Outreach Open Mic

Amphora, the outreach publication of the Society for Classical Studies, is a peer-reviewed publication whose content is disseminated through the SCS website. Readers are alerted to each new article via SCS social media, and all past Amphora content can be accessed through dedicated pages within the SCS website. But this has not always been so.

The Committee on Public Information and Media Relations, housed in the Communications and Outreach Division, met for the first time at the most recent SCS meeting in Toronto to discuss mission and to create substantive goals for 2017. At the meeting, we developed three concrete action plans for the year:

1) establish SCS awards for public-facing scholarship (books and articles);

2) create a database of experts and areas of expertise to tie in with SCS press releases;

3) start forming a database of our members who currently have media contacts.

This paper highlights the first and most important initiative of the newly founded Committee of Classics in the Community by relating my experience of partnering with an Aequora-site while teaching for the first time advanced Latin with a service-learning component. Public service is a hallmark of the identity of my university, where all undergraduates are required to complete a two-tier service-learning requirement. The university’s motto – non sibi, sed suis – is a recurring theme in its branding as an outward-facing academic institution.

The online presence of Classics has shifted profoundly over the past five years. An abortive attempt by the then-APA to set up a team of regular columnists to publish online their thoughts on all things related to the discipline gave way to the much-more-successful endeavor of Eidolon, whose use of the Medium platform has helped it gain a wide readership and a sophisticated site design.