News and Events

Olin Language Center, Upper Lobby  1:00 pm – 2:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Grab some home-made treats, celebrate the end of the semester, and learn about courses for the next term.

All are welcome!

Don't forget to wear your mask.

 

Marcus Folch, Columbia University
Online Event  5:30 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Many of the most famous people from the ancient Greco-Roman world are said to have been imprisoned: Socrates, Demosthenes, John the Baptist, Jesus, Saints Paul, Peter, and Perpetua, to name just a few. How did ancient prisons work? Were they like prisons today? What were they used for? And what do we learn about ancient—and modern—societies by studying prisons in classical Greece and Rome? This talk attempts to answer some of these questions by focusing on ancient prison narratives from Greece, Rome, and Egypt. This event is part of the Common Course, The Making of Citizenship: Local, National, Global.

Join Zoom Meeting:  https://bard.zoom.us/j/83090401030?pwd=a1RPeXFXM21NWkt4UlVOUTVuNDcyZz09  
Meeting ID: 830 9040 1030      Passcode: 626896

Ludlow Tent  5:40 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Please join us for our Literature Program Open House. The Open House will be an opportunity to meet Literature faculty, hear about next semester's courses, talk with Literature seniors and other students about their experiences, and celebrate the semester as a community.

Everyone -- whether or not you've already taken a course in Literature -- is welcome!

Richard is retiring. We are gathering to celebrate!
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4

Curtis Dozier, Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Studies,Vassar College
Olin Language Center Room 118  6:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Curtis Dozier (Vassar College) will speak about his webpage Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics (@pharosclassics), where he documents and responds to appropriations of Greco-Roman antiquity by contemporary hate groups. These include both high-profile examples, such as Spartan helmets worn by those who attacked the US Capitol in January 2021, and a whole (mostly online) world of what has been termed "highbrow white nationalism." These latter groups, in particular, pose a particular challenge to the discipline of Classics because, unlike the superficial engagement with antiquity of the Capitol rioters, the appropriations practiced by the thought leaders of white ethnonationalism reflect a deep understanding of the violence inherent in ancient social and political practices and of the ways that the prestige of the ancient world has been, and in the present, can be harnessed rhetorically to legitimize racist and oppressive politics. Dessert to go will be provided!

A Talk with John Bracey
Online Event  5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Do we want to make our Classics programs inclusive and welcoming to everyone? Do we want our programs to represent the full demographics of our schools? Do we want our field to grow larger and more diverse? I can show you exactly how to make that happen. Come and learn how to kick the doors of Classics wide open and let everyone inside. Change is possible, if we are willing to do what it takes.

Zoom Link: https://bard.zoom.us/j/7160320404 

Collecta in Classicis : “Together in Classics,” will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.

*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.
 

Online Event  5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
I was born in Sài Gòn Việt Nam, my family fled to America in 1975, and I grew up in Carlisle PA. Reared on a steady diet of Saturday morning cartoons, John Hughes, Star Wars, Bones Brigade videos, and bootlegged cassettes of Minor Threat and TSOL, I graduated high school in 1991. I majored in Classical Languages and Literature at Bard College—how did no one talk me out of that?—got my Master’s Degree at University of Massachusetts Amherst, and then moved to New York City in 1997.  There I apprenticed to be a tattooer while teaching Latin during the day, and I’ve been teaching and tattooing ever since.  I’ve never been good at staying in one lane—ask my wife about my driving.

Following in the footsteps of E.B. White (who was neither a tattooer nor Latin teacher), my wife and I left the city and moved to Maine in 2003 (she’s an honest-to-goodness Mainer) where we opened our shop, Tsunami Tattoo.  

In 2012, I delivered a TEDx talk which was highlighted by NPR’s TED Radio Hour.  The TEDx talk and its reception planted a seed in me for sharing more of my story as a refugee (of which I’d shared very little). I embarked on writing my memoir in 2016, and in April 2020 SIGH, GONE was published by Flatiron Books. You can read the memoir to get all the gory details of my childhood and adolescence, but spoiler alert:  I do somehow survive.

And here I am at present, deeply grateful to be following this brambly path to its unknown destination.  

As Joe Strummer said, the future is unwritten.

Zoom Link: https://bard.zoom.us/j/87931638633?pwd=Y3FJQ1VydHhJVjA0VE4xUVpwbHMvZz09

Collecta in Classicis : “Together in Classics,” will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.

*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.

Collecta in Classicis: Together in Classics Talk with Donna Zuckerberg, author of Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age
Online Event  5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
In 2015, Donna Zuckerberg founded the online Classics publication Eidolon as “a modern way to write about the ancient world” and put out a call for essays that had “a strong authorial voice and a unique point of view.” But she didn’t yet realize how political that vision was, or how radical it could be. In this talk, Dr. Zuckerberg traces the history of Eidolon and describes the challenges she and her team faced in making intersectional feminism central to the publication’s mission in the five years before it closed in late 2020.

Collecta in Classicis : “Together in Classics,” will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.

*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.

https://bard.zoom.us/j/89382774634?pwd=eW5aTnczdndPektCNkUxVm5td2FSUT09

Meeting ID: 893 8277 4634
Passcode: 597023

Bard Hall  1:30 pm – 2:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
On Wednesday, March 17, the Bard College History Club will have Professors Rob Cioffi and David Ungvary of the Classics Program lecture on plagues in Greco-Roman antiquity. Please contact Kent Zheng ([email protected]) to receive the recommended readings prior to attendance.

Online Event  5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Collecta in Classicis : “Together in Classics,” will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.

The third panel will be led by Hannah Silverblank, scholar of Ancient Disability Haverford College.

*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.

Zoom Link | Meeting ID: 863 8461 3896 | Passcode: 407309

A Talk with Hannah Silverblank (Haverford College)
Online Event  4:30 pm – 6:30 pm EST/GMT-5
In both ancient Greek and English, the language of disability is notoriously fraught with ideological assumptions about the wide variety of human bodies, minds, and ways of being. In the first half of this talk, Hannah Silverblank (Haverford College) will discuss the generative example of a Homeric adjective used to describe the god Hephaistos: the epithet ἀμφιγυήεις (amphi-gu-ē-eis). Does the word really mean ‘with both feet crooked, lame’, as the standard Greek-English lexicon (LSJ) would indicate? What are readers to make of the inconsistency that translators have brought this word into English, from ‘of the two lame legs’ (Murray 1924), to ‘strong-handed’ (Lattimore 1951) to ‘the… crook-legged god’ (Alexander 2015)? How do English translations of Homer’s Iliad grapple with the uncertainty of the word’s meaning, and, by extension, the meaning of Hephaistos’ embodiment? Together we will discuss the ways in which ableist assumptions of lexicographers and translators have coded and distorted Greek representations of the smith god and his disability, with ideological consequences that spill out beyond the lexicon and the Iliad. 

The second half of the talk will take the form of a speculative dialogue between the speaker and the audience. How do we think about the role of the dictionary in our Classical Studies courses? How might students and faculty search for meaning in ancient languages through and beyond the lexicon? What forms of experiential and linguistic knowledges are assumed or privileged in our Greek-English lexica, and which are repressed or excluded? How does the epistemological potential of the lexicon inform and shape the kinds of meaning and interpretation derived from studies of the ancient Mediterranean? How can we — together, or collecta, in Classics — collaborate to forge new, sharper tools of wordsmithy?

Collecta in Classicis : “Together in Classics,” will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.

This talk will feature Hannah Silverblank, scholar of ancient disability Haverford College.

*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://bard.zoom.us/j/88494009839?pwd=YjNzV2REZjdDZmhXZU5HQVFPeXV1QT09

Meeting ID: 884 9400 9839
Passcode: 673105

Online Event  5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Collecta in Classicis : “Together in Classics,” will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.

In this interactive talk, Prof. Clara Bosak-Schoeder (she/they) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will discuss how the ableism of academia is exacerbated by the elitist culture of premodern disciplines and what CripAntiquity is doing to make ancient studies more accessible to all.

*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://bard.zoom.us/j/85163555574?pwd=RU51bDJEbjdLdmhuNkpYczJYSEVNdz09

Meeting ID: 851 6355 5574
Passcode: 602667

Online Event  5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EST/GMT-5
Collecta in Classicis : “Together in Classics,” will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.

The second panel led by Clara Bosak-Schoeder, University of Illinois, founder of CripAntiquity, discusses an international advocacy organization for disabled and neurodiverse students, teachers, scholars, staff, artists, and writers in ancient studies.

*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.

Zoom Link | Meeting ID: 863 8461 3896 | Passcode: 407309

Online Event  2:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST/GMT-5
How do we build more inclusive communities in Classics? How do we do Classics with joy and cultivate “belonging” with a sense of integrity and purpose? What are the opportunities and challenges for our field?  This roundtable discussion is the opening event in our spring series, Collecta in Classicis / Together in Classics, hosted by the students and faculty of the Classical Studies program and supported by the Dean of the College’s Inclusion Challenge. 

Roundtable speakers: 

Bethany Hucks is a fourth-year PhD student at Heidelberg University in Germany, researching Egyptian influence on art and identity in imperial Rome. She has a background in biochemistry, museums, and marketing and spends her summers working on pottery at various archaeological excavations. In her free time, she works on aiding marginalized scholars and increasing/retaining diversity in ancient world studies and archaeology.
 Suzanne Lye is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She received her AB from Harvard University, where she studied organic chemistry and the history of antibiotics. After receiving her PhD in Classics from the University of California, Los Angeles, she was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College. Her first book project focuses on conceptions of the afterlife in ancient Greek Underworld narratives from Homer to Lucian. Her next project will focus on women’s anger in ancient literature and magic. She has published on ancient epic, ancient magic and religion, ancient representations of gender and ethnicity, ancient and modern pedagogy, and Classical reception. Additionally, she has contributed to several digital humanities initiatives through Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies, including the Homer Multitext Project, and is co-chair of the steering committee for the Women’s Classical Caucus.

Nandini Pandey is an Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, trained in Classics and English at Swarthmore, Oxford, Cambridge, and Berkeley. She joins us from Germany, where she is writing a second book on Roman diversity thanks to a fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin. Her first book, The Poetics of Power in Augustan Rome (Cambridge, 2018), won the 2020 CAMWS First Book Prize, and she has written numerous pieces for Eidolon as well as traditional classics journals.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://bard.zoom.us/j/86384613896?pwd=N0tESnhlWFNINzVuam44N1k4dWxJUT09

Meeting ID: 863 8461 3896
Passcode: 407309

This event is part of the Collecta in Classicis: Together in Classics series.

Collecta in Classicis : Together in Classics will provide a space for scholars, teachers, and students to have a conversation about inclusivity in Classics, what that means, what it looks like, and why Classics is not always inclusive. We welcome scholars who have engaged critically with diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, physical ability, and more as it relates to their experience in the field of Classics, or in their study of the Classical World, or both. Furthermore, we hope to include voices of marginalized groups typically silenced either in the past, or even today, by the Classics. How we make Classics more inclusive and accessible, and what that means and looks like, are difficult questions. We hope to encourage productive dialogues that contribute, in individual steps, to the transformative work needed in order for the field of Classics to be reimagined.

*A note on the name: The Latin title is representative of Classics, and having the words declined in the neuter, accusative, plural is representative of the inclusivity. The neuter excludes neither men nor women, while also including people identifying outside of masculine or feminine binaries. The plural is—quite literally—denoting that Classics is for and made up of all people.