Month: March 2012

A Digital Classics Association

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Seen on the Digitalclassicist list:

Invitation to Form a Digital Classics Association

Dear Colleagues,

We write to ask your support in an effort to promote digital classics.

We are in the process of forming a Digital Classics Association (DCA) to foster digital approaches to understanding classical antiquity, its legacy, and associated cultures.

The immediate goal of the DCA is the creation of a dedicated session for digital classics at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association (APA). This session will complement existing online and offline venues for digital humanities and digital classics collaboration. To this end, we are applying for recognition as an APA Type II Affiliated Group. Recognition as a Type II Affiliated Group will permit the DCA to host a combined poster session / informal reception at the APA Annual Meeting for the next five years. Creation of such a venue will bring sustained discussion of digital methods to the largest North American meeting of classical scholars.

The application deadline for APA Affiliated Group status is March 23, 2012. If successful, the first DCA group meeting and sponsored session will take place at the January, 2014 APA meeting in Chicago.

We invite you to support this effort by becoming a member of the fledgling DCA at your earliest convenience. Membership is open to anyone with interests in digital classics, requires no fee, and imposes no obligation.

To become a member, please go to the pilot DCA website (http://dca.drupalgardens.com/) and enter your name and email address into the DCA mailing list. We will compile all the names we receive before the APA deadline into a membership list to submit with the application. Your name and email address will be used only for the purpose of supporting the APA application and for occasional updates on future DCA activities. (You can remove your information from the list at any time by emailing the DCA Secretary-Treasurer.)

Your membership will advance no agenda other than broad support for all forms of digital classics as outlined above and elaborated in the attached APA application. If we are successful, all aspects of the organization, including mission, structure, activities, and personnel, will be open to full revision by the membership at the first DCA business meeting at the 2014 APA conference.

For the purposes of the APA application, we have created an organizational structure, embodied in the attached set of bylaws. In accord with these bylaws, we have formed an Interim Steering Committee with five members:

Co-Chairs: Neil Coffee (University at Buffalo) and Gregory Crane (Perseus, Tufts University)

Secretary-Treasurer: Allen Romano (Florida State University)

Steering Committee Member: Charlotte Roueché (King’s College London)

Steering Committee Member: Christopher Blackwell (Furman University, Center for Hellenic Studies)

Open elections for all of these positions are planned for the 2014 APA Meeting.

We would like to extend this invitation as widely as possible, so please forward this email to anyone who might be interested. With your support, we hope to create a highly productive venue for formal and informal discussions for years to come, and to found an organization that will foster the development of digital approaches to classical antiquity by a variety of other means as well.

What to Do With a Classics Degree: Madeline Miller’s Career Path

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 1 Comment

From a brief item in Boston Globe Magazine:

My mom used to read the Greek myths, particularly The Iliad, to me when I was a little girl, and I absolutely loved them. AT BROWN, I MAJORED IN LATIN and Greek, and then I stayed and got my master’s, also in the classics. I had always loved writing, modern stories mostly, but I never thought about connecting my writing with the classics.

Then, in my senior year, I directed a production of Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare’s version of the Trojan War. That experience, directing Achilles how to stand and telling Agamemnon what his costume should be, made me realize I could tell these stories myself. I ESPECIALLY LOVED ACHILLES and Patroclus and was moved at Achilles’ grief over losing Patroclus. After the play ended, I sat down at the computer and started writing. Working on the novel on the side was like MY DIRTY SECRET. I went to graduate school and then got a job teaching, and the book was the thing I did on weekends and summer vacations.

I ended up writing an entire first draft by about year five. I thought maybe this is ready for publication, but it really wasn’t. I ended up completely REWRITING THE NOVEL FROM SCRATCH. By the time year 10 came around, I had a finished manuscript I felt good about. Within two weeks after my agent submitted the novel to publishers, multiple editors were interested, which just blew me over.

The book came out March 6, and the most exciting thing is seeing the story reach other people. Doing events initially made me a little nervous, but I’m grateful for my classroom experience. If I can face teenagers who maybe don’t want to learn what I’m teaching them, I can do anything.

Also Seen: Blame Hermes

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

… the next time you text something and autocorrect turns it into a job loss opportunity … according to a piece in Science 2.0, inter alia:

Hermes most recently invented the digital technology. Internet and smart phones are the new messengers. They wear winged cases and lids so they can uplift information over iClouds. They are the god of commerce. Even when they steal, they do it so gracefully that we do not even realize. We “check-in” to give Mr. Facebook our geospatial location. […]

… suddenly it all makes sense …