Dear All,

Greetings from the Department of Classics, halfway through a very busy semester! As the "original interdisciplinary subject”, as we often refer to it, the study of antiquity can pull us in multiple different directions. This semester we have so far enjoyed fascinating talks from visiting scholars including our Townsend Lectures on the history of classical scholarship in the USA and research seminars on everything from Cicero and Pliny the Younger to conversion in Late Antiquity and collecting in the Ottoman Empire, as well as a highly successful graduate conference on “Frontiers in Archaeological Sciences: Rethinking the Paradigm". Please join us this Friday, if you can, for Christelle Fischer-Bovet’s talk on  "All You Always Wanted to Know About the Ptolemaic Empire (But Were Afraid to Ask)”! And if you’d like to know more about the incredible range of topics our faculty cover in their research and teaching, check our our new Podcast Page, which features links to series such as RadioCIAMS and Barry Strauss’s Antiquitas, as well as individual episodes of podcasts such as The Academic Minute, Tides of History, Philoso?hy Talk, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, and Ancient Office Hours, all of which feature Cornell Classics faculty. Meanwhile, see below for an article by our undergraduate major Charlee Mandy, in which she writes evocatively about her exciting summer excavating with Astrid Van Oyen's Marzuolo Archaeological Project.

This semester, we celebrated ten years of our successful Active Learning Initiative with presentations from faculty about their teaching and learning experiences. And for the first time, Classics participated in Cornell’s “World Language Day”, organized by our Language Resource Center and Upward Bound, along with sponsorship from myriad campus units and student clubs. The event brought local middle and high school students up the hill to discover the importance of language, cultural awareness, and global literacy — as well as opportunities for learning more about them at Cornell. Dan Gallagher (Ralph and Jeanne Kanders Associate Professor of the Practice in Latin) and Alan van den Arend (Active Learning Initiative Postdoctoral Associate in Classics) introduced participants to the Latin language, with which almost all were unfamiliar, and shared the enthusiasm for Classics that makes our department a vibrant intellectual community. Angelika Kraemer, Director of the Language Resource Center, reports that “sharing Cornell’s approach to spoken Latin resonated” with participants. When asked what they learned during the event, many “specifically mentioned Latin”, including one student who enthusiastically reported: “I learned that I want to learn Latin!”

Finally, please join me in welcoming two new members to the Classics Department: Ryan Belle, our new Undergraduate Coordinator, and (a rather younger new arrival), baby Úna, born to the Gallagher family in October!

With all best wishes,

Verity Platt

Chair of Classics

Photo courtesy of Charlee Mandy '23 from the CENTRO Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome