails in Life Raft Debate at Grand Valley State University

 

On February 28, Grand Valley State University held a "Life Raft Debate" in which faculty members from eight disciplines competed for a hypothetical 'last life raft' for their programs.  Each faculty member made the case for why his or her course of study should be considered the most vital.  The winner was Classics faculty member Chuck Pazdernik, who prevailed over representatives from Writing, Mathematics, Biology, Philosophy, and Art & Design, among others.  The debate was featured in the Grand Valley Lanthorn, which can be found here. Let us all applaud Professor Pazdernik for his enthusiastic championing of Classics!  

 

Back to Top

Classics Headlines  

  
In November Sports Illustrated ran an interesting story on the Athens marathon, which can be found here.
  
In December the New York Times ran an op-ed piece by Stacy Schiff on how Cleopatra would handle the challenges of modern governance.  Click here.
  
To see Engadget's piece on how the Antikythera Mechanism was recently rebuilt out of Legos by Apple engineer Andrew Carol, click here.
  
In January Ekathimerini reported on the discovery in Turkey of a rare Greek dialect with strong similarities to ancient Greek.  Click here
  
MSNBC recently ran a piece on ancient Greek wine cups, which can be found here.
  
The Guardian reported in January that Caligula's tomb had been found following the arrest of a man for attempting to smuggle a statue of the emperor.  Click here.
  
In February The Spectator featured an article by Toby Young singing the praises of learning Latin.  You can find the article here.
  
In February Dan Wilbur, author of the blog betterbooktitles.com, shared some of his amusing alternative titles for Greek and Latin literary classics with the Huffington Post.  (Oedipus Rex, for example, becomes How I Met Your Mother.)  You can access the lighthearted piece here.
  

Necrology

 

Walter E. Spencer, 54, who taught at J.H. Rose High School in Greenville, NC, passed away on September 30, 2010.  Click here for an obituary.

 

Sharon R. Gibson, 70, passed away on January 31, 2011.  She taught at Brownsburg High School in Brownsburg, IN.  An obituary can be found here.

 

Douglass S. Parker, 83, who taught at the University of Texas at Austin, passed away on February 8, 2011.  Click here for an obituary.

 

To view the necrology blog, where you can leave remembrances of those we have lost, click here.

 

Back to Top

Submissions

 

The CAMWS Newsletter is published three times per year, in the fall, winter, and spring.  The deadline for the spring edition is May 5, 2011. 

 

Send submissions by e-mail to [email protected]

 

Send submissions by regular mail to:

 

Stephanie A. McCarter

CAMWS Newsletter Editor

Department of Classical Languages

Sewanee: the University of the South

735 University Avenue

Sewanee, TN 37383

 

931-598-1221

Back to Top