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
Sophomore Helen Ruger wins prize at Tennessee Undergraduate Classics Research Conference
Sophomore and Laidlaw Scholar Helen Ruger was awarded the Bettye Beaumont Prize for Best Paper at the Tennessee Undergraduate Classics Research Conference at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville on February 22nd, 2020. Helen delivered a paper titled "Graceful Giving: The Role of the Female in Seneca’s De Beneficiis." The Department of Classics congratulates Helen on her achievement.
Helen Ruger with Dr. Justin Arft
Classics and the Public: A Conversation with Demosthenes Papamarkos
Marcus Folch Awarded Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities
The Department of Classics is delighted to announce that Professor Marcus Folch has been selected as a recipient of a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his project, “A Cultural History of Incarceration and the Prison in Greece and Rome.” This is the only award made by the NEH for a Classics-related project this year. During 2020-21 Professor Folch will be researching and writing a book on the social and political history of prisons in the ancient Greco-Roman Mediterranean. Congratulations to Professor Folch! Click here for the official press release.
