SCS Newsletter - February 2019 (Education and Communications Reports)

Education Division VP Report

by Ariana Traill

Sunday, Jan. 6, 2018

Action Items

(Approved) Continue teacher’s tea at least one more year. Approximately twenty-five people attended this year. More are likely in DC, given the geography. The banquet style set-up worked well: the event ended with one giant table, where everyone continued talking after the event had formally ended. Time and date (Saturday, 2:00 – 3:00) worked well. In this time slot, there could perhaps be less food next year to reduce costs.
(Agreed) < K-12/JCCAE. Professional credits for teachers: shall we use ACL model? (cost $400) A budget needs to be prepared and submitted to the board before any action is taken.
(No action). Response to governance document, re: reducing the total number of SCS committees. The Education cannot reduce its number of committees but K-12/JCCAE will meet jointly again next year.
(Agreed) There will be a joint SCS/ACL ad committee to revise Latin teacher training standards (2007) in accordance with Latin/Greek learning standards (2017). The K2/JCCAE notes that this needs to be done. We will need an email blast from ACL/SCS for volunteers. The presidents of the ACL and SCS, in consultation with the K12/JCCAE committee, will select a core group of writers (6-7 total, with equal representation) who will draft a document for more broad circulation for comment.
(Agreed) < K-12/JCCAE. Helen will work with the AIA on establishing a sliding scale for registration fees for K-12 teachers that recognizes the scarcity of research funding at this level. At the same time, a new membership fee will be proposed that allows full membership privileges but at a lower cost for K-12 teachers than non K-12 members. (The current fee of $35.00 does not allow full benefits, as e.g., appearing on the program.) A proposal will be in place for the June conference call.

Work in Progress

Efforts to sustain funding for a pre-collegiate teaching prize increase (two nights hotel/flight/materials budget of $500 instead of $200). The SCS will highlight this fund in the spring newsletter. Sherwin Little mentioned that there is some funding < ACL.
Planned for submission for the 2020 program: a panel on “re-envisioning a 21st century graduate program” (<CCUE); a graduate committee panel “thinking institutionally” (helping grad students ‘own’ their service).
Data collection efforts (<K12-JCCAE): in collaboration with NCLG, the committee will update licensure/certification programs and add requirements. A list of distance MA/PhD programs for the benefit of K-12 teachers may also be desirable.
Education Division committee staffing (as terms end).
The Graduate Committee wants to revive the “graduate student guide” as a web doc & are willing to work on collecting information.
The Graduate Committee would like programs to post alumni placements. Can we nudge anyone?
Laurel Fulkerson. A review of the collegiate teaching award criteria may be in order this year, as well as efforts to increase application numbers.
Soliciting feedback from other awards committee chairs.
(Maybe) exploratory emails/phone calls to some community colleges about what it would take for them to offer Classics courses.

---

SCS Communications & Outreach Division VP Report

150^th Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, Jan. 3-6, 2019

Reporting: Matthew McGowan, VP 2016-20

As we move into the third year since the restructuring of the Communications and Outreach Division under President Roger Bagnall, at least two of the new committees are still trying to find their footing: PIMR and CCC. Still, it was a productive meeting, and at least one of those committees (CC) brought an action item to the Board Meeting on Sunday, Jan. 6. The addition of Nina Papathanasopoulou as a part-time public engagement co-ordinator was a welcome development for Communications & Outreach.

1. Communications Committee (CC): Thursday, 1/3/19, @ 8am

Present: Sarah Bond (Chair), Sam Flores, Ted Gellar-Goad, Matthew Loar, Arum Park, Christopher Polt, Chris Trinacty, Lindsay Vella (U.Iowa / Asst. Editor of SCS Blog), Helen Cullyer ex officio, Erik Shell (SCS staff), Matthew McGowan, ex officio.

Per telephone: Ayelet Haimson Lushkov; Sam Huskey, ex officio.

Absent: Adrienne Rose, Liz Penland

In the run-up to the 150^th annual meeting in SD and at the request of Comm. & Outreach VP McGowan & Program VP Salzman, the CC did an excellent job of promoting a number of special panels via Blog posts under the direction of Chair Sarah Bond, for example, the lectures of Luis Alfaro and Mary Beard. During the conference there was live tweeting of “Mapping the Classical World Since 1869: Past and Future Directions” (Organized by Richard Talbert, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). First Paper Session (8:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.); “Theatre and Social Justice: The Work of Luis Alfaro” (Organized by Nancy S. Rabinowitz, Hamilton College, Mary Louise Hart, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Melinda Powers, John Jay College and the Graduate Center, CUNY); Mary Beard Sesquicentennial Keynote on Global Classics. It is not clear whether the Lightning Talks were live-tweeted as was originally hoped.

As part of the discussion during a march through a rather full agenda, it was considered whether the Communications Committee wanted to sponsor a panel, supported by the Division of Communications and Outreach, that would critically evaluate the legacy of Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve at next year’s SCS meeting in Washington, DC. It was determined to reach out to other constituencies, for example, at the University of Virginia, and to consider doing something collaborative.

In short, the CC under the energetic leadership of Prof. Bond has done an admirable job getting more content on the web, in particular via the regular blog scheduling via “editors” by month, which will continue in 2019: e.g. Feb.–Bond, March–Penland, etc. Finally, the CC has responded well to the suggestion made in the late summer to increase Facebook presence.

2. Committee on Public Information and Media Relations (PIMR): Thurs., 1/4/18, @ 10am

Present: Shubha Pathak (Chair), Rosa Andujar, Patrick Burns, Bob Darrah, Chelsea Gardner, Tara Mulder, Norman Sandridge, Matthew McGowan, ex officio.

Per telephone: Michael Fontaine

This was a lively meeting at which discussion of the Forum Prize and its parameters dominated the discussion (see below). It was acknowledged that clearer guidelines needed to be established both for nominators and judges, and the committee members continued to meet even after the meeting had ended to try to hammer out new guidelines. It was determined to continue nominating SCS members for the Whiting Fellowship as last year. The action items were:

Forum Prize: The committee’s top priority for 2020: reword the nomination language for the Forum Prize (this will take homework).
Whiting Fellowship: PIMR agreed to nominate people for Whiting rather than opting out. If any of the nominees we choose are ineligible by their criteria, then try to make case to Whiting.
Media Contact List: The plug was pulled on this project because it was too onerous and unrealistic for a non-professional (in media) to take on this task.
Responsible Uses of Classics: The best approach to bringing in media professionals(e.g. NPR, WaPo) who are interested in Classics to meet experts in Classics would be either (1) our committee could propose a workshop to the program committee (and this might be looked on favorably)or (2), if an evening event, we could do it as a special event (lightning talks?).

3. Communications & Outreach Panel, Saturday, 1/5/19 @ 8-10am

“Podcasting the Classics”

A highly successful panel co-organized by Curtis Dozier (Vassar) and Comm.& Outreach VP McGowan on an increasingly popular medium for the spread of content about the ancient Mediterranean, Greek and Roman history in particular:

1. Doug Metzger, “Educational Podcasts: Sensible Strategies;"

2. Peta Greenfield & Fiona Radford, "Outside the Gaze: Podcasting Ancient Rome as Woman Scholars;”

3. Vanya Visnjic, "Classics for the People;"

4. Zoe Kontes, " Looted: Lessons Learned;"

5. Andrew Carroll, “Pod Save the Classics: Using Podcasts in the Secondary Classroom."

4. Committee on Classics in the Community (CCC), Sunday, 1/6/19 11am

Present: Mallory Monaco Caterine (Chair), Penny Evans, Philip Freeman, Marco Romani (proxy for Jason Pedicone), Matthew McGowan, ex officio, Sheila Murnaghan, ex officio; Nina Papathanasopoulou (guest).

Absent: Jason Pedicone, Nancy Sultan, John Klopacz, Peter Meineck

The committee was happy with the outcome of the first round of grant recipients submissions for the “Classics Everywhere Initiative,” and looks forward to new rounds in March 1 and May 15. A plan was hatched to feature some recipients in blog posts with the help of the Communications Committee. The two committee Chairs, Monaco Caterine (CCC) and Bond (CC), were put in touch and will be working out a way to make that happen later in 2019. The members of the CCC also agreed to draw up a survey to poll the SCS membership on outreach being done on any scale that the committee might not otherwise know about but perhaps like to follow or feature. The survey was drawn up, presented to the SCS Board, and approved, and will likely be going out in February 2019. Finally, the CCC wanted to revisit the language of its mission in the SCS Regulations:

The Committee on Classics in the Community consists of the Vice President for Communications and Outreach, ex officio, and six members, appointed by the President, for staggered three-year terms, one of whom shall serve as chair upon annual appointment by the President. The President-Elect, the Vice President for Education, and the Executive Director shall be ex officio members of the Committee with voice but without vote. The committee fosters the teaching of Classics—especially the Latin and Greek languages—by providing information about starting programs at the K-12 levels and in the broader community, access to curricular materials, and opportunities for professional development and teacher training.

It was decided to revise and make the description reflect the outreach work (and survey of outreach work) the Committee is actually doing and to take out language associated with teaching and schools. That revision will be submitted to the Board for review at the fall meeting.

Nb. AMPHORA was closed down by vote of the SCS Board in Sept. 2018. Amphora content still remains available on the SCS website.

More February 2019 Newsletter Content