rogueclassicism

CONF: Eight Years In Babylon: Classics and the Iraq War Eight Years On

Seen on Classicists (please respond to the folks mentioned below, not rogueclassicism):

The Centre for the Reception of Greece and Rome at Royal Holloway College,
University of London is pleased to announce a conference entitled: Eight
Years in Babylon: Classics and the Iraq War Eight Years On.

In Western Europe and North America, one of the most dominate filters
through which the recent history of relations with Iraq has been processed
is that of ancient Greece. Numerous creative artists as well as academics
have compared and contrasted the Greeks’ view of their Mesopotamian and
other central Asiatic neighbours with modern ethnic stereotyping,
intercultural reportage, and the production of the historical record.

This conference will bring together an interdisciplinary team of artists
and scholars (British, North American, and Iraqi) to ask important
questions surrounding these pieces such as do they form a related body of
work and do they offer new insight into the political discourse
surrounding the Iraq War or the history of Classical Reception?

Currently confirmed speakers are as follows:

Professor Edith Hall (Royal Holloway College, University of London)
Professor Nancy S. Rabinowitz (Hamilton College)
Helen Slaney (Oxford)
Dr. Tony Keen (Open University)
Professor Najim A. Kadhim Al-Dyni (University of Baghdad)
Dr. Christine Lee (Bristol)
Professor Roger Matthews (UCL)
Lt. Mark Larson (United States Army)

The conference will be held on 18 March 2011 at 2 Gower Street, London WC1
B3 beginning at 10:00. There will be no participation fee. For additional
information, please contact Katie Billotte (Conference Convenor, Royal
Holloway College, University of London) at K.Billotte AT rhul.ac.uk.

ED: UGA Classics Summer Institute

Seen on various lists (please respond to the folks mentioned below, not rogueclassicism):

UGA’s 2011 Summer Institute courses have been announced!

To view the flyer: http://classics.uga.edu/temp%20images%20pdfs/summerinstituteposter11.pdf

Each year the Institute offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate Latin and Classics courses, including, in odd-numbered years, a methods course for Latin teachers and Intensive Beginning Greek and, in even-numbered years, Intensive Beginning Latin. The Institute curriculum is supplemented by workshops and guest lectures by visiting master teachers and scholars. The program is designed especially for Latin teachers who wish to continue their education or earn a Master’s degree in Latin on a summers-only basis. The faculty of the Department of Classics share in a tradition of cooperation with high school teachers that culminates each summer in an exciting and challenging curriculum. Here are the offerings for the summer of 2011:

First Short Session – June 13 – July 1, exam on July 5
GREK 2050 – Intensive Greek I 9:00 – 11:45 am Park Hall 225 Dr. Naomi Norman

Second Short Session – July 6 – July 26, exam on July 27
GREK 2060 – Intensive Greek II 12:30 – 3:15 pm Park Hall 225 Dr. Charles Platter

LATN 4/6400 – Augustan Literature 1:00 – 3:45 pm Park Hall 114 Dr. Christine Albright

Through Session – June 13 – July 25, exam on July 26
CLAS 4/6329 – Roman Republic 9:00 – 10:15 am Park Hall 228 Dr. T. Keith Dix

LATN 6030 – Tacitus 10:30 am – 12:00 noon Park Hall 116 Dr. John Nicholson

CLAS 8000 – Proseminar 3:50 – 5:50 pm • Mondays Only Park Hall 222 Staff

LATN 4/6770 – Teaching Methods 3:50 – 5:50 pm • Wednesdays Only Park Hall 222 Mr. Randy Fields
Housing:
For the most up-to-date information about available University Housing, please visit: http://www.uga.edu/housing/rates/nextyearsrates.html. Off-campus housing is also available. UGA meal plans are offered at low student rates.

Tuition:
Tuition rates for summer 2010 were $250 per credit hour plus $584 in fees for in-state students and $871 per credit hour for out-of state students (2011 rates will be available in early 2011 – please check the UGA Bursar’s Office for the most updated information).

Latin teachers from outside Georgia may complete a tuition waiver to reduce tuition to the in-state level. Modest scholarships are also available from the Department. Scholarships are also offered by non-UGA organizations; please visit www.classics.uga.edu for a list.

Admissions:
All Institute participants must be admitted to the University of Georgia, either as Degree or Non-Degree students. Please apply on the Graduate School website at http://www.grad.uga.edu. For admission to the Summer Institute, complete the online application packet available at http://classics.uga.edu/academic_programs/summer_institute_application.htm. Writing samples may be emailed to grading AT uga.edu.

Deadlines:
Application and supporting documents must be received no later than April 1st for domestic applicants, six weeks earlier for international applicants.

For more information, please contact Kay Stanton at gradinq AT uga.edu or Dr. John Nicholson at jhn AT uga.edu, or call 706-542-9264.

ED: AAR Classical Summer School 2011

Seen on various lists (please respond to the folks mentioned below, not rogueclassicism):

American Academy in Rome Classical Summer School

This six-week program is designed to provide qualified graduate students, mature undergraduates, and middle school, high school, and two-year college teachers with a well-founded understanding of the growth and development of the city of Rome through a careful study of material remains and literary sources.

(See more information and download forms at: http://www.aarome.org/other-ways-to-participate.php?rt=program&rid=27)

2011 dates
June 20 – July 29, 2011

2011 application deadline
January 18th, 2011
Notification will be on or around March 1, 2011.

2011 Director
Professor Susann S. Lusnia, FAAR’96, Associate Professor, Department of Classical Studies, Tulane University

Costs
Tuition: $1,800
Basic room and board: $4,200 (estimated)
Tuition, room and board will total approximately $6,000, not including airfare, personal
expenses and additional, unplanned expenditures. This estimate does not include lunches, any travel not directly related to the program of the Summer School, nor expenses such as laundry, tips, amusements, or shopping.

Lodging
Students of the Classical Summer School must stay at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies (ICCS). The estimated cost for 6 entire weeks is $4,200 per person for a shared double room and half board (breakfast and dinner 5 days per week, 42 nights). Admission is contingent upon the participant’s agreeing to stay at ICCS.

Application Materials
The deadline for applications is January 18, 2011. Please thoroughly read the 2011 Guidelines before completing the Classical Summer School Application.

All application materials must be mailed or emailed to the Director:
Prof. Susann Lusnia
Department of Classical Studies
210 Jones Hall
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA 70118
Email: lusnia.aarcss AT gmail.com

Scholarships
All applicants are eligible for the Sollman and CSAAR Scholarships. Applicants are also encouraged to apply for scholarships offered through their regional and state classical organizations. Fulbright Commission grants are open only to secondary school teachers of Latin, and have a January 11, 2011 deadline. Applicants for all scholarships MUST ALSO submit the Classical Summer School application to the Director.

Roman Junction What’s Your Function?

From Cambs Times:

The find reveals a new junction on the historic Fen Causeway road which runs underneath Whitemoor Marshalling Yards, the site where Network Rail are building a brand new railway reycling centre worth £23 million.

The discovery points towards the town’s ancient history as a centre for settlement and trade, and provides evidence of further links to nearby settlements.

North Pennines Archaeology Ltd sent workers to the Whitemoor site to investigate the remains of the rail yard and establish whether the course of the Fen Causeway had been fully removed by the rail yard’s construction.

The archaeologists came across a 12 metre-wide road and an additional eight metre-wide road heading south-west of the junction. It is believed that this was built to meet an east-west road recently excavated at the County Council’s waste transfer facility at Melbourne Avenue.

Another possible road, though less well preserved, heads north-eastwards towards known settlements and the salterns in the Longhill Road area.

Kasia Gdaniec, of the Cambridgeshire County Council’s Historic Environment Team, said: “This has been a rare opportunity to investigate an unexpectedly well-preserved section of the Fen Causeway. It is the first time that a junction has been found in association with it,”

She added: “March has a wealth of fantastic archaeological remains that are exciting and challenging in equal measure.”

The discovery falls under the former marshalling yards where a new national railway recyling centre is in the second phase of construction. The centre will enable Network Rail to sort, clean, process, recycle and re-use railway materials.

The centre aims to create even more jobs in the town.

via Roman road junction discovered at Network Rail site | Cambs Times.

Double Take Headline o’ the Day

Zeus changing to Athena.

… Hera warned him about hanging out with Teiresias

Video of the Moment: Pharaoahlicious

Paul Halsall and Lyn Green alerted me to a pile of videos at YouTube which y’all might enjoy … we’ll post one a day or so until they run out:

Also Seen: Bad Girls of the Ancient World

Interesting item at the History Undressed blog (now added to my blogroll, of course):

• Guest Author, Stephanie Dray – Bad Girls of the Ancient World: Expanded Edition.

Ancient Folks and the Proust Questionnaire

Over at PhDiva, Dorothy King has managed to convince some dead personnages to fill out the Proust Questionnaire, which was originally some sort of personality test/interview format, but is currently more commonly seen in the back pages of Vogue wherein celebs find yet another reason to talk about themselves. Over the past week, though, it has been rather interesting:

• Cleopatra VII of Egypt Answers Proust Questionnaire
• (Another) Cleopatra Answers Proust Questionnaire
• Mark Antony Answers Proust Questionnaire
• Mithridates VI of Pontus Answers Proust Questionnaire
• Zenobia Answers Proust Questionnaire

… interesting how Mithradates and Cleo respond in the same ‘business-like’ font while Mark Antony is rather more, er, ornate …

The Benefits of Classics

A couple of interesting items on the benefits of Classics have meandered through my social networks and email this week. First, and most recent (within a few minutes) is an ‘open letter’ in the journal Genome Biology, in which a Science professor smacks down SUNY Albany’s prez for their recent cuts to, among other things, Classics (about which I hope to blog in the near future) … an excerpt, inter alia (the whole thing is definitely worth reading):

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you have trouble understanding the importance of maintaining programs in unglamorous or even seemingly ‘dead’ subjects. From your biography, you don’t actually have a PhD or other high degree, and have never really taught or done research at a university. Perhaps my own background will interest you. I started out as a classics major. I’m now Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry. Of all the courses I took in college and graduate school, the ones that have benefited me the most in my career as a scientist are the courses in classics, art history, sociology, and English literature. These courses didn’t just give me a much better appreciation for my own culture; they taught me how to think, to analyze, and to write clearly. None of my sciences courses did any of that.

• via: A Faustian bargain | Genome Biology

(tip o’ the pileus to Bill Caraher for that one)

Elsewhere, Bettany Hughes was giving an interview on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour and made a spirited defense of Classics … an excerpt inter alia:

JM: But how impressed do you think an employer would be, with a kid with
straight-As in Latin, Greek , Ancient History, as opposed to the one
whos done Business, Finance, and I.T.?

BH: The fantastic thing, we have some great statistics, luckily, to back
up our campaign. If you talk to Cambridge University, theyll tell you
that of all their Arts graduates, excluding law students, if you call law
students Arts graduates, classicists are the most highly employable. And
actually, if you go to businesses, across the board, particularly
international businesses, they love a classical degree, because it shows
you can deal with quite complex data, it shows that you have an interest
in the wider world, and it also shows that you have a fundamental interest
in humanity, and increasingly, businesses of all kinds are realising that
thats an absolutely essential skill to have.

… full transcript over at Constantina Katsari’s Love of History blog ..

Headless Statue and Cleopatra’s Tomb Heads Up

There are a couple of versions of the same article kicking around my mailbox and also being bounced around assorted sources on Twitter (including my own Exploratorraw autobot). The two I’ve come across so far are both ultimately via ANI and purport to be telling us new info in the search for Cleo’s tomb, specifically at Taposiris Magna. Here are the items in question:

• Headless Egypt king statue could give clues to Cleopatra’s tomb | New Kerala

• Headless Egypt king statue could give clues to Cleopatra’s tomb | Sify

… when I finally was in a position to actually connect with the articles (i.e. not at my school’s wonky connection), it turned out these items were just a repeat of a much-ballyhooed piece from National Geographic back in May of 2010:

• Headless Egypt King Statue Found; Link to Cleopatra’s Tomb?

… which we have already commented on:

• More Cleopatra Tomb Stuff

Just sayin’ …

Sea-Goats at Sotheby’s

T’other evening on Twitter I was bemoaning the lack  of statuary in an upcoming auction at Sotheby’s … turns out I wasn’t looking at the right auction (that was a smaller auction of items from the Clarence Day collection) … whatever the case, the ‘bigger auction’ catalog is online and my eye was immediately caught by lot 53 which I can’t seem to find a linkable photo for (Sotheby’s has changed their online catalog format). In any event, it is an early Augustan marble (from a group) of a satyr riding a sea-goat. According to the official description, it was found in 1908 in the environs presumed to be the location of the Gardens of Sallust. It appears to be part of a fountain-type grouping, of which another ‘piece’ is likely a similar item in the Vatican (a piece I can’t recall seeing and which I can’t find a photo of either).

via: A Marble Group of a Satyr … | Sotheby’s

Crassus’ Lost Army? Meet Elmer. Don’t Eat That.

Okay … it seems it’s time for yet another installment in the Crassus-lost-army-made-it-to-the-Liqian-region-of-China-and-procreated saga … here’s the incipit of the latest effort:

Chinese and Italian anthropologists this week established an Italian studies center at a leading university in northwest China to determine whether some Western-looking Chinese in the area are the descendants of a lost Roman army of ancient times.

Experts at the Italian Studies Center at Lanzhou University in Gansu Province will conduct excavations on a section of the Silk Road, a 7,000-km-long trade route that linked Asia and Europe more than 2,000 years ago, to see if it can be proved a legion of lost Roman soldiers settled in China, said Prof. Yuan Honggeng, head of the center.

“We hope to prove the legend by digging and discovering more evidence of China’s early contact with the Roman Empire,” said Yuan.

Before Marco Polo’s travels to China in the 13th century, the only known contact between the two empires was a visit by Roman diplomats in 166 A.D.

Chinese archeologists were therefore surprised in the 1990s to find the remains of an ancient fortification in Liqian, a remote town in Yongchang County on the edge of the Gobi desert, which was strikingly similar to Roman defence structures.

They were even more astonished to find western-looking people with green, deep-set eyes, long and hooked noses and blonde hair in the area.

Though the villagers said they had never traveled outside the county, they worshipped bulls and their favorite game was similar to the ancient Romans’ bull-fighting dance.

… and I was merrily reading along until I came to this:

DNA tests in 2005 confirmed some of the villagers were indeed of foreign origin, leading many experts to conclude they are the descendants of the ancient Roman army headed by general Marcus Crassus.

• via: New research body to help decode mystery of Western-looking villagers in NW China | People’s Daily

… at which point the BS alarm went off in my head, shrieking endlessly. The last time we mentioned this Romans in China thing, we included an abstract from what I believe to be the study in question and the final couple of lines are worth repeating:

The Liqian and the Yugur people, regarded as kindred populations with common origins, present an underlying genetic difference in a median-joining network. Overall, a Roman mercenary origin could not be accepted as true according to paternal genetic variation, and the current Liqian population is more likely to be a subgroup of the Chinese majority Han.

Fortunately, there is a bit of sanity as the article continues (albeit on another page):

Though some anthropologists are convinced the foreign-looking villagers in Yongchang County are the descendants of the army men, others are not so certain.

“The county is on the Silk Road, so there were many chances for trans-national marriages,” said Prof. Yang Gongle at Beijing Normal University. “The ‘foreign’ origin of the Yongchang villagers, as proven by the DNA tests, does not necessarily mean they are of ancient Roman origin.”

Prof. Xie Xiaodong, a geneticist from Lanzhou University, also sounded a skeptical note.

“Even if they are descendants of Romans, it does not mean they are necessarily from that Roman army.”

Their mysterious identity has brought wealth and fame to some of the villagers.

Cai Junnian has yellow wavy hair, a hooked nose and green eyes. A DNA test in 2005 confirmed he is of 56 percent European origin. It made him famous almost overnight.

Reporters, filmmakers, historians and geneticists from around the world chased him. He was invited to meetings with the Italian consul in Shanghai and even appeared in a documentary shot by an Italian TV company last year.

His friends all call him “Cai Luoma,” which means “Cai the Roman.”

Cai’s fellow villager Luo Ying, looks even more European. He has been employed by a Shanghai firm as their “image ambassador.” [etc.]

One might cynically suggest this is at least an interesting way for China to get foreign funding for digs … the ‘sensational’ always seems to trump reasonable evidence to the contrary …

PBS Interview With Stacy Schiff

There’s a transcript available here … here Schiff reads from her book:

I am becoming increasingly dismayed that this much-reviewed book seems to be not being reviewed by people who are rather closer to Classics than generic-book-review-land.