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Guidelines for the 2021 Erich S. Gruen Prize have been updated.
The Erich S. Gruen Prize Committee invites all graduate students in North America to enter the second annual competition for the best graduate research paper on multiculturalism in the ancient Mediterranean. This year the prize will be a cash award of $500.
The prize is intended to honor Erich S. Gruen, renowned ancient historian and long-time Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History and Classics at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Gruen was born in Vienna in 1935 and came to the United States in 1939. One of the most respected and beloved scholars in the field, he has made lasting contributions to our understanding of ethnicity, identity, and exchange in the multicultural ancient Mediterranean world.
Cartledge Title and Abstract
Learning from the Past: Classics and the Contemporary World
Prof. Paul Cartledge (University of Cambridge)
Tuesday May 25, 2021 at 5pm GMT
Abstract: This webinar explores contemporary political and social issues, including the nature of populism and authoritarianism and the treatment of disenfranchised groups, through the lens of ancient Athens and its extraordinary democracy with Prof. Paul Cartledge, emeritus A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge.
Paul Cartledge is a world-renowned Classicist and expert on ancient Greece, whose recent books include Democracy: A Life (2018) and Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece (2020). In 2021, he received the Commander of the Order of Honor from the Greek government for enhancing the reputation of Greece abroad.
The SCS, consistent with its Statement on Professional Ethics, which addresses discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity, stands fully in support of transgender classicists. It condemms any harassment and bullying of anyone who is transgender or who advocates for transgender rights.
approved by the SCS Board, 4/30/21
The Department of Latin at the University of Basel, in collaboration with the foundation PLuS, is pleased to invite applications for the new round of the Basel Fellowships in Latin Literature. The fellowship programme offers an opportunity for early career researchers as well as established scholars to pursue their research in the framework of a fully funded visit of up to three months at the Departement Altertumswissenschaften of the University of Basel. During their stay Fellows are entitled to make full use of the excellent resources of the University Library as well as the departmental library, Bibliothek Altertumswissenschaften, one of the world’s leading research libraries for the study of the ancient Mediterranean civilisations.
Closing date for applications for spring and autumn 2022 (full term: 21 Feb until 03 June 2022 or 19 Sept until 23 Dec 2022 respectively) is 01 September 2021.
Congratulations to all the newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The 252 new members include several who are classicists:
CLASS IV – Humanities and Arts
SECTION 1 – PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
- Fritz Graf, The Ohio State University
- Teresa Morgan (IHM), University of Oxford
SECTION 3 – LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE STUDIES
- Ruth Scodel, University of Michigan
SECTION 5 – VISUAL ARTS
- Paul Zanker (IHM), German Archaeological Institute
CLASS V – Leadership, Policy, and Communications
SECTION 3 – EDUCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP
- Joy Connolly, American Council of Learned Societies
You can view the whole list of newly elected members here.
SCS congratulates the 2021-22 Rome Prize Winners in Ancient Studies, announced by the American Academy in Rome on April 23, 2021:
Sasha-Mae Eccleston
National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize
Kevin Ennis
Samuel H. Kress Foundation/Helen M. Woodruff-Archaeological Institute of America Rome Prize
Grace Funsten
Emeline Hill Richardson/Arthur Ross Rome Prize
John Izzo
Millicent Mercer Johnsen Rome Prize
Adriana Maria Vazquez
Andrew Heiskell/Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Rome Prize
You can view the full announcement and list of all Rome prize winners and Italian fellows here.
Image: "Roman Forum" by Benson Kua is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities initiative, launched by the SCS in 2019 as the Classics Everywhere initiative, supports projects that seek to engage broader publics — individuals, groups, and communities — in critical discussion of and creative expression related to the ancient Mediterranean, the global reception of Greek and Roman culture, and the history of teaching and scholarship in the field of classical studies. As part of this initiative, the SCS has funded 98 projects in 25 states and 10 countries, ranging from school programming to reading groups, prison programs, public talks and conferences, digital projects, and collaborations with artists in theater, opera, music, dance, and the visual arts.
April, 2021
Below is a list of the most recent NEH grantees and their Classically-themed projects. The NEH helps fund a number of SCS initiatives, and their support affects the field of Classics at a national and local level.
Grantees
- James Given (Yale Divinity School) - "The Letters of Ignatius of Antioch, between Forgery and Fiction"
- Maddalena Rumor (Case Western Reserve University) - "Dreckapotheke' in Ancient Mesopotamia and the Graeco-Roman World"
- Hallie Meredith (Washington State University) - "Fragmentary and Unfinished Art: Documenting Undocumented Late Roman Art and Process"
- Jennifer Bryan (Oberlin College) - "Chaucer's Ovidian Arts: Poetic Influence and Innovation at the Beginning of English Literature"
- Jacqueline Meier (University of North Florida) - "Animals of a Late Bronze Age Household at Mycenae, Greece"
- Peter Meineck (Aquila Theatre Company, Inc.) - "Warrior Chorus: American Democracy"
- Yelena Baraz (Society for Classical Studies) - "SCS/NEH Fellowship at the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae"
When I came back to the classroom in 2016, after an interlude career as a mental health counselor, I noticed systemic problems in the field of Classics that I had previously normalized. At the pre-collegiate level, Classics is not only elitist, but also exclusive in a way that has made it a racialized space. Mock slave auctions, for example, were held as fundraisers under the Junior Classical League brand as late as 2019 and still have not been formally banned. Instructional materials present slavery with the same rhetoric as Lost Cause white supremacists. At the JCL convention this year, the piece for the boys’ dramatic oration was a selection from Ars Amatoria, and the theme for the “couples costume” contest regularly involved rapist-victim dyads.
The Classics Program of Hunter College (CUNY) announces the rescheduled conference on Theognis and the Theognidea. The conference will now be virtual. It will run from April 28th (Wednesday) through April 30th (Friday) from 12-3:30 PM. (NB, the first day starts at 11:45AM and the last day runs to 4PM.) The conference is open and free. Registration is required.
