Follow SCS News for information about the SCS and all things classical.
Catullus Online is a freely available digital edition of the poems of Catullus. It can be accessed simply as a Latin text of the poems—in editor Dániel Kiss’s own edition—or with each line linked to a full apparatus. Many poems can also be viewed in photographs from important manuscripts (such as O, courtesy of the Bodleian Library). This is a useful project for its intrinsic value as a new text of Catullus, for its ease of availability, and for the directions it implies for new tools in the study of very old texts. Here I will review it briefly as a text of Catullus, as a website, and finally as groundwork for the kind of online Catullus edition we can hope for in the future.
Unlike other editions of Catullus in digital form (e.g., at The Latin Library), this edition is the product of Kiss’s own research. In contrast to printed editions, Kiss has been able to include as full an apparatus as he likes. As a result, this apparatus is now the easiest way to trace the history of specific readings and scholarly conjectures on them.
The Packard Humanities Institute’s Searchable Greek Inscriptions revolutionized the accessibility of ancient Greek epigraphic texts, first in CD-ROM format and then online since 2005. David Packard, Jr. initiated the project in the late 1980s as a collaboration between teams of scholars at Cornell University and The Ohio State University, and supported it financially through the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI). The original intent was to produce searchable texts of the well-over 200,000 inscriptions published in volumes like Inscriptiones Graecae (IG). The PHI editors did not aim to replace or fully re-edit the published editions of the texts, but did make corrections and standardize many inconsistencies. (On the early years of the project and its working methods, see Iversen 2007).
Congratulations to SCS member Ineke Sluiter on being named British Academy Corresponding Fellow for 2017 alongside 65 other Fellows.
To read the full news story and read about the work of all 2017 Fellows, you can visit the British Academy's website.
---
(Photo: "The British Academy's royal seal depicts the Greek Muse Clio" by the British Academy's Web Master, brightened by user Ivtorov and licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)
SIBC has corrected an error in the recent Announcement "L'Année philologique Moving to Brepols."
First Version
"Libraries and individuals currently subscribing through Les Belles Lettres and EBSCO will continue to have online access through these distributors until their current subscription concludes, no later than Dec. 31, 2018"
Corrected Version
"Libraries and individuals currently subscribing through Les Belles Lettres and EBSCO will continue to have online access through these distributors until their current subscription concludes, no later than Sept. 30, 2018."
Affected libraries should note this change, as the deadline is significantly closer than before.
---
Digital Augustan Rome is a web-based platform that provides a visual synopsis, with textual commentary, of contemporary scholarship on the topography of Rome, c. 14 CE. On the project’s homepage, the director David Romano emphasizes that DAR is in only the second of four planned stages (as of April, 2017). Even at this stage, however, DAR already constitutes a significant contribution to scholarship on the topography of Augustan Rome. I would highly recommend a visit to the site.
DAR is a digital successor to the 2002 print volume Mapping Augustan Rome.[1] In its current form, it relies almost entirely on material that has already been published and reviewed.[2] In this review, therefore, I focus primarily on those aspects of the project that are unique to DAR—namely, its presentation of the material in a specifically digital format. I begin with a brief introduction. I then proceed to highlight what I see as DAR’s two most significant strengths, as well as several areas for improvement.
CALL FOR PAPERS:
CONFERENCE 24-26 MAY 2018,
BANFF, ALBERTA (CANADA)
Greek and Roman Pasts in the Long Second Century: The Intellectual Climate of Cassius Dio
(From the Washington Post)
Former SCS TLL Fellow Charles McNamara has written an article for the Washington Post on funding for TLL in the current U.S. political climate.
"On the shelf, [the TLL] resembles the Oxford English Dictionary, but administratively, the project looks a bit like CERN, the laboratory for the study of particle physics. Just as the 22 member states of CERN collaborate on long-term research too costly for one country to undertake alone, the TLL is home to scholars funded by countries from around the world, among them Japan, Denmark, Italy and the United States."
You can read the full article on the Washington Post website here.
---
(Photo: "Munich Nymphenburg" by Matthias Ott, licensed under CC BY 2.0.)
We are happy to announce the opening of the Placement Service for the 2017-2018 academic year.
Please see the links below for common actions and steps in the Placement Service process.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to contact erik.shell@nyu.edu
---
Log in as an SCS member or non-member
See an overview of the Placement Service for individuals and institutions, members and non-members
Sign up to receive emails about job ads both as they are posted and as a monthly summary (free to SCS members)
Sign up as an institution for our ad-only or Comprehensive Service Plan resources
Institutions: Use this chart and checklist to see what services are right for you and what a job ad should contain
This article was originally published in Amphora 12.1. It has been edited slightly to adhere to current SCS blog conventions.
Elsewhere in this issue, in his article titled The Metal Age, Kris Fletcher discusses the relationship between classical studies and heavy metal music. Examining various metal appropriations of themes, characters, and ideas from classical antiquity, some less orthodox than others, Fletcher notes, “… these songs should remind us that we as classicists do not control this material.” On the SCS website, Mary-Kay Gamel and the Outreach Committee have voiced a similar view concerning the shared understanding of classical material: “We use the word ‘outreach’ not to suggest a one-way communication in which scholars inform others, but a complex interaction in which all involved contribute to a discussion of what Classics is and what it might be.”
Not surprisingly, then, in January the Outreach Committee enjoyed a lively discussion of the role of professional classicists and their students as editors of Wikipedia articles on classical subjects.
Annual Meeting
On July 5 the SCS office issued email notifications to everyone who submitted an abstract or proposal. If you submitted but did not yet receive an email notifying you of acceptance or rejection, please email us (info@classicalstudies.org). Look out later this summer for announcements about the preliminary program for the Boston meeting, travel stipends for graduate students and contingent faculty, and the opening of annual meeting registration.
Elections
All election materials, including candidate statements and the text of the proposed Working Conditions statement, can be found here. Please note that voting will open on August 1. You cannot vote before that date.
Membership Legates
The Membership Committee, led by Chair Kathleen Coleman, has appointed legates who will serve as SCS representatives in each US state. Please see this page for more information.
Award Deadlines
Nominations for the PreCollegiate Teaching Award: September 8, 2017
