a.d. XII Kal. Nov. MMV In Aula Classica Universitatis Viridis Montis The VCLA/UVM Annual Fall Newsletter And on the web at: http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/VCLA NOTATE BENE: If you’re 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. Omnibus Collegis s. d. Ambrosius vester! The VCLA Annual Meeting took place on Friday, October 21, 2005, at Burlington High School. It was organized this year by Karen Budde, President, with Nora Cartier, Vice-President, hosting. Cliff Timpson provided a copious and delicious Ientaculum (which continued to provide sustenance through the day). Later in the morning, our guest speaker, Robert Rodgers, guided us through some out-of-the-way, but fascinating and very teachable passages from Columella, Frontinus and Vegetius. Thank you, Robert! The Latin Swap Shop, now a traditional part of every VCLA meeting (where members share their favorite in-class activities and pedagogical techniques), turned into a stimulating discussion on the pace of study and level of proficiency among Vermont Latin students. Thanks to everyone for making this year’s meeting an enjoyable success! Present at this year’s meeting (in no particular order): Priscilla Throop (Latinist at large and homeschool instructor), Becky Thompson (Lyndon Institute), Mary Ann Redmond (Montpelier HS), Anne Broussard (Essex Jct HS), Mary Ann Chaffee (Emerita, Essex Jct HS), Nora Cartier (BHS), Karen Budde (Danville School), Karen Zook (Riverside School), Martha Dalton (longtime friend of VCLA and CANE, St. Albans), Leanne (Goulette) Morton (CVU), Meg Holland (Lamoille), Cliff Timpson (BFA, St. Albans), Tami Munford (Harwood Union HS), Lydia Batten (MMUHS), Phil Ambrose, Barbara and Robert Rodgers, Brian Walsh, Mark Usher, Jacques Bailly (all UVM faculty), Robert Dockstader (UVM office coordinator) Cory Elliott and Sara Sprunk (grad students at UVM). New amongst the above: Anne Broussard, the new Latin teacher at Essex. Before coming to Vermont, Anne studied Classics at Colgate. Welcome, Anne! Business Meeting (Karen Budde, President, presiding): The following officers were elected and/or reappointed: President and Co-Program Chair: Nora Cartier (nuala@hotmail.com) Financial Report: Treasurer Barbara Rodgers reported a balance of $860.13 in the VCLA fiscus and urged payment of dues ($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. Other items from the Business Meeting: Karen Budde (President) conveyed greetings from a past-President of VCLA, Judith Miles, now living in Barre. Mary Ann Chaffee reports that she is preparing a booklet entitled Intellego, intended as a vademecum for 6th graders to English grammar through Latin (the noble ulterior motive of which is to get middle school students to pursue Latin when they enter high school). She welcomes any comments, suggestions, or expressions of interest. You may contact her at MAChaffeeVT@aol.com. Barbara Rodgers (Treasurer) suggested that the VCLA consider trying to raise funds by designing logos in Latin for businesses and others. The Department of Classics at UVM is looking into this and considering the possibility of having Robert Dockstader design a website for the VCLA so that we might advertise such a service to various entrepreneurs. A Special Announcement: It has come to our attention that our beloved Cliff Timpson (BFA St. Albans) was named the “Teacher of the Year” for his District was thus honored at a ceremony at UVM on October 19. Congratulations, Cliff! 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 Robert Dockstader, 802-656-3210, or email to Robert.Dockstader@uvm.edu (NOTE: current and correct email addresses are especially important to have for the VCLA e-distribution list; please notify Robert of any changes or updates.) CANE News: The 100th Annual Meeting of CANE will take place March 16-18, 2006 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The 24th Annual CANE Summer Institute will take place July 11-16, 2006, again at Dartmouth College. For further details about both events (including the call for papers) go directly to the CANE webpage at: http://www.wellesley.edu/ClassicalStudies/cane/ The CANE Student Writing Contest: The topic for 2005-06 is “Women in Antiquity: the Good, Bad, and the Beautiful.” See the August issue of the NECJ or the CANE webpage for guidelines. Note: Cash prizes of $50, $30, and $20 are awarded by the VCLA to the best three submissions from Vermont. The all-New England winner last year was Vermont’s own Michael Dombeck (Mt. Mansfield Union H. S.), the third Vermont winner in the last five years! The deadline for submission of entries is December 15. Please send submissions to Leanne Morton, Champlain Valley Union High School, 369 CVU Road, Hinesburg, Vermont 05461 (Leanne@cvuhs.org). Other CANE news: Allan Wooley and Phil Ambrose are writing a History of CANE for the centennial celebration in 2006. We would like to include your anecdotes and memories (your uJpomnhvmata or reminiscentiae) of CANE meetings. Just go to the CANE website at http://www.wellesley.edu/ClassicalStudies/cane/ or write directly to awooley@exeter.edu and start reminiscing! The Program: Prof. Robert Rodgers, originally scheduled to talk in the afternoon session, graciously agreed to swap slots with the Latin Swap Shop on the announced program. Speaking without notes, he translated for us extracts from the later 4th century C.E. Vegetius Renatus, Epitoma Rei Militaris (Oxford Classical Text, ed. M. D. Reeve, 2004) dealing with the Roman army (From which provinces to recruit soldiers? From the country or from the city? How to choose the right place for a battle? Why are swift ships called Liburnae? How are Liburnae properly built?). He then turned to texts of L. Iunius Moderatus Columella, De Re Rustica, (first century C.E.) which he will revise for a new edition in the Oxford Classical Text series. Many of Columella's points will be of interest to Vermonters, whether the few Viridimontane vintners or the many growers of apples, or those who raise livestock, tend bees, or farm fish. Next came texts of Sex. Iulius Frontinus, De Aquaeductu Urbis Romae, ed. R. H. Rodgers ( Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, 2004). See the link to Rodgers' translation on the UVM Classics Department Homepage: http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/. Last, but not least in Rodgers' survey of Roman technical literature, were extracts from the Institutiones of Gaius (2nd century C.E.), one of the great Roman jurists. From beginning to end this was wonderful presentation.
After lunch we returned for the Latin Swap Shop. Among the contributors were Becky Thompson of Lyndon Institute, Cliff Timpson of BFA, St. Albans, and Brian Walsh of UVM. There was a very lively and often amusing discussion and exchange of stories and reflections.
The 30th Annual Vermont Latin Day: Date: Friday, April 7, 2006 Place: Patrick Gymnasium, UVM, Burlington Theme: Metamorphosing the Verb “Metamorphosing the Verb”: This theme builds upon last year's successful sport with Nouns. This year schools will choose, first come first serve, a key verb (perhaps more than one) in a story of Ovid and play with its (their) transformation into various forms (principal parts, tenses, persons, numbers and voices) as well as into its verbal forms (participles, gerunds, gerundives, infinitives, and supines). Examples: Icarus: cado; Orpheus or Polyphemus: canere; Daphne or Atalanta: curro; Cadmus: spargo; Arachne: pingo; Perseus: volo or verbero; Byblis: scribere; Minotaur: pasco or claudo. Every school would choose different verbs. This theme should, we hope, encourage the students to work especially hard on verbs throughout the school year—beginning now! Theme for 2007: De Re Agricultura. See above on Robert Rodgers’ fascinating talk on the agricultural manual of Columella, replete with issues paralleled in Vermont farming practice. Planning Meeting for Latin Day 2006: Saturday, December 3, 2005, 10 a.m.-12 noon, at the Department of Classics, UVM, Burlington, 481 Main Street, Room 207 (Telephone 802-656-3210). Please come! 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. News from the Department of Classics at UVM: A warm welcome to our new Academic Office Coordinator, Robert Dockstader. In addition to keeping things sorted around here, Robert is a professional opera singer (a tenor), and a certified practitioner of Reiki. Welcome, Robert! In faculty news, Brian Walsh was reappointed for two more years as Lecturer (something we are all very happy about). But what is providing Brian himself with maximum gaudium these days is the recent arrival of a son, Kaleb, whom Brian and his wife adopted from the Philippines last spring. Amidst family and teaching duties (and his long commute from Montreal) Brian has found time to complete a review of Ovid’s Fasti: Historical Readings at its Bimillennium (edited by G. Herbert-Brown) and continues his work transcribing and translating a short Greek codex copied in the 10th century. Robert Rodgers continues his painstaking work on his commissioned edition of Columella for OCT. An article on some textual problems in Columella Books 8 and 9 (about the birds and the bees) has been accepted for publication. In July, he and Barbara traveled to Italy where Robert was able to work with the earliest manuscript of Columella, a 9th century copy in Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan. Barbara Rodgers is enjoying teaching elementary Greek for the first time in years and is involved in sponsoring a graduate student at Vermont College. She’s also serving as Chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Committee on Honors and Individual Studies. Barbara will be giving a paper on editing Symmachus at the APA meeting in Montreal this January. Among other things, Jacques Bailly is working on an on-line etymology text for the National Spelling Bee and continuing his work on commentaries on Latin letters. He plays himself as National Spelling Bee pronouncer in a Hollywood feature film starring Lawrence Fishburne and Angela Bassett entitled “Akeelah and the Bee,” which will be in theatres next Spring. Phil Ambrose, having returned from last year’s sabbatical leave to teach and serve as departmental chair for a final year, will—horribile dictu—retire in June 2006 after 43 years at UVM! Phil is currently working on the History of CANE and an article on Ovid’s use of satyric sources in the Metamorphoses. Last week he translated the recently discovered Aria of J. S. Bach (BWV 1127) Alles mit Gott, und nichts ohn’ ihn (text by Johann Anthon Mylius, 1657-1724) for a group that will perform it at the meeting of the American Musicological Association at the end of this week. The new work will also soon appear on his Bach website at www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach. Mark Usher has articles forthcoming about Carneades and Longinus and two new books: A Student’s Seneca: Ten Letters with Selections from De providentia and De vita beata (University of Oklahoma Press—to appear in March), and a children’s picture book, Wise Guy: The Life and Philosophy of Socrates, with illustrations by William Bramhall (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), which is now available at your local bookstore and at amazon.com. News from and about UVM Students (and recent alums) Our new graduate student this year is Andrew Van Buskirk, who received his BA in Literary Studies from Middlebury College. Andrew won a prestigious Graduate College fellowship and a Lattie Coor award to support his studies here at UVM. Sara Sprunk, our MAT student, is finishing up her course work and will be doing a teaching internship this spring. She is also teaching Latin 003 for us this semester. Cory Elliott continues his work on a thesis about Seneca’s theory of reading, and is doing some excellent teaching for us as well. He spent the summer studying oral Latin with Father Reggie Fuller in Rome. Ben Eldredge, Robert Walker and Dean Proestakes, three of our undergraduate seniors, are writing Honors theses this year (Robert on tense in Homer, Dean on Plato, Ben on Poliziano). Another undergraduate, Willow Holden, won a McNair Scholarship which enabled her to pursue research this summer on the morphology of the folktale. (She attended a conference on this topic in Atlanta just last week.) Rachel Thomas has been a big help raising the banner for Classics as President of the Goodrich Classical Club. Andrew Siebengartner (BA, 2002) completed his tenure as a fellow at the American School of Classical Studies, Athens, and is now a PhD student in Classics at Princeton. Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer (MA, 2002) continues work in the PhD program in Egyptology at the University of Chicago. Jessica Evans (BA 2001; MA, 2003) is pursuing a graduate degree in Classics at the University of Dublin, Ireland. Erik Kenyon (BA 2001; MA, 2003) is a PhD student in the Classics and Philosophy program at Cornell. New Spring and Summer and Online Courses: The UVM Classics Department is pleased to be offering an array of online and regular summer courses this year. They are as follows: 2) Summer 2006: Latin 095. Special Topics in Latin. Description: Readings in Latin prose and poetry at the beginning, intermediate, or advanced level in accordance with the preparation and needs of the students. Prof. Mark Usher. 3 credits. ONLINE: 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. ONLINE: 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. ONLINE: Greek 051 Intermediate. Review and completion of basic Greek grammar and syntax with readings from original texts of Plato, Herodotus, and Euripides. Students of varied preparation welcome, including virtual beginners. Dr. Allan Wooley. 3 credits. ONLINE: Greek 052 Intermediate. Review of grammar and syntax while reading selections of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Dr. Brian T. Walsh. 3 credits. 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:
In addition to our courses in Greek and Latin we teach the following courses in classical civilization: |
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