In Memoriam Marvin Deckoff

The Department mourns the passing of Marvin Deckoff, long-time friend and donor to Columbia Classics. Marvin first started taking Classics courses as part of the Lifelong Learners program in the 1990s after retiring from his printing business. Over many years, he audited dozens of Latin and civilization classes; attended countless Departmental events; and struck up lasting friendships with numerous students and faculty members. He donated generously to the Department, for example, by co-sponsoring the 2008 conference “Forgotten Stars: Rediscovering Manilius’ Astronomica” and by underwriting for many years graduate student travel to the annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies. We fondly and gratefully remember his unfailing good cheer and unwavering commitment to the Classics.

Dr. Cristina Pérez Díaz award winning- Antígona, by José Watanabe: A bilingual edition with critical essays Book

Greetings!

Columbia University Classics Department is super excited & proud to announce Dr. Cristina Pérez Díaz's book Antígona by José Watanabe A Bilingual Edition with Critical Essays has won two awards!

In 2023, Antigona, by José Watanabe: A bilingual edition with critical essays, was awarded the Translation Prize of the American Society for Theater Research, and Dr. Perez Diaz also won the 2024 Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award, awarded by CAMWS.

We are so proud of you, Dr. Pérez Díaz!

Statement from Department of Classics

May 16, 2024

After deliberation and consultation, the following statement was voted on by the whole faculty in the Department of Classics at Columbia University. It was passed by the Department (18 votes in favor, 2 against, 1 abstention, 1 ballot not cast) and hence may be considered as issued in the name of the Department.

As members of the Department of Classics, we are disheartened by the events unfolding on campus. We believe in freedom of speech and academic freedom; we condemn incitement to violence, hate speech, and violence on and around campus. We condemn the university’s decision to bring armed police onto campus without meaningful consultation with the University Senate. We protest the lack of transparency in communications with faculty and students. We call on the university administration to remove the NYPD officers from the campus, and to exercise restraint in disciplinary measures against students. We condemn the lack of legal representation for students during disciplinary proceedings before the recently created "Center for Student Success and Intervention". We deplore recent measures amounting to the locking out of many Columbia students from the libraries and facilities on campus. We note with dismay the administration’s lack of understanding of the academic and practical workings of our community. Finally, we support the Senate's decision to conduct an investigation of recent events, especially as concerns the administration’s actions and decisions. These have led to damaging outcomes and to the widespread breakdown of trust in the university’s administration

Professor Katharina Volk wishes it known that she is not a signatory to this statement.

Evan Jewell (2023 Fellow) has been selected as the new director of the Classical Summer School.

We are excited to share this great news from the American Academy in Rome:

“The American Academy in Rome is pleased to announce that Evan Jewell (2023 Fellow) has been selected as the new director of the Classical Summer School. He will immediately step in and oversee the upcoming 2024 Classical Summer School.”

Congratulations Evan!

Photo Credit: The American Academy in Rome

Nigidius Figulus: Roman Polymath Published.

Edited by Katharina Volk and based on a 2022 CAM conference, this volume is the first collection of academic articles on Publius Nigidius Figulus, the mysterious senator, scholar, and alleged “Pythagorean and magus” of the late Roman Republic, offering perspectives on his politics, philosophy, mythography, biology, religious studies, linguistic thought, divinatory activities, and reception.

Contributors: Katharina Volk, Philip Thibodeau, Daniele F. Maras, Duncan E. MacRae, Jay Reed, Phillip Sidney Horky, Alessandro Garcea, Fabio Tutrone, and Giulio Celotto.

Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 47, Leiden: Brill, 2024.

https://brill.com/display/title/69681

Celebrating Recent Work by Ellen Morris - Tuesday, October 10, 2023, 6:15 pm

Event link: https://sofheyman.org/events/celebrating-recent-work-by-ellen-morris 

Join us for our New Book Series event honoring Famine and Feast in Ancient Egypt by Ellen Morris. Famine and Feast in Ancient Egypt covers the creation and curation of social memory in pharaonic and Greco-Roman Egypt.

Professor Morris will be joined by panelists Zoë Crossland, John Ma, Joseph Manning, and Nancy Worman. 

Tuesday, October 10, 2023, 6:15 pm EST | In person at the Heyman Center and online via Zoom

Registration required 

The Winner of the 2023 Winkler Prize - Izzy Levy

We are so excited to announce that our very own Izzy Levy has won the 2023 Winkler Prize for their essay "Poetic World-Building, Queer Ephemerality, and Sapphic Memory Work: Fragment 94 and Eloise Klein Healy’s The Islands Project: Poems for Sappho."

The Winner of the 2023 Winkler Prize

“The graduate winner of the 2022 Winkler Memorial Prize is Izzy Levy, Ph.D. candidate in Classics from Columbia University, for their essay, "Poetic World-Building, Queer Ephemerality, and Sapphic Memory Work: Fragment 94 and Eloise Klein Healy’s The Islands Project: Poems for Sappho" Izzy's essay examines the importance of loss and rupture in Sappho's fr. 94, developed through an intertextual reading of Klein Healy's response to Sappho, mediated by the concept of "queer ephemerality" articulated by José Esteban Muñoz” (2023, Oberlin College and Conservatory)

Combined BA/MA in Classics Program

Combined BA/MA in Classics

The Department of Classics is delighted to announce a new BA/MA program in Classics. The BA/MA program in Classics is available to current Columbia undergraduates irrespective of major and allows students to complete an MA in Classics within one year of receiving their BA, with the possibility of transferring in up to three courses (9-12 credits) taken as undergraduates.

The BA/MA program in Classics is ideal for students who:

  • Intend to pursue graduate study in Classics, Classical Archaeology, History, Philosophy, Art History, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and related disciplines, in which the Classical tradition and Classical reception are central;

  • Are contemplating careers in which a Classical education provides beneficial preparation (education, law, medicine, international diplomacy, publishing, theater);

  • Wish to acquire advanced knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin literature and languages;

  • Are simply fascinated by antiquity and wish to study the subject beyond the undergraduate level.

For details, see https://www.gsas.columbia.edu/content/bama-option.

Application

The BA/MA program in Classics has rolling admissions. However, applicants interested in the BA/MA option should apply at least two months prior to the semester in which they intend to begin taking courses that will count toward the MA. Ideally, students apply during their junior year or during the first semester of their senior year. Applicants who are admitted to the BA/MA program receive permission to commence MA coursework in Classics, with a promise of official admission to the MA program following the conferral of the undergraduate degree. 

MA Program Requirements

• 30 credits comprised of nine or ten courses at the 4000 level or above, seven of which must be taken for graded credit 

• Of these courses, students are required either to attend two semesters of the Graduate Research Colloquium (CLCV GR5010; 2 credits each semester) or to write an M.A. thesis under the rubric of CLPH GR 5000 (4 credits).

• Of the remaining courses, all except two must be in Greek (GREK) and/or Latin (LATN). The other two may be civilization courses offered by the Department or courses on the ancient world in other departments. 


Contact

  • For questions regarding the BA/MA program, contact the Director of Graduate Studies in Classics, Professor Gareth Williams at gdw5@columbia.edu

  • Questions regarding the BA programs in Classics, Classical Studies, and Ancient Studies, contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Classics, Professor Nikolas Kakkoufa: at nk2776@columbia.edu

In Memoriam Raffaella Cribiore

The Department of Classics mourns the tragic death of Raffaella Cribiore— papyrologist, social historian, cultural historian of education, and wonderful friend. A native of Milan, Raffaella wrote her dissertation at Columbia with Roger Bagnall (1993); this formed the basis of her acclaimed Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt (1996). Her interest in education led to a further book, the Goodwin Prize-winning Gymnastics of the Mind (2004), and several more works on Libanius. Her expertise in papyrology is reflected in her long-standing curation of the extensive papyrological holdings at Columbia, At the time of her death, Raffaella was Professor of Classics at NYU. Her warmth, wit, and whole person will be immensely missed. 

In Memoriam Geraldine Visco

We were very saddened to hear of the recent passing of Gerry Visco, our inimitable departmental administrator who did so much to enrich our daily operations from the late 1990s until her retirement in 2015. When she joined the department, she had already worked in various administrative capacities at Columbia and she therefore brought to her new role an enviable depth of institutional knowledge.

Gerry was a very able departmental administrator, and she also knew whom to turn to in the wider Columbia Community as and when further consultation was needed. She constantly defended and furthered the Department’s interests. Beyond her professional expertise, however, she made an indelible impression on generations of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. Gerry’s occasionally unconventional style was the stuff of legend, as was the thoughtful kindness that underlay her sometimes gruff demeanor. Hers was a singular form of diplomacy that struck many visitors to the department, and through these interactions, Gerry became well-known in the wider Classics community beyond Columbia.

She gave great support to many graduate students: with a kind word here, and a generous gesture there, she helped many towards the finish line of the Ph.D. The departmental parties she organized were invariably spectacular, and few could match her ability to make her office routine resemble a final dress rehearsal for a performance of Cabaret.

She was endlessly colorful of character, with a rich and varied existence beyond her day job—a legend in old-style New York nightlife which she documented in her photography. Many aspects of that wider life gave a wonderful exuberance to her presence in the Classics department, a ceaseless energy for the unexpected. All who knew her much lament her passing: Gerry Visco touched our lives in ways that will long be fondly remembered.

For more about Gerry please see her interview with the New York Times from 2016

Classics Department Graduation Celebration - May 17th 12p-2:30p 618 Hamilton Hall

The Department of Classics would like to formally invite all of you and your families to a gathering after University Convocation on May 17th.

We will have food and drink in the Classics Department, Hamilton Hall, 618 from 12-2:30 for you and your families to enjoy and celebrate the day with a toast with the Classics Faculty. 

We would be delighted if you would join us. 

Columbia wins big in Recitation Contest!

For its Greek and Latin Recitation Contest this past weekend, the New York Classical Club received seventeen submissions from Columbia and Barnard students, three of whom went on to win prizes:

Umberto Verdura (Ph.D. program): First Prize in Latin

Octavio Vourvoulias (Columbia College): First Prize in Greek

Grace Clifford (Postbaccalaureate Program): Third Prize in Greek

Congrats to these gifted performers—and thanks to everyone for submitting!  The contest takes place every year, so please try again in 2024.

Mary-Evelyn Farrior Awarded Rome Prize

Mary-Evelyn Farrior, a Ph.D. candidate in Classical Studies, has received the Emeline Hill Richardson/Jesse Howard, Jr. Rome Prize in Ancient Studies for 2023-24. Awarded annually by the American Academy in Rome (AAR), the fellowship supports advanced work and research in the arts and humanities. This highly competitive prize is given each year to artists and scholars, both at the early and middle stages of their careers, who the Academy feels represent the highest standard of excellence in their respective fields. Fellows remain in residence at the Academy in Rome and are encouraged to collaborate across disciplinary divides.

Thanks to the support of the AAR, Mary-Evelyn will continue her doctoral research on Inscribing Community: Mapping Greek Inscriptions in Imperial Rome. See more about Mary-Evelyn Farrior.

Paraskevi Martzavou - Joining the Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris

Our very own, Dr. Paraskevi Martzavou has joined the Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris!

We are so proud and excited about the great work that will come from this fellowship

Columbia’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination has just announced its lineup of 2023-24 fellows. The cohort blends Columbia faculty and postdocs with creative artists of global renown, from Ted Hughes Award-winning poet Jay Bernard to the interdisciplinary artist Ana María Gómez López. The new fellows are working on a range of topics, including the fate of the Egyptian gods in ancient Greece, the life of the Jamaican cultural theorist Stuart Hall, and the environmental and social degradation of contemporary Venezuela.

The Institute for Ideas and Imagination is a residential fellowship program at Reid Hall, offering support for faculty and recent doctoral students from all departments and schools to work alongside writers and artists from outside the academy. It is a presidential initiative launched just five years ago that now forms part of Columbia Global, which brings together global initiatives at the university, including Columbia World Projects and the Columbia Global Centers.

Read the Full Announcement Here

Department of Classics at Columbia University in the City of New York
1130 Amsterdam Avenue, 617 Hamilton Hall, MC 2861, New York, NY 10027, USA
(212) 854-3902 | (212) 854-7856 (fax) | classics@columbia.edu