It’s that time of year again when some lucky graduand delivers a speech in Latin at some Ivy League university. First up is Charles C. Bridge at Harvard:

If you’d like the text, the APA blog has text and translation: Text and Translation of the Latin Oration Delivered at Harvard

Over at Princeton, Veronica Shi was given a nice profile in a university news release which included the following bit:

It was a course at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs on higher education policy, taught by Associate Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Daniel Oppenheimer, that prompted Shi to consider the role of promoting the study of classics.

“It got me thinking about the larger question of articulating the importance of the humanities,” Shi said. “I came to feel that being a responsible scholar of the classics involves knowing how to express to the public at large why this discipline, even though seemingly very rarified, is worth studying and making accessible to a wider audience.”

For Shi, part of the potency of classics is its endurance.

“Homer is almost 3,000 years old, and even today, we can still read and appreciate his poetry in the original language,” Shi said. “This ability to bridge a huge divide of culture and time is what really makes classics magical.”

Shi worked to bring that magic to the Princeton community earlier this year when she crafted a libretto in classical Latin for an original opera created by students called “Nero Artifex.” Watching the students onstage singing an entire opera in Latin was “remarkable,” Shi said.

“I hoped it would be a powerful argument for the idea that Latin isn’t a dead language,” she said. “Bringing the language to life and letting people hear it shows that it’s not mysterious and arcane, but something really beautiful.”

• via: Salutatorian brings Latin to life as ‘something really beautiful’

As can be seen from the date of that item, I’ve been sitting on it hoping that Shi’s oration would show up on Youtube vel simm., but alas, it doesn’t seem to be happening. But again, the APA has put up the text and translation of her Carmen Salutationis (wow!): Text and Translation of the Latin Oration Delivered at Princeton …. and wow again. I’ll keep looking for a Youtube version … I would have loved to see how Ms Shi delivered this.

ante diem v idus junias

• Vestalia — festival in honour of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth
• 53 B.C. — the Roman army under Marcus Licinius Crassus (Dives) suffers a massive defeat at the hand of the Persians under Surenas near Carrhae; Crassus dies as a result of the battle
• 17 B.C.. — ludi Latini et Graeci honorarii (day 5)
• 62 A.D. — Nero has his first wife, Octavia, killed while in exile for adultery on Pandateria
• 68 A.D. — the emperor Nero commits suicide
• 86 A.D. — ludi Capitolini (day 4)
• 193 A.D. — arrival of Septimius Severus in Rome
• 204 A.D. — ludi Latini et Graeci honorarii (day 6)

An interesting project and worth a look:

Dear Mr. Meadows,

I would like to announce the public launch of RomanVoices, a Stanford class wiki project featuring some extraordinary research and presentations by students of various obscure Roman primary source documents.

Highlights include:

Miles Untereiner’s presentation of a mining contract from Vipasca, Portugal: http://romanvoices.wikispaces.com/Labor+and+economic+regulations

Lillian McBee’s project discussing a student’s quest to find a great professor in the big city of Alexandria: https://romanvoices.wikispaces.com/Off+to+the+city+for+school

and Leander Love-Anderegg’s analysis of the motivations behind a bitter court case in which a man alleged that his ex-wife was pregnant, despite her denials:
https://romanvoices.wikispaces.com/Pregnancy+dispute

All these students, and many others in the class, have really tried to contribute to the world’s greater understanding of Roman social and economic history. Many of the documents also use multimedia in innovative ways, combining video, images, and texts in order to communicate the fruits of their research to a non-scholarly audience.

They and I would like to see their work disseminated as widely as possible. In class, students commented that their favorite part of this project was having a chance for other students to see and comment on their page, and vice versa; it gave them a sense of ownership and pride in their work, in many cases for the first time.

In any case, if you or your readers want some brief glimpses into Roman education, military life, nasty divorces, or what an ancient care package looked like, please check out romanvoices.wikispaces.com!

Best,
Anise K. Strong

From the Daily Gleaner:

It is with great sadness that the family of Prof. John Geyssen announce his death at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital on Saturday, June 4th, 2011. Born on April 21st, 1962 in Oakville, ON he was the husband of Margaret Geyssen of Fredericton. John leaves behind his wife, Margaret; children, Sean Geyssen and Rebecca (Andrew McGilligan) Geyssen; mother, Diane Geyssen and sister, Cheri Gagnon (Barry Laverdure). He was predeceased by his father, John; grandparents, Johannes and Maria Geyssen and maternal grandparents Howard and Jean Copeland. A beloved University professor John earned his Bachelor (1985) and Masters Degrees (1987) at Queen`s University in Kingston, Ontario. He went on to earn his Ph.D. from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina in 1992. John began teaching at the University of New Brunswick in 1992. Popular with students both inside and outside the classroom, he received the Faculty of Arts Teaching Award in 2000, and the UNB Student Union Teaching Excellence Merit Award in 2008. Perhaps his greatest benefit to the Department was his long-standing service, sympathetic and adroit, as undergraduate advisor. His lectures were a draw both in large first-year courses and in advanced-level and graduate seminars. He was an intimate part of the Department’s pioneering overseas study programs in Italy and Greece. He was also the current co-editor of the scholarly journal Mouseion. A devoted husband and father, John`s interests outside family and the classroom included travel, sports (especially his Duke Blue Devils basketball team and the Philadelphia Eagles), spending time with friends, fine wine, food and art, and enjoying his vast music and literature collections.

Visitation will be held at McAdam’s Funeral Home, 160 York St., on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 from 6 to 8 pm. A memorial gathering will be held at Memorial Hall on the University of New Brunswick campus, on Thursday, June 9th, 2011 from 2 to 3 pm with Gary Waite as celebrant. Reception to follow at The Alden Nowlan House (The Grad House) at 676 Windsor St. from 3 to 6 pm. For those who wish, donations to the Viator Award at UNB, which assists students in their studies abroad, would be appreciated. Online condolences can be made at http://www.mcadamsfh.com

• via John Geyssen | Daily Gleaner.

See also Alison Keith’s version in the Canadian Classical Bulletin: In memoriam John W. Geyssen