David Wright recites from Horace's Carmen Saeculare
The Department of Classics 2012 Student Awards Ceremony was held on Wednesday, May 3, in the Learning Services Building courtyard. Between awards, students from Dr. Cynthia’s White’s Catullus & Horace class performed Horace’s Carmen Saeculare, and undergraduate Greek students recited from Plato and Herodotus. Guests of honor included the family of Richard Jensen, Emeritus Professor Norman Austin, and Lee Thorn, who spoke of his longtime partner Jim Doidge’s passion for Greek and Latin before he awarded the 2012 Doidge Graduate Greek and Latin Prizes to Chad Carver and Boris Shoshitaishvili, respectively. The Norman Austin Award for best M.A. Thesis went to Natalie Gleason for “The Romanization of Jewish Daily Life and Material Culture: A Negotiation for the Survival of Jewish Cultural Identity.” The Richard Jensen and Thomas Worthen Prizes, awarded annually to the top undergraduate Latin and Greek students, went to Ian Merrill and Ginette Gonzalez, respectively. Evelyn Rick and Boris Shoshitaishvili won the American Philological Association Outstanding Student Awards. Classical Association of The Middle West and South Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Classical Studies went to Anne Duray and Emily Hulme. The first Outstanding Undergraduate in Classics Award, which acknowledges high-level academic performance as well as excellence outside the classroom in the form of independent research and/or exemplary community service, was awarded to Mike Baker. Kolb Ettenger won the Sandra Rhead Jones Award, which is given in support of Latin teaching pursuits. Martin Asimis took the Hellenic Cultural Foundation’s Excellence in Modern Greek Award.
Dr. Robert Schon presents the Worthen Prize to Ginette Gonzalez
Twelve graduate students are expected to receive their M.A. degrees at the end of the spring 2012 semester: Anne Duray, Erin Dombrady, Corrie Ellithorpe, Andrew Estes, Matt Ferguson, Ben Gorham, Natalie Gleason, Billie Rolla, Matt Schueller, Vasek Shatillo, Boris Shoshitaishvili, and David Wright; in the fall 2011 semester, Robert Anderson, Michael Baker, and Michael Hagedon received their M.A. degrees. Duray accepted a fellowship offer from Stanford University to pursue her doctorate. Ellithorpe and Schueller accepted Ph.D. fellowship offers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ferguson received the Enhanced Dean’s Fellowship at the University of California at Irvine, Riverside & San Diego to pursue his doctorate. Gorham accepted the prestigious Jefferson Fellowship from the University of Virginia, and Wright accepted a doctoral fellowship from Rutgers University, as did 2010 M.A. recipient Isaiah Clough. Estes and Rolla have accepted Latin and Classics teaching positions with BASIS Schools.
The department was extremely honored to have two of its GATs, Vacek Shatillo and David Wright, win the 2012 University of Arizona Foundation Outstanding Graduate Assistant in Teaching Award. Latin GATs Matt Ferguson, Emily Hulme, Stefania Mitzithras, Evelyn Rick, Boris Shoshitaishvili Sean Tulley, and David Wright received departmental Outreach & Service Awards.
Graduate student conference presenters Emily Hulme, David Wright, Boris Shoshitaishvili, Anne Duray
Graduate student Emily Hulme was recognized for her forthcoming publication “Personal Autonomy in Plato’s Early Dialogues and Republic,” which will appear in Logos: The Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy at Cornell. Several graduate students presented papers at conferences this year: Anne Duray, “All about Alcibiades: The Importance of Topography in Aristophanes’ Frogs” (CAMWS, Baton Rouge); Emily Hulme, “Leaky Boats, Stormy Seas: Political Philosophy in De Tranquillitate Animi and De Otio” (Ancient Philosophy Society Conference, San Francisco, “Seneca at Sea: Stoic Political Philosophy in De Otio" (CAMWS, Baton Rouge), and ”Personal Autonomy in Plato's Early Dialogues and Republic” (Undergraduate Ancient Philosophy Conference at Cornell University); Matt Schueller, “Herodotus and Disability in Classical Greece: Herodotus' Attitude toward Disability in the Histories” (1st Annual Graduate Conference in Ancient History of the Joint Collaborative Programme in Ancient Greek and Roman History, University of Toronto); Boris Shoshitaishvili, “The Maker of Plots: Classicizing Borges” (American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, Brown University), “Thanatos to Charos: A Modern Greek Author’s Adaptation” (Biennial International Symposium of the Modern Greek Studies Association, New York University, and at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, Scottsdale); David Wright, “Characterizations of Aeneas as a Bandit in the Aeneid” (Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, Scottsdale).
2011-12 Latin GATs Evelyn Rick, Stefania Mitzithras, Emily Hulme, David Wright, Boris Shoshitaishvili, Sean Tulley, Matt Ferguson
Classics Interim Head Steve Martinson established a Graduate Student Educational and Professional Development Fund this year. From it, thirteen students were awarded $200-750 each to attend, or present at conferences, participate in excavations, etc.: Anthony Browne, Chad Carver, Amanda Cookson, Anne Duray, Matt Ferguson, Lauren Grantham, Ben Gorham, Emily Hulme, Matt Pihokker, Billie Rolla, Boris Shoshitaishvili, Matt Schueller, and David Wright. Wright also won a Hill Scholarship to attend the Summer Session of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Michael Baker received the Orvieto Award, which will allow him to teach at the Orvieto Institute this summer. Natalie Gleason, Matthew Pihokker, Billie Rolla, and Emilio Rodriguez-Alvarezhave been funded to attend a study session at the Mt. Lykaion Excavation in the summer of 2012. Other graduate students participating in summer programs and projects include: Matthew Ferguson (City of David Project, Jerusalem); Anne Duray (Excavations at the Athenian Agora); Matthew Pihokker (Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project, Survey Team); Matt Schueller (Balkan Heritage Project’s Heraclea Lyncestis Field School, Republic of Macedonia); and Chad Carver and Amanda Cookson (South Asasif Conservation Project, Luxor, Egypt).
Amanda Cookson, Chad Carver, Anne Duray, Dr. Robert Schon
Several undergraduates were recognized for winning various prizes and awards, and for their acceptance into graduate programs. Scott Kennedy won 2nd Place in this year’s (national) Eta Sigma Phi Maurine Dallas Watkins Sight Translation Contest in Latin and an Honorable Mention in Koine Greek. Mike Baker and Aidan Clevinger won marks of High Achievement in the College Greek Exam. William Patrick Ridge accepted a fellowship to pursue a doctorate in Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Scott Kennedy was awarded a fellowship to pursue his Ph.D. at The Ohio State University. Kennedy was also recognized for delivering a paper entitled “Caesar, Vercingetorix, and Napoleon III: An Empire of the Past” at this year’s Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Annual Meeting in Scottsdale. Ginette Gonzalez will enter the M.A. program in Classics at Villanova University, and Vishal Ganesan and Michael Spanne will join our M.A. program this fall. Rachel DeLozier and Caroline Shoemaker were recognized as Phi Beta Kappa New Inductees. Ginette Gonzalez won Honorable Mention for the COH Outstanding Senior Award. Jennifer Uhlmann was awarded the American Classical League’s Maureen O'Donnell Teacher Training Scholarship and the CAMWS Manson Stewart Teacher Training scholarship; together, these awards will allow her both to study in the Accademia Vivarium Novum program in Rome and to take our Intensive Latin 212 this summer.
Undergraduate Scott Kennedy
This year’s members of Eta Sigma Phi, the Classics Honorary Society, were recognized: Mike Baker, Kara Bond, Erica Carlson, Rachel Deloizer, Lexi Heimback, Scott Kennedy, Monica Lent, Billy Ridge, Dean Saxton, and Mike Spanne. This year’s Executive Board of, and major contributors to, the 2nd Annual Homerathon were also recognized: Michael Baker, Meghan Bergersen, Kellner Brown, Jill Calliste, Becky Caroli, Rachel Delozier, Sam Forman, Alexis Heimback, Nicholas Petsas, Jessica Stennett, Mack Wilson, Lauren Wolfe, Billy Ridge, and Michael Spanne.
Sayra Arias, Rebecca Kish, Ben Gorham
Finally, the department’s Graduate Student Representatives, Anne Duray and David Wright, were thanked for their important departmental service. Student Office Assistants Mark Perryman, Rebecca Kish, Sayra Arias, and Ben Gorham were also recognized for their valuable contributions within the department.
Congratulations to all our most deserving student awardees this year!
Boris Shoshitaishvili and Kevin Lubrano reciting Horace
Special thanks are owed to Dr. Robert Schon, who organized this year’s ceremony and performed brilliantly as program emcee. Kolb Ettenger, Kevin Lubrano, Stefania Mitzithras, Evelyn Rick, Boris Shoshitaishvili, Sean Tulley, and David Wright deserve our gratitude for their lively recitation of Horace’s Carmen Saeculare. Thanks also to undergraduates Justin Shaw and Isaac Duarte for their readings from Plato’s Apology and Herodotus’ Histories.
Dr. Robert Schon