The Undying Song: Writing the Homosexual Body in the long 19th Century and beyond

The Undying Song:

Writing the Homosexual Body in the long 19th Century and beyond

By Dr. Nikolas Kakkoufa

(Columbia University; currently Marilena Laskaridis Visiting Research Fellow, University of Amsterdam)

Friday, 7 May, 15.30 (CET)

Location:   https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/88607866042 
(Meeting ID: 886 0786 6042)
Language: English

Abstract

 2021 marks the Bicentennial of the Greek Revolution with a plethora of activities and events that span the globe and explore its different aspects and connections to the Mediterranean, the world, and Greece today. What seems to be missing from most of these celebrations and academic events is an extensive discussion on the body itself. How are bodies produced, constructed, and regulated before, during, and after the Greek revolution? What is the difference between the way bodies – and desires – were inscribed and transcribed in the everyday life, the literary imagination, and the newly founded constitution and penal code? This talk will take Georgios Tertsetis as a starting point to explore the discourse on the homosexual body in the first half of the 19th century while also considering the possibilities of its reception in a present continuous tense. 

Bio

Nikolas P. Kakkoufa (PhD, King’s College London 2015) is a Lecturer in Modern Greek at the Department of Classics, the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Program in Hellenic Studies, and an Affiliate Faculty at the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Columbia University, New York. His courses range from beginners to advanced classes in language and culture and seminars on literature and sexuality. His ongoing research projects focus on queer theory, on the image of the city in literature, and on the use of literature and translation pedagogy in second language acquisition. He has given presentations and has published papers on language pedagogy and on the work of Vitsenzo Kornaros, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Kostis Palamas, C.P. Cavafy, Kostas Karyotakis, Nikolas Calas, Lefteris Poulios, Michalis Ganas, and others. He is currently writing a book tentatively titled ‘Word is the flesh’: The Body in the Work of Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, and C. P. Cavafy. During Spring 2021 he is a Marilena Laskaridis Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam.

John Izzo Receives 2021-2022 Rome Prize

The Department of Classics extends its enthusiastic congratulations to PhD candidate John Izzo on receiving the 2021-2022 Millicent Mercer Johnsen Rome Prize in Ancient Studies for his dissertation entitled, “Tironian Notes: Literary and Historical Studies on Marcus Tullius Tiro.” 

John’s doctoral research explores the multifarious connections between Roman slavery and Latin literature by analyzing the life, writings, and reception of Marcus Tullius Tiro. Although extant evidence generally provides only glimpses of individual Roman slaves and freedmen, relatively detailed references to Tiro appear in ancient sources. The analysis of Cicero’s letters, fragments of Tiro’s own writings, and the reception of Tiro by later authors is therefore able to open up new perspectives on Roman slavery. By applying diverse literary and historical approaches to these texts, as well as placing them in dialogue with comparative evidence, John’s dissertation reassesses what these sources can tell us about Tiro’s activities as a secretary to Cicero and as an intellectual in his own right. In doing so, it also contributes to our knowledge of the important roles of slaves and freedmen in the management of aristocratic households and the production of classical literature.

John is looking forward to studying in Rome and to joining the collaborative community at the American Academy.

The full press release can be viewed here.

www.aarome.org

John Izzo

Undergraduate Prizes and Honors

The Classics Department congratulates its graduating seniors and is delighted to announce the following Honors and prizes:

DEPARTMENTAL HONORS
Uwade Akhere
Herbert Rimerman
Hacer Berra Akcan

PHI BETA KAPPA
Julian Pecht
Herbert Rimerman
Issac Shott Rosenfeld
Hacer Berra Akcan

DOUGLAS GARDNER CAVERLY PRIZE
Herbert Rimerman

ERNEST STADLER PRIZE 
Uwade Akhere
Julian Pecht
Arnav Tandon

BENJAMIN F. ROMAINE PRIZE 
Herbert Rimerman

EARLE PRIZE
Helen Ruger
Pedro Tozzi Pistoso

JUDITH STRONACH PRIZE
Hacer Berra Akcan

 Optime fecistis!

Elizabeth Heintges to Deliver Inaugural SAIG/GSC Dissertation Lecture

The Student Affairs Interest Group (SAIG) of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the Graduate Student Committee (GSC) of the Society for Classical Studies (SCS) are pleased to present the inaugural SAIG/GSC Dissertation Lecture. This annual talk is a collaborative effort intended to highlight the work of a senior doctoral candidate whose research features interdisciplinary work between the fields of archaeology and classical philology, and to support the student networks between these related fields.

As the first SAIG/GSC Dissertation Lecturer, Elizabeth Heintges, doctoral candidate at Columbia University, will present “Forgetting Sextus Pompey: the bellum Siculum and Vergil’s Aeneid,” integrating both literary and material evidence into an analysis of two major moments in Roman Republican history. Please see the poster and abstract below for more details.

The lecture will be held virtually on Thursday, April 22, 2021 at 5:00 pm EDT. Please register here in advance of this Zoom webinar.

Any questions? Please don’t hesitate to reach out via email (studentaffairsaia@gmail.com).

About the Annual Lecture, SAIG, and GSC:

Following the 2020 AIA/SCS Annual Meeting, the Student Affairs Interest Group of the AIA and the Graduate Student Committee of the SCS began discussing future collaboration, with the purpose of highlighting and uplifting interdisciplinary graduate research. From this, the SAIG/GSC Annual Lecture was born, an awarded lecture for a doctoral candidate who emphasizes both new and interdisciplinary research in their own work. This Inaugural 2021 Lecture serves to empower graduate students, provide a professionalization opportunity during a critical period of career transition, and broadly, to foster interdisciplinary collaboration. Through an ongoing virtual lecture series, the SAIG and GSC hope to expand access for their graduate audiences to new research and upcoming scholars, and to allow for scholarly participation and interest across a broad geographic area.

The Student Affairs Interest Group (SAIG) seeks to increase student engagement within the AIA and to provide student members a platform to have their voices heard. SAIG consists of AIA members with an interest in the expansion of opportunities for student participation and professional development within the AIA, the promotion of student scholarship, and the facilitation of dialogues between the student membership and other members of the organization through its various events, initiatives, and mentorship program. More information can be found at https://studentaffairsaia.wordpress.com/.

The SCS Graduate Student Committee (GSC) is a nominated subcommittee within the Education Division of the SCS, chiefly concerned with graduate student representation and unification for both member and non-member graduate students. Its initiatives have recently included advocating for greater representation of graduate students in positions of leadership and facilitating the creation of a region-based graduate student network.

Department Statement on Language Learning in AY 20-21

The Department of Classics is mindful that students in its language classes are faced with the challenging task of learning Greek and Latin at a high level. This past year, the task has been made even more daunting, on account of the pandemic, remote teaching, lack of access to library resources, and many other factors of dislocation. The Department therefore undertakes to do all it can to help them consolidate their gains and progress in their knowledge, with the aim of catching up any lost ground by the end of Fall 2021, as part of their exploration of the Classics in the original languages. Please do not hesitate to contact faculty members with any questions you might have.

The Archipelago feat. Stathis Gourgouris • The Orientalist Dream of Modern Greece

Twenty five years ago, Stathis Gourgouris, a Professor of Classics, English and Comparative Literature published his seminal work “Dream Nation: Enlightenment, Colonization, and the Institution of Modern Greece”, in which he applied the tools of psychoanalysis and post-colonial theory in Modern Greek history.

In this episode of The Archipelago, the second of two specials to coincide with the bicentennial of Greek Independence, Stathis Gourgouris talks about the fragmented dreams of different groups that came together to imagine Modern Greece, Europe’s need for a Greek state to connect their own nations with classical antiquity, as well as the remnants of orientalism that still shape the European gaze towards Greece today.

For more information on this episode, please click HERE.

To view the special event organized by the Oxford Research Center in the Humanities in conjunction with this book, please click HERE.

Department Statement on Graduate Student Strike

Uwade Akhere (CC '21) Receives Lionel Pearson Fellowship

The Department of Classics is very pleased to announce that Classics Major Uwade Akhere (CC ‘21) is the winner of the 2021-22 Lionel Pearson Fellowship awarded by the Society for Classical Studies. The Pearson Fellowship supports one year of study at an institution in the United Kingdom. The Department extends its sincere congratulations to Ms. Akhere on this accomplishment!

Department of Classics Faculty and Graduate Students to Present at the 2021 SCS/AIA

This year, the SCS/AIA is holding its annual conference virtually, and Department of Classics faculty, graduate students, affiliated students, and alumni will be making presentations over the coming days. Please read on for more details!

Wednesday, January 6

SCS session 28: Subverting the Classics in the Early Modern Americas
3-6pm EST (2-5pm CST)
John Izzo (Classics PhD student), "Slavery, Subjugation, and Empire in Cortés Totoquihuatzin's Latin Epistle to Charles V"

Thursday, January 7

SCS session 32: Ovid and the Constructed Visual Environment
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Ashley Simone (Classics PhD 2020), "Ovid's Phaethon and Failed Cosmic Vision"

SCS session 33: Recent Work in Digital Classics
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Charles Pletcher (Classics PhD student), "How to Read with Hypertext: Building and Using New Alexandria"

AIA session 5A: Coins as Social Artifacts
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Jeremy Simmons (CLST PhD 2020), "Slashing, Soldering, and Simulating: Adaptations to Roman coins in ancient India"

SCS session 36: Eos READS: Toni Morrison, "Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature"
3-6pm EST (2-5pm CST)
Yujhán Claros (Classics PhD student), discussion facilitator

Friday, January 8

SCS session 43: Augustan Poetry
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Elizabeth Heintges (Classics PhD student), "Pirates and Pietas: Sextus Pompey and the Ship Race in Aeneid 5"

SCS session 46: Indigenous Voices and Classical Literature
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Prof. Nancy Worman, "Medea's Ghosts: Cherríe Moraga and Euripides on the Body's Tragedies"

SCS session 47: Culture and Society in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Egypt
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Susan Rahyab (CLST PhD student), ""Anything Illicit": Censorship and Book-Burning in Roman Egypt"

Saturday, January 9

AIA Session 9B: There’s No Place Like Domus: Explorations of the Roman House
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Nicole Vellidis (CLST MA student), "Beware of Envy: A Reconstructive Study of the Mosaics in the Roman Villa of Skalla"
Katy Knortz (CLST MA 2020), "Aesthetics of Excess: Challenging the Theory of Elite Imitation in Trimalchio’s Home"

SCS-66: in a Roman Context
3-6pm EST (2-5pm CST)
Kate Brassel (Classics PhD 2018), "Epictetus, Caesar, and the Animals: A Fable"

Sunday, January 10

SCS-70: Epigraphy and History
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Deborah Sokolowski (CLST PhD student), "Sebastoi in the Countryside: Praying for Imperial Success in Rural Bithynia"

SCS-71: Seneca in the Renaissance
10am-1pm EST (9am-12pm CST)
Erin Jo Petrella (Classics PhD student), "Servilis vs. Puerilis: Seneca's De Tranquilitate Animi"

Anna Conser Receives 2020-21 AAUW Fellowship

Classics Ph.D. student, Anna Conser, was awarded a 2020-21 Fellowship from the American Association of University Women in support of her dissertation, “Caught in the Tide: song, dance, and narrative in Aeschylus’ Oresteia”. More information can be found on the AAUP website.

The Department extends its sincere congratulations to Anna on this honor.

Cristina Perez Diaz Awarded Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) Summer Grant

Classics Ph.D. student, Cristina Perez Diaz, was awarded a summer grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) at Columbia University.

Of this distinction, Ms. Perez Diaz wrote:

With the support of this SNFPHI grant, I am “translating” into a multimedia book the production of Euripides’ Andromache that I directed this year for the Barnard-Columbia Ancient Drama Group. Our show could not run because of the pandemic outbreak. Yet, unexpectedly, the topics we were underscoring took on a new relevance because of the social distancing and the new dimensions that domesticity has taken in everyone’s life at home. The production focused on the domestic elements of the tragedy (or the tragic elements of domesticity), having the house and domestic labor at the core of the stage’s symbolism and semiotics. The chorus are domestic employees, their costumes floral smock aprons, gloves, a sponge, a cleaning brush, a duster, their “dances” gestures related to cleaning and housekeeping. Andromache holds a broom, Hermione is moved around the stage by the chorus like a piece of furniture. My original English translation, in turn, fleshes out all the ways in which the female characters’ actions and dilemmas were also, in a sense, domestic labor. Our composer, Alejandro Kauderer, worked with the soundscape of the house (someone washing the dishes, the vacuum cleaner, running water, a dog panting), and sounds of the house’ exterior (a street vendor, birds, frogs, a motorcycle). In this multimedia book, I will remix pictures of the characters, now in quarantine as each actor is at home, with the Greek text, the original English translation, links to the music, and recordings of the actors saying the text in  ancient Greek. To these elements, we are also adding a more personal note, bringing into the mix short monologues written by the actors as they re-interpret their characters in quarantine.  

The Department extends its sincere congratulations to Cristina on this award.

Caleb Simone awarded the Bothmer Fellowship

Recent Ph.D. graduate, Caleb Simone, was awarded the Bothmer Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2020-21) to develop his dissertation on aulos performance culture in Ancient Greece into a monograph. The project draws on the disciplines of classical philology, art history, and musicology with a cultural historical focus on how music affects the body. 

The Department extends its sincere congratulations to Caleb on this honor.

Cat Lambert Named as a 2020 Recipient of the Chinweike Okegbe Service Award

Classics Ph.D. student, Cat Lambert, has been named as a 2020 recipient of the Chinweike Okegbe Service Award. The Department extends its sincere congratulations to Cat on this honor, which is awarded annually to two senior graduate students and one non-student who have had a lasting impact due to their service to the Department and University while demonstrating academic excellence.

In honor of Chinweike Okegbe, this award is meant to reflect his vision of a student being recognized for leaving the Department and the University, as a whole, more improved than when he/she first entered the program. As the co-founder of the Biological Sciences Career Initiative (BSCI), in addition to his many other contributions, Chinweike Okegbe demonstrated this ideal and this award captures the determined spirit that he had to help others

John Izzo Awarded 2020-21 Heyman Fellowship

Classics Ph.D. student, John Izzo, has been awarded one of the highly coveted Heyman Center Fellowships (2020-21) for his dissertation research on the life, literary activities, and reception of Marcus Tullius Tiro, a slave and later freedman of the Roman statesman, Cicero. This is the first time a Classics graduate student has achieved this honor.

He also received honorable mention for the Snyder Prize at this year’s New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies. While the conference did not take place this year because of COVID-19, the Prize—which is for junior scholars was awarded nevertheless.  The citation reads:

As an honorable mention, I would cite John Izzo’s “Indigenous Renaissance Men in Tlatelolco”, which focuses on the Neo-Latin writings of colonial subjects, in particular the Libellus de medicinalibus Indorum herbis, which was produced by two indigenous men in the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco in 1536 [sic]. Izzo effectively demonstrates how the authors’ use of Latin operates as “an expression of indigenous thought and agency.” 

Izzo brings an impressive knowledge of the history of medicine and science, Latin texts and authors, and indigenous Nahua culture to uncover a story of contestation of colonial power structures.

The Department congratulates John on his innovative and important work.

Ashley Simone Selected for Presidential Teaching Award

The Department of Classics is proud to announce that recent Ph.D. graduate Ashley Simone was selected as a recipient of the 2019-2020 Presidential Teaching Award. The Department extends its sincere congratulations to Ashley on this very well-deserved recognition.

The Presidential Teaching Awards were established in 1996 as a way to honor the University’s best teachers. They are conferred based on the original criteria for the awards for faculty and graduate student instructors. To receive this award is a great honor, as it demonstrates commitment to excellent and often innovative teaching as recognized by the entire Columbia community

2020-2021 Year at a Glance

As announced by the President of Columbia University in April 2020, the 2020-2021 academic year will be comprised of three semesters:  Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Summer 2021. The Department of Classics will offer courses for undergraduate and graduate students in each of these terms.

2020-2021 Department of Classics undergraduate courses are posted here.

2020-2021 Department of Classics graduate courses are posted here.

These pages provides an overview of our course offerings for all three terms, to help students as they make decisions and plans for the academic year ahead. Please note that this schedule may be subject to change, and students are encouraged not only to revisit this page but also to confirm the course listings in the online Directory of Courses and Vergil, where course descriptions and class meeting times will be posted. 

Black Lives Matter Statement

Black Lives Matter. The Department of Classics at Columbia University wishes to issue this statement of solidarity, although we recognize that simply printing such words—as true and heartfelt as they are (tragically) necessary—comes close to repeating the hollow adage of “thoughts and prayers”. We are currently working to develop and implement a program of substantive curricular and institutional reform, addressing race and racism, and involving immediate and future action.

New SNFPHI Summer Grants in Public Humanities

Applications for The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) summer grants in public humanities are now being accepted. Application materials and further details can be found here.

CANCELLED: Barnard/Columbia Ancient Drama Group performs Euripides’ Andromache

POSTPONED: Conference: War and Peace in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East