Department of Classics

The next meeting of the Classics Club will be Thursday, September 17 (4:30-8:00 PM) in Randolph Hall 301B. Come join us for Classics Board Games!

Dr. Jim Newhard, Classics Professor and Director of Archaeology, works with a crew of paleontology professionals to recover an ancient whale skull from the Ashley River, Charleston, SC.

Dr. Allison Sterrett-Krause (Classics) and her student, Classics/Archaeology major, Sarah Legendre presented their research, “Is it a Bottle?” at the “Celebration of Summer Scholars Poster Session” (August 24, 2015). Their work includes a new typology for identifying the object to which a particular glass fragment belonged. They will also present their work at the 2oth congress of the International Association for the History of Glass, held at Fribourg, Switzerland (September 7-11, 2015).

We are very pleased to welcome to our faculty Dr. Jennifer Gerrish and Dr. Allison Sterrett-Krause.

Dr. Jennifer Gerrish received her Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. Her teaching interests include Greek and Latin language and Greek and Roman history, and her research focuses on Roman historiography, particularly conceptions of civil war and stasis.  Dr. Gerrish is currently writing a monograph on Sallust’s Histories.

Dr. Allison Sterrett-Krause is a Roman archaeologist with special interest in the western Roman world. Her research encompasses both large social trends (gender, agency, and economy) and small archaeological artifacts (Roman inscriptions, Roman glass). She holds a Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Cincinnati and teaches Roman civilization, archaeology, and Latin.

Part the Theodore B. Guérard Lecture Series, this year’s colloquium, held in cooperation with the Program of African American Studies,  will bring to campus four distinguished speakers to present their work centering on  the theme of “Classics, Black Colleges, and Civil Rights.”

By 1877, the official end of Reconstruction, twenty-five black colleges and universities had been established, mostly in the South. These institutions were created on the classical New England model, with the teaching of Greek and Latin at their core. Over the next four decades, however, there would be a concerted effort by the white educational establishment, philanthropic organizations, and black conservatives to halt the teaching of Greek and Latin. This colloquium will explore the reasons why the opponents of these institutions felt it dangerous for black students to learn Greek and Latin and the measures they took to eradicate these courses. More broadly, the colloquium will explore the tactics of defiance, resistance (both physical and mental), and dissemblance employed by black teachers, parents, and students to maintain the quality of their curriculum. Indeed, the lessons learned at black colleges and universities were not simply academic. They were life lessons of social uplift and civic empowerment.

Dr. Kenneth Goings (Ohio State University) specializes in 19^th-20^th century African American History. His The NAACP Comes of Age and Mammy and Uncle Mose: Black Collectibles and American Stereotyping both won the Gustavus Myer’s Center’s Outstanding Book Award. Title: Creating a “Culture of Dissemblance”: African American Resistance to the Suppression of the Classics at Black College and Universities, Monday, March 23, 4:00PM [Alumni Center, School of Education, Health, and Human Performance]

Dr. Patrice Rankine is the Dean for Arts and Humanities at Hope College. His interests include how modern authors, in particular African-American Literature, employ classical themes. His recent books include Aristotle and Black Drama: A Theater of Disobedience. Title: “Performing Classics: The Black Body,” Monday, March 23, 5:30PM [Alumni Center, School of Education, Health, and Human Performance]

Dr. Eugene O’Connor is a managing and acquiring editor at The Ohio State University Press. His interests include Greek and Roman elegy and the reception of classics. He and Dr. Goings are at work on a book on African Americans and the classics from the 1870s to 1940s. Title: “Tell Them We are Rising”: The Formative and Subversive Role of the Classics at Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” Tuesday, March 24, 4:00PM [Alumni Center, School of Education, Health, and Human Performance]

Dr. Michele Valerie Ronnick (Wayne State University), an award winning educator, is one of the leading biographers for 19^th century African-American educators. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on the subject, including “Virgil in the Black American Experience.” Title: “Black Carolinians and Classical Education- A Look at the Lives of Five Native Sons:       Daniel Payne (1811-1893), Francis Cardozo (1837-1903), Cornelius Scott (1855-1922), William Bulkley (1861-1933) and Kelly Miller (1863-1939),” Tuesday, March 24, 5:30PM [Alumni Center, School of Education, Health, and Human Performance]

Dr. Andrew Alwine will give a talk, sponsored by the Classics Club: “Good and Evil in Middle-Earth: Tolkien’s Return to the Classics.” The talk will be this Wednesday, November 19, at 6:00PM in Randolph Hall 301B. Open to the public.

Dr. Noelle Zeiner-Carmichael  will be presenting a paper, “Magister Domino,” during an international colloquium, “Power and the Intellectual,” at the University of South Africa, Pretoria (October 22-24, 2014).

It might just “pay” to major in Classics. According to a survey by the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, recent humanities majors had an employment rate “on par with students in computer and math fields, psychology and social work, and the social sciences.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/06/the-best-argument-for-studying-english-the-employment-numbers/277162/