News and announcements of the Department of Classics, Columbia University
Dr. Emma Ianni (*24) will take up an Assistant Professorship at Bates College in the fall. Dr. John Izzo (*24) is moving to Kenyon College for a Visiting Assistant Professorship.
Congrats, Emma and John!
Dear Students,
The Department of Classics is delighted to announce two summer research funding opportunities:
1. Commager Fund. The terms of this endowment stipulate that “Income to be used for a fellowship for an undergraduate or graduate student in the School of Arts and Sciences for research, travel, or study during the summer. Between candidates of equal merits, preference is to be given to a student specializing in Latin.” Approximate annual endowment: $3,000, which may be divided among multiple applicants.
2. Undergraduate Latin Fund. The terms of this endowment are as follows: “The endowment payout from the Fund shall be used to support current undergraduate students pursuing research or summer studies exclusively related to Latin language and literature. Columbia undergraduate students are eligible to receive support regardless of major or level of study.” Approximate annual endowment: $3,000, which may be divided among multiple applicants.
To apply for either (or both) of these funds, please submit a proposal, which includes a brief, one-page description of your planned course of study or research program, a budget and timeline by 5:00PM March 24, 2025. Email the proposal to the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Classics (nk2776@columbia.edu).
All best wishes,
NPK
The Department of Classics is delighted to announce that we will be hosting two prize exams, one in Greek and the other in Greek and Latin translation later this semester. These exams, described below, are named and endowed. We hope you will consider taking one or both of them.
EARLE PRIZE IN CLASSICS
This prize is awarded annually to an undergraduate student (from any division: CC, GS, Barnard) for excellence in sight translation of passages of Greek and Latin. It was established in memory of Mortimer Lamson Earle, Class of 1886, lecturer and Professor in the Department of Greek and Latin. The exam will be held on 4/4, 2:30-4:30pm in Hamilton 618.
BENJAMIN F. ROMAINE PRIZE FUND
Established in 1922, this gift of Benjamin F. Romaine provides to a Columbia College student (noting that only CC students are eligible) a prize for proficiency in Greek language and literature. The exam will be held on 11/4, 2:30-4:30pm, in Hamilton 618.
To take either exam (or both), you need do nothing more than show up—no registration or advanced notice necessary.
We hope to see you there.
We are proud that Columbia Classics made quite an impact at the 2025 Society of Classical Studies (SCS) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia; faculty and graduate students of the Classics Department submitted papers and participated in panels. Below is a breakdown of our representation at the conference.
SCS 2025 Columbia University
Presenters:
Melody Wauke (PhD Candidate)
Fictive Kinship through Rhetorical Training in Philostratus and Lucian
Marissa Swan (PhD Candidate)
The Animalization of Imperial Bodies: Lactantius and the Tetrarchic Emperors
Geoffrey Harmsworth (PhD Candidate)
Plutarch, Dio Chrysostom, and the Punditry Sphere in the Roman-era Polis
José Cancino Alfaro (PhD Candidate)
Indigenous voices? Four cantiunculae of a Machi in Bernard Havestadt’s Chilidugu (1777)
Elizabeth Heintges (PhD Candidate)
Missive Missiles: Inscribed Sling Bullets and Communication in the Late Republic
Riley Parker (Undergraduate, Classics)
Exiled by Fate: Memory and National Identity in Aeneid VIII
Kit Pyne-Jaeger (PhD Student, English and Comp-Lit)
Styling Queerness and Decorating Time: J.W. Waterhouse and Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Presiders/Roundtables:
Joseph Howley (Assoc. Professor of Classics, Columbia) - Labor Panel
Kristina Milnor (Professor of Classics, Barnard) - Co-organizer of the Queer Families in the Ancient Mediterranean World Panel (Lambda Classical Caucus)
Valeria Spacciante (PhD Candidate) and Umberto Verdura (PhD Student) - Roundtable: Ancient Narrative Interest Group [based on the roundtable, this will be a consistent paper panel going forward for future SCS conferences]
The Department of Classics Hanyang (Deborah) Chen (2nd year M.A.) on being awarded a Davis Fellowship for 2024-25 as recognition for her excellent academic record.
The Davis Fellowship is funded by a $10 million bequest from the late Kathryn Wasserman Davis, ’31 GSA, commending academic achievement.
"I felt really honored to be given this fellowship, and I will see this as both an encouragement and reminder for me to keep up my study in the next semester and in the future study as well," said Deborah.
Congratulations, Deborah!
We are proud to share that our very own Professor Karen Van Dyck has been awarded Honorary Greek Citizenship at a swearing-in ceremony on Dec 12, 2024, in Athens.
Athanasios Balermpas, Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior, stated: "Karen Van Dyck, Professor at Columbia University, was sworn in yesterday, honorably naturalized for her contribution to the country. Karen has contributed significantly to the promotion of modern Greek literature in the English-speaking world. We welcome her with honor and pride as our fellow citizen."
Click here to watch a video of the ceremony.
Congratulations, Professor Van Dyck!
The Department of Classics congratulates Professor Colin Webster (PhD Columbia 2012) on being awarded the Goodwin Prize for 2023 for his monograph Tools and the Organism: Technology and the Body in Ancient Greek and Roman Medicine (U. Chicago Press, 2023).
Link
https://classicalstudies.org/scs-news/2024-charles-j-goodwin-award-merit
Tools and the Organism: Technology and the Body in Ancient Greek and Roman Medicine ((U. Chicago Press, 2023). by Dr. Colin Webster
Event link: https://sofheyman.org/events/celebrating-recent-work-by-john-ma
Join us for our New Books Series event honoring Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State from the Early Iron Age to the End of Antiquity by John Ma. In this landmark book, John Ma provides a new history of the polis, charting its spread and development into a common denominator for hundreds of communities from the Black Sea to North Africa and from the Near East to Italy.
Professor Ma will be joined by panelists Richard Billows, Ellen Morris, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, and Seth Schwartz.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024, 6:15 pm EST | In person at the Heyman Center and online via Zoom
Registration required
CU/BC ID holders must also register in advance
Congratulations to Katharina Volk and James Zetzel, who have published a commentary on Cicero’s dialogue Laelius de amicitia, the fullest examination of the values and problems of friendship to survive from the Greco-Roman world.
On October 11, 2024, our very own Carina de Klerk successfully defended their dissertation to earn their doctoral degree!
Dissertation Title: Where’s Xanthias? Visualizing the Fifth-Century Comic Male Slave
Advisor: Helene Foley
Wishing you all the best on your new journey, Dr. de Klerk!
The Department of Classics at Columbia mourns the recent death of Suzanne Saïd (1939-2024), A specialist of Greek literature, and notably of tragedy, Homer, myth, and ancient gender, she taught at the University of Paris-X Nanterre and Columbia (1990-2010) and enjoyed the wide professional contacts afforded by this international career. She leaves behind the memory of a charismatic teacher and powerful personality, as well as a prolific scholarly production.
The Department of Classics mourns the passing away of David Konstan (1940-2024), an
alumnus of Columbia— BA Mathematics ’61, MA Classics 63, PhD Classics ’67, and a much
admired and beloved friend of the Department. David taught at Wesleyan (1967-87); at, Brown
(1987-2010), where he retired as John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and
as a Professor of Comparative Literature; , and at NYU from 2010 onwards. His work spanned
multiple fields and genres, many authors and periods: Greek and Latin, philosophy (notably
Epicureanism) and literature, tragedy, comedy, the novel. David played a pioneering role in the
study of emotion in ancient Greek culture, a subject on which he published widely and lastingly.
His latest book, The origin of sin: Greece and Rome, early Judaism and Christianity, came out in
2022. He was a friend to so many, a scholar of the highest attainment, and beloved by all: the
best of Columbia.
On May 17, 2024, our very own John Izzo successfully defended his dissertation to earn his doctoral degree!
Dissertation Title: Tironian Notes: Literary and Historical Studies on Marcus Tullius Tiro
Advisor: Katharina Volk
Wishing you all the best on your new journey, Dr. Izzo !
On April 26, 2024, our very own Emma Ianni successfully defended her dissertation to earn her doctoral degree!
Dissertation Title: When Language Fails: Tragedy and Thucydides
Advisor: Nancy Worman
Wishing you all the best on your new journey, Dr. Ianni !
We are excited to announce the publication of Historical Studies in Late Roman Art and Archaeology by Professor Alan Cameron (1938–2017). This book is a collection of articles, book chapters, and review articles that Professor Cameron wrote between the 1980s and 2017 about late Roman artifacts. In this book, Professor Cameron shares his developing views on silver plates, luxury manuscripts, gold glass, sarcophagi and more. Copies of the book are available on the Peeters Publishing website.
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.
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!
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.
Dr. Karen Van Dyck will be giving a lecture in Crete on May 17, 2024, entitled “Wherever I go, Greece wounds me: Exile, the Nation and Translation.”
Here is the link for Dr. Van Dyck’s talk in Crete
