Kal. Nov. MMVII

The VCLA/UVM Annual Fall Newsletter

And on the web at: http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/VCLA

NOTE: If you are reading this via email and know someone who might be interested, please feel free to forward this annual update on the activities of the Vermont Classical Languages Association and the UVM Department of Classics.

****Latin Day will be Friday, April 11, 2008, and the Latin Day Planning Meeting will take place Saturday, December 15, 2007, 10 A.M.-12 noon (see below for more details)****

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(Mark Usher and Angeline Chiu reporting)

The VCLA Annual Meeting took place on Friday, October 19, 2007, at Burlington High School in Burlington. It was organized this year by Noralee Cartier, President, who provided a fabulous food and organized a fine program, including lunch at the Avenue Bistro. Thank you, Nora! As for the Program, Angeline Chiu, a new faculty member at UVM, presented a compelling, illustrated lecture on Ovid’s use of Roman topography in his love poetry. Thanks to all for helping make this year’s program such an enjoyable success!

Present at this year’s meeting (in no particular order): Tami Munford (Harwood Union), Lydia Batten (Champlain Valley Union High School), Noralee Cartier (Burlington HS), Mary-Ann Chaffee (Essex Jct HS, retired), Meg Holland (Lamoille), Leanne Morton (CVU), Mary Redmond (Montpelier High School), Priscilla Throop (independent scholar and teacher), Cliff Timpson (BFA, St. Albans), Joshua Knox (Essex Jct. HS), Phil Ambrose, Jacques Bailly, Angeline Chiu, John Franklin, Walter Roberts, Barbara and Robert Rodgers, Brian Walsh, and Mark Usher (all UVM faculty), Juli Abodeely, Lauren Ajamie, Nynshari Baenre, Charles Blume, Daniel Houston, and Devin Morrill (grad students at UVM)

New amongst the above: Walter Roberts, new tenure-track Assistant Professor at UVM, and the new crop of graduate students: Juli, Nynshari, and Devin.

Business Meeting (Noralee Cartier, President, presiding):

The following officers were elected and/or reappointed:

President and Co-Program Chair: Meg Holland (mholland@luhs.k12.vt.us)

Vice President and Co-Program Chair: Tami Munford (Munfordt@harwood.org)

Treasurer: Barbara Saylor Rodgers (bsaylor@uvm.edu)

Representative to CANE: Lydia Batten (lbatten@cvuhs.org)

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Grateful thanks to all who stood for office and will be serving VCLA in the coming year.

Financial Report: Treasurer Barbara Rodgers reported a balance of $1407.00 in the VCLA fiscus and urged payment of dues (only $10). If you have not paid your dues for the current year, please send them to: Prof. Barbara Saylor Rodgers, The University of Vermont, Department of Classics, 481 Main Street, Burlington, Vermont 05405.

An additional reminder: the VCLA Directory of Members is available online at http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/VCLA/directory.html. Please send any changes, corrections or additions to this Directory to Pam Cunov, 802-656-3210, or email to Pamela.Cunov@uvm.edu (NOTE: current and correct email addresses are especially important to have for the VCLA e-distribution list; please notify Pam of any changes or updates.)

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CANE News:

The 102^nd Annual Meeting of CANE will take place March 14-15, 2008, at Connecticut College in New London, CT. The 2008 CANE Summer Institute will take place July 9-14, at Dartmouth College. For further details about both events (including the call for papers), go directly to the new CANE webpage at: http://www.caneweb.org/

The CANE Student Writing Contest: The topic for 2008 is “Artistic, Architectural, and Literary Monuments: the Creative Mind at Work in the Ancient World.” See the CANE webpage for guidelines: http://www.caneweb.org/tands/cwc2008.asp

Note: Cash prizes of $50, $30, and $20 are awarded by the VCLA to the best three submissions from Vermont. Vermonters have fared very well in this competition. Encourage your students to enter! The deadline for submission of entries is December 15. Please send submissions to Lydia Batten, Champlain Valley Union High School (lbatten@cvuhs.org).
 
 
 
 
 
 

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The 32^nd Annual Vermont Latin Day:

Date: Friday, April 11, 2008

Place: Patrick Gymnasium, UVM, Burlington

Theme: Urbs Roma: The Eternal City

This year all roads do indeed lead to Rome. Our theme this year embraces all aspects of the city of Rome from history to topography to mythology; the city itself is a character in literature and a force in Roman events. Readings may include visions of primeval Rome, from the founding myths of Aeneas and Romulus in Virgil to the history of earliest Rome in Livy; the stories of kings and ancient heroes like Hercules pervade the early years. The world of Augustan Rome, filled with new art and architecture, enlivens Ovid from the love poetry to the rousing end of his Metamorphoses; the idea of the city, its appearance, and its life underpins the literature of the age; poets such as Catullus, Horace, and Juvenal all engage with the busy life of the Urbs. Skit topics might feature tales of the founding stories of Rome or the events of its later history which centered on the location of the city—e.g., Juno’s sacred geese and the invasion of the Gauls, Cloelia swimming the Tiber, Cincinnatus called to defend the city, Julius Caesar’s (and Brutus’s and Mark Antony’s) exploits in the city, and the tumultuous urban events of Cicero’s consulship. Displays can cover the intricacies of how Rome was built and what was built, as students explore famous buildings, the stories behind them, the architecture and construction, which made them possible and the archaeology that, preserves them; every temple, for instance, has a story to tell. The entire physical infrastructure of the city is fair game, from aqueducts to arenas to roads to theaters. Also relevant are the geography and organization of the city, from Augustan fire-brigades to the inner workings of the Colosseum; Vitruvius and Frontinus offer their works while we consider how the physical locations of affect how we think of Rome. These are only a few ideas; the theme lends itself to endless possibilities. More details will follow!

Possible theme for 2009: Musica! Apollo, Dionysus, Pan, Orpheus, the Muses, religious ritual, warfare, dinner parties, lyric poetry, dramatic performances, triumphs . . . Music pervaded both Greek and Roman culture and this is our chance to revel in it.

Planning Meeting for Latin Day 2008: Saturday, December 15, 2007, 10 A.M.-12 noon, at the Department of Classics, UVM, Burlington, 481 Main Street, Room 207 (Telephone 802-656-3210). Please come! Your input is essential to the success of Latin Day. Bagels, cream cheese, coffee and tea provided. (You may park behind the building.)

The Vermont Sight Translation Contest, generously sponsored by Professors Robert Rodgers and Barbara Saylor Rodgers, is open to all Vermont students of Latin from public or private schools. The Contest pays cash prizes for sight translation of Latin texts at two levels: the Junior Level, for students with one or two years of Latin, and the Senior Level, for students with three or four years of Latin. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes may be awarded at each Level, of $100, $75, and $50 respectively. Teachers should let the Rodgers know by mid-January if anyone in their school is interested in taking these exams. Packets with texts and instructions will be sent out to participating schools by February 1st. Exams are to be completed and returned by the first week in March. Winners will be honored at Latin Day.

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News from the Department of Classics at UVM:

We are very pleased to welcome a new faculty member, Walter M. Roberts III (PhD, University of California Berkeley, 2006). Walter specializes in Greco-Roman philosophy and has a special interest in the political philosophy of Cicero. He is also enjoying the challenge—in his first year at UVM—of shaping his TAP students into critical readers, creative thinkers, and effective writers. In addition, he is working with the editors of University of Michigan Press to bring his dissertation manuscript on Cicero to publica tion. His next project will explore the concerns and anxieties that unite Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle in a critique against pleonexia (‚greediness‛). On the Roman side of things, he is looking forward to teaching ‘Introduction to Roman Civilization’ (CLAS 023) in the Spring term. In other faculty news, Z. Philip Ambrose (emeritus) served as a Study Leader for a Smithsonian Tour of Greece and Italy including stops at Troy and Carthage, Sept. 12-24, 2007. It was a great trip, the theme of which was “In the Wake of Odysseus and Aeneas.” Jacques Bailly has continued work on commentaries on Latin letters, is giving a talk about Socrates' divine sign in November, and has started work on a commentary on Plato’s Theaetetus. He also continues as pronouncer for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, now a prime time show on ABC, as well as the CanWest Canspell Canadian National Spelling Bee, which airs “rolling-live” across Canada. He is teaching Etymology, Greek Prose Style, Intermediate Latin, and Aristotle this year. Angeline Chiu spent part of her summer in southern Italy and Sicily, where she continued her research on the relationship between literature and topography. She is also exploring the possibility of eventually launching a summer study-abroad program in ancient Roman history and topography for UVM students. When not continuing her ongoing project on Ovid's Fasti and its depictions of Roman identity via literary genres, she is also working on projects ranging from Plautus and Roman comedy to an examination of Ovidian influences in Silius Italicus that will appear in an upcoming volume from Brill. This year she is teaching classes in Roman satire, the literature of the late Roman Republic, classical mythology, and Homer in both Greek and translation. John Franklin spent part of the summer in Greece assisting at the Kenchreai excavations as a babysitter, and was a keynote speaker at a conference on ancient Greek music at the Ionian University on Corfu; ‘The Epicentric Arrangement of the Archaic Heptachord’ now awaits writing-up for consideration by Wiener Studien. The rest of the summer was spent working on a book MS, and nearly finishing a difficult chapter

called ‘Kinyras: Lordly Lyre of Cyprus’. In January he is invited to be a keynote speaker for the conference Ancient Music in the Near East and Mediterranean Worlds, hosted by the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem and synchronized with an exhibition of ancient musical artifacts; ‘The Global Economy of Music in the Ancient Near East’ will be a chapter in the exhibition catalogue. Barbara Rodgers, on sabbatical this year, has spent most of calendar 2007, when not in classrooms or meetings, attempting to remediate the strip-mining of her landscaping (a by-product of having a library built at home). She has also been reading about the influence of Ephraem the Syrian on Romanos, a sixth-century Byzantine writer of Christian poetic homilies. Romanos, despite his name, was born in Syria and may have been of Jewish ancestry, a true representative of the multicultural world of late antiquity, and a kindly person into the bargain, if one can judge the man by the stories he tells. Robert Rodgers, although on sabbatical--which offers the occasional opportunity for a morning nap—-is continuing as director for the Center for Research on Vermont. His sabbatical project is to complete critical edition of Columella’s De Re Rustica for Oxford Classical Text series (deadline: September 2008). Construction and renovation on the home front has been keeping him in practice with carpentry and painting. Mark Usher, Department Chair, continues to work on the phenomenon of quotation in ancient authors. An article on this topic, “Theomachy, Creation, and the Poetics of Quotation in Longinus Chapter 9” (dedicated to the memory of UVM Professor emeritus, Robin Schlunk, a fine scholar of ancient literary criticism who passed away in 2006), is forthcoming in the next issue of Classical Philology. Another article, “Diogenes’ Doggerel: Chreia and Quotation in Cynic Performance” is near completion. Diogenes of Sinope is also the subject of his second children’s picture book, DiOGenes (with pictures by Michael Chesworth, forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux) in which the Cynic philosopher is cast literally as a dog. Brian Walsh, delighted with his recent promotion to Senior Lecturer, continues to work on an ambitious textbook project (Universitas Latina) and to develop online Latin courses. He is presently teaching new courses on Ancient Law and the Greek Orators. He and his wife May joyfully welcomed two new children (Noah and Adam) to their family this year.

News from and about UVM Students

We have six graduate students this year. Juliane Abodeely hails from Tewksbury, MA, and earned a B.A. in Classics at Holy Cross. Lauren Ajamie, a native of St. Johnsbury, VT, earned her B.A. in Classics at Bard College. She is writing her master’s thesis on representations of masculinity in the poems of Catullus. Nynshari Baenre comes to us from LSU, where she studied Physics and Classics. She is interested in Greek philosophy, the pre-Socratics in particular. Charles Blume comes to us from UPenn’s fine post-bacc program. He is a lawyer by training but is fascinated with the agrarian cultures, economies, and worldview of ancient Greece. He is writing his master’s thesis on work in Hesiod. Daniel Houston, who earned his B.A. here in Classics last in 2006, is pioneering the Department’s new non-thesis MA option for graduate students. Students who wish to pursue a career as a Latin teacher can pursue this option instead of the MAT and become teacher-certified via the portfolio system. Dan is in the midst of this process now. Devin Morrill earned his B.A. in English at UVM a few years ago. When not reading Classics, he works in the Library, and has been a welcome ally of the Department on that front. As for undergraduates, Heather Tuck is President of the Goodrich Classical Club, which has filled its year thus far with an exciting series of activities and guest speakers on classical topics. Bronwyn Stippa, senior, is writing her Honors thesis on the history and cultural effect of translations of the Pyramus and Thisbe episode of Ovid’s Metamorphoses from the Middle Ages to the modern era.

NOTE: The Department will be offering two summer online courses this year:

Latin 001 Elementary. Students read whole passages in Latin by the end of the first semester. Your English vocabulary and grammar should improve markedly with this course, which is the first half of a two-part sequence. The sequence covers the basics of Latin vocabulary, grammar, and reading. Students who continue will be able to read most Latin authors by the end of the second semester.

Dr. Brian T. Walsh. 4 credits.
Dates: 5/19-6/13

Latin 002 Elementary Latin. In Latin 002 students will master the basics of Latin grammar, build their vocabulary (English and Latin), and be able to read original Latin texts by the end of the semester. Dr. Brian T. Walsh. 4 credits.
Dates: 6/16-7/11.

Here follows a list of the undergraduate students enrolled in courses in Greek and Latin at UVM. Some of them were yours, and for them we thank you:

Greek 001: Elementary Greek (John Franklin)

Lucas Chatelain

Kristin Cichon

Hans Cravens

Spencer Curry

Brendan Dempsey

Daniel Gillette

Kevin Grupe

Sophia Lloyd

Paige Lundein

Taylor Murphy

Christopher Waldo

Greek 051A: Intermediate Greek (Mark Usher)

Sarah Doubleday

Tyler Mayo

Samantha Weinberg

Greek 111A: Greek Prose Style (Jacques Bailly)

Nynshari Baenre

Charles Blume

Eric Byrnes

Kate Johannesen

Devin Morrill

Greek 201 A: Greek Orators (Brian Walsh)

Juliane Abodeely

Nynshari Baenre

Devin Morrill

Latin 001A: Elementary Latin (Walter Roberts)

Katarina Bakas

Lauren Brannon

Kaileigh Fitch

Leigh Hammond

Paul Heft

Benjamin Hollows

Genevieve Hubbard

Daniel Kelly

Christopher Maubach

Carly Milliren

Harrison Pennock

Marilana Rufo

Michael Schmedlin

Emma Smith

Emily Sullivan

Alfred Sundqvist

Brett Williams

Kimberly Worley

Latin 001B: Elementary Latin (Brian Walsh)

Kelsey Andrews

Amanda Bendickson

David Clarke-Hazlett

Hans Cravens

Julia Dineen

Patrick Galluzzo

Amity Glenn-Chase

Margot Hanstein

Joseph Hoffmann

Tyler Jividen

Stephanie Milne

Samantha Roberts

Caroline Schwer

Jesse Sendra

Sam Theodosopoulos

Michael Tomani, Jr.

Theresa Townsend

Jon Transue

Michael Trimble

Alexander Watrous

Latin 051: Intermediate Latin (Jacques Bailly)

Kathryn Boolukos

Anthony Caiazzo

Alexander Castleton

Spencer Curry

Richard Fahey

Emily Frost

Zachary Goodwin

Chelsea Green

Eileen Hanerfeld

Shannon Kostin

Tanner Lake

Danyelle Leaderman

Jennifer Sanders

Anne-Marie Trudeau

Keith Williams

Schuyler Wuerth

James Wyckoff

Latin 095:

Richard Fahey

Kathryn Worley

Latin 101: Survey Latin Literature (Angeline Chiu)

Paul Aebersold

Christopher Allard

Bridget Allison

Lee Bayner

Kaitlin Connolly

Tyler Mayo

Katherine McClintic

Christopher Miller

Taylor Murphy

Ariel Subourne

Devin Morrill

Latin 256: Satire (Angeline Chiu)

Lauren Ajamie

Kristin Cichon

Sarah Doubleday

Heather McLaughlin

Max Mondi

Bronwyn Stippa

Patrick LaClair