The world’s premier photographer of classical antiquity offers three lectures—her first in North America—on how she has planned, researched and is now realizing a 21-year project to document the wide-ranging journeys of the restless Roman emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-138), following in his footsteps precisely 1900 years later.

MONDAY 24 APRIL 500 PM NEW BRUNSWICK NJ
@RUTGERS UNIVERSITY (ALEXANDER LIBRARY, 169 COLLEGE AVE, 4TH FLOOR)

WEDNESDAY 26 APRIL 530 PM MANHATTAN NYC
@BROOKLYN COLLEGE GRADUATE CENTER (25 BROADWAY, 7TH FLOOR) RSVP form for this NYC event (required) https://www.paideiainstitute.org/carole_raddato

THURSDAY 27 APRIL 500 PM CAMBRIDGE MA
@HARVARD UNIVERSITY (HARVARD YARD, BOYLSTON HALL, FONG AUDITORIUM) https://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D165234447

With the collaboration of the Department of Classics, Rutgers University; Department of Classics, Brooklyn College; CUNY Greek/Latin Institute; Paideia Institute; Department of the Classics, Harvard University; Archaeological Institute of America (Boston Chapter); and the Library of the American Academy in Rome.

For “Surviving Spectacles”, a virtual exhibition of Carole Raddato’s work (focused on remnants of Roman spaces for entertainment), curated by Jacqueline Giz (Rutgers ’23 / MA cand. ’24), see here: https://following-hadrian.libraries.rutgers.edu

Carole Raddato at the amphitheatre in Uthina (Tunisia), February 2023

ABOUT CAROLE RADDATO….

A native of France, resident in Germany (Frankfurt am Main), and employed in the UK music industry, in 2012 Raddato started her Following Hadrian blog to tell the stories behind her photographs: .

Self-trained as a photographer and ancient history writer, she has built up an enormous worldwide following, especially on Twitter (62,000+ followers @CaroleMadge). 

The quality of Carole Raddato’s images of both sites and artifacts is more often than not the best available anywhere.  Strikingly, she has made all her images free for use under the Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike license. Her photographs have found their way now into hundreds of academic books.

Carole has also published a steady stream of illustrated essays for Ancient History Magazine and articles for the online Ancient History Encyclopedia, as well as Antigone Journal. In November 2019 Carole Raddato also made a major and wholly original discovery in Roman portraiture concerning Rome’s Ludovisi collection.

So far, Carole Raddato has photographed well over 1000 sites and museums focusing on the classical past. These include significant but less-visited archaeological areas outside of continental Europe, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey (many hard-to-access sites in southern and eastern Anatolia), Israel, Jordan, Armenia, Egypt, Iran and Lebanon. One of Raddato’s most valuable contributions is photographing ephemeral exhibitions of antiquity; her lasting contribution to the contemporary study of classical antiquity is already secured.

“I usually try to use Hadrian’s journeys as a leading thread for my own adventures”, says Raddato. But starting in 2017—the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian’s accession as emperor—she decided to take it one step further. Carole Raddato has committed to a commemoration of Hadrian that will last for the length of his principate—21 years, from 2017 to 2038.

Her aim? “To try to follow Hadrian’s journeys according to the year they were undertaken.” She has already completed the journeys of the first six years of Hadrian’s reign (117-122 CE), excavating at Vindolanda in summer 2022 (next summer too).

When receiving the gift of Carole Raddato’s collection of photographs, the American Academy in Rome in its announcement counted it as “the most important collection of images of antiquity to come to the Academy since Ernest Nash’s Fototeca Unione was formed in 1956, and is the first to consist of photos taken wholly in the twenty-first century”. 

For some samples of work, Raddato’s introductory page at the American Academy of Rome site is a good place to start. And of course, our online exhibition hosted by Rutgers University Libraries and curated by Jacqueline Giz ’23: https://following-hadrian.libraries.rutgers.edu

Image: “The Roux” (2002), large installation by New Orleans-based artist Richard C. Thomas (born 1953) in Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY). The work depicts 100 influential New Orleans musicians.

“I been in the right place”, as a famous New Orleanian once sang on a classic disk released precisely 50 years ago this year, “But it must have been the wrong time”.

Well, if you’re attending the 2023 joint annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies / Archaeological Institute of America in New Orleans—or even participating virtually—you are very much in the right place at the right time.

A list of highlights from the full program of the SCS or AIA—the associations’ first-ever hybrid conference—would be invidious.

But since this is rutgersclassics.com, we can flex that fully five of our current Classics PhD students are delivering papers (all in person, as it happens), as well as more than a dozen faculty, former faculty and alums of our department. Here’s a basic roster to make sure you don’t miss a beat…

Friday 6 January        

First Paper Session Paper Session / Session Block (8:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.) 

SCS-6: Conforming, Reforming, Trans*forming: Interrogating the Intersections of Trans Studies and Classics: Evan Jewell, Rutgers University – Camden (faculty) / American Academy in Rome Transphobia and the trans* man in the tribas. ROOM: Celestin H

SCS-8: Roman Comedy and Invective: Victoria Hodges, Rutgers University (Classics PhD candidate) The Meretrician Satirist and the Elegiac Procuress: The Mercenary Body in Juvenal’s Seventh Satire. ROOM: Strand 13B

Second Paper Session / Session Block (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)        

SCS-18: Flavian Epic: Maya Chakravorty, Boston University (former RU Classics graduate student) Tumens Atavis: Republican Kinship and Virtue in Silius Italicus’ Punica 4. ROOM: Strand 12A

AIA-2A: Archaeologists Of  West And South Asia Respond To David Graeber And David Wengrow’s The Dawn Of Everything: A New History Of Humanity (2021) – Questions Of Method, Theory, And Historiography (Colloquium Session). Sponsored by Near Eastern Archaeology Interest Group: ORGANIZER(S): Omur Harmansah, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Trinidad Rico, Rutgers University (Art History faculty). ROOM: Celestine Ballroom B

Third Paper Session / Session Block (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) 

SCS-26: The Power of Objects: Katharine S. Stevens, Rutgers University (Classics PhD candidate) Rock beats plants: Magnetic magic in the Orphic Lithika. ROOM: Strand 13A

AIA-3C: Current Trends In Archive Archaeology (Colloquium Session): Andrea De Giorgi, Florida State University (former RU Classics lecturer) Old Digs, Unfinished Business, and New Data. The Committee for the Investigation of Antioch-on-the-Orontes (CIAO). ROOM: Strand 7

Detail from left panel of “The Roux” (2002), large installation by New Orleans-based artist Richard C. Thomas (born 1953) in Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY).

Saturday 7 January

SCS-28:Workshop (8:30AM-12:30PM). Ancient MakerSpaces. Joint AIA/SCS Session with sponsorship from the Forum for Classics, Libraries, and Scholarly Communication and the Art Libraries Society of North America: Chiara Palladino and David J. Wright, Furman University (Rutgers Classics PhD’18) Ugarit: A Translation Alignment Editor for Historical Languages. ROOM: Celestin F

Fourth Paper Session / Session Block (8:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.)         

SCS-32: Green Vergil: Nature and the Environment in Vergil and the Vergilian Tradition: Leah Kronenberg, Boston University (former Rutgers Classics faculty) Respondent. ROOM: Bolden 6

SCS-34: Greek Historical Narratives: Andrew Scott, Villanova University (Rutgers Classics PhD’08), Presiding. ROOM: Strand 1        

AIA-4D: Recognizing Cross-Cultural Interactions In Central And Southern Italy Between The 5th And 3rd Century BCE (Colloquium Session).  ORGANIZER(S): Keely Heuer, SUNY New Paltz, and Bice Peruzzi, Rutgers University (Classics faculty). ROOM: Celestine Ballroom D         

Fifth Paper Session / Session Block (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

SCS-42: Roman History II: Katheryn Whitcomb, Howard University (Rutgers Classics PhD’16) Herod, Agrippa, and Power Dynamics in the East. VIRTUAL SESSION.

AIA 5C: Archaeologists Of West And South Asia Respond To David Graeber And David Wengrow’s The Dawn Of Everything: A New History Of Humanity (2021) – Questions From The Field (Colloquium Session). ORGANIZER(S): Omur Harmansah, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Trinidad Rico, Rutgers University (Art History faculty). ROOM: Celestine Ballroom B

Sixth Paper Session (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)  

SCS-48: Roman Drama and Critical Theory: Robert Santucci, University of Michigan (Rutgers BA’09), Kristeva’s Abject and the Future of the Cena Thyestea. ROOM: Strand 12A

Central panel of “The Roux” (2002), large installation by New Orleans-based artist Richard C. Thomas (born 1953) in Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY).

Sunday 8 January       

Seventh Paper Session / Session Block (8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)        

SCS-57: Phusis Kai Phuta: Thinking with and about Plants in Greek Literature & Philosophy: Leon Wash, Colgate University (Rutgers BA’07) Empedocles’ Definition of Wine. ROOM: Strand 13A

SCS-60: Greek Language: Tobias Robert Philip, Rutgers University (Classics PhD candidate) The Last Trumpet: Dionysiac Allusion in the Salpinx of 1 Corinthians15.52. ROOM: Strand 1

SCS-63: Women and the Ancient Economy: Past, Present, and Future: Selena Ross, Rutgers University (Classics PhD candidate) Working Inside the Outdoors: Domestic Labor and the Role of Women in Roman Animal Husbandry. ROOM: Strand 12B

AIA-7F: New Research On Roman And Late Antique Living Spaces : Candace M. Rice, Brown University, Giulia Bellato, Trinity College, University of Cambridge/Università degli Studi di Torino, Dylan Bloy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Gary D. Farney, Rutgers University, Newark (History faculty), Tyler V. Franconi, Brown University, Andrew McLean, University of Edinburgh, Lucia Michielin, University of Edinburgh, and James Page, University of Edinburgh   The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project: the 2022 Excavation Season at the Roman Villa of Vacone. ROOM: Celestine Ballroom D

Eighth Paper Session (11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.)          

SCS-65: Making Space for Translation: Kristina Chew, Rutgers University (Classics faculty)  The Small Space of Translation. EOOM: Strand 13A

Ninth Paper Session (2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) 

SCS-79: Greek History: Luke Madson, Rutgers University (Classics PhD candidate) Xenia, Proxenia, Diplomacy, and Laconism in Classical Athens. ROOM: Foster 1

Detail from right panel of “The Roux” (2002), large installation by New Orleans-based artist Richard C. Thomas (born 1953) in Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY).

OK, it was supposed to be held in historic downtown New Brunswick NJ, at the stylish Heldrich Hotel. But a world public health crisis continues to intervene. And so the 2021 annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States takes place online, with a compelling series of panels, papers, workshops and special events launched into cyberspace over Friday and Saturday 15-16 October.

Highlights abound. Chief among them (Friday 15 Oct 6pm) is the 2021 Jerry Clack Memorial Lecture, to be delivered by Donald Lateiner, John R. Wright Professor of Greek, Emeritus, at Ohio Wesleyan University. His topic? “Epizêlos’ Tale: The Phantom Killer at the Battle of Marathon (Herodotos Histories 6.117)”. The paper treats Hellenic battle-trauma, visions, deceptions—and Herodotos’ sometimes tricky literary tactics in relating these eerie experiences.

Plus let’s not forget CAAS ovationes for Lillian Doherty (Maryland) and New Brunswick’s own Ann Kiernan, Esq. (JD 1981), as well as the presentation of the 2021 Barbara F. McManus Leadership Award to Maria S. Marsilio (St Joseph’s Univ.).

And did we mention how large Rutgers Classics looms in the program? A rough and ready count shows about a dozen and half members of the RU Classics community—current graduate students, alums, present and past faculty—performing during the annual meeting, in one capacity or another. Here’s a full roster…

FRIDAY 15 OCTOBER 2021

Paper Session A (800-1000am): Latin Philology: Language and Them. Karen Klaiber Hersch (PhD 2002, now Temple) and Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos, presiding

“Fishfood in Plautus’ Rudens“, Robert Santucci (BA 2009), University of Michigan

Paper Session B: Greek and Roman History: New Perspectives. Gareth Williams and Aaron Hershkowitz (PhD 2018, now IAS), presiding

“Pompeius Trogus’ Rejection of Rome: Writing Aeneas out of Dido’s Suicide”, Katheryn Whitcomb (PhD 2016, now Haverford College)

Paper Session C (1030am -100pm): Homeric Encounters

“Hephaistos the Innovator: Interpreting the Shield of Achilles as a Proto-Hoplon”, John Griffin (MA 2021, now Horace Mann School)

“Murderers on the Run: Achilles, Telemachus, and a Literalized Homeric Simile”, Brian Hill (PhD 2019, now The Lawrenceville School)

Paper Session D (1030am -100pm): Re-thinking Augustan and Imperial Latin Literature

“Vergilian Tmesis and the ‘Semi-Bucolic Diaeresis'”, Thomas Gosart (BA 2020, now University of Pennsylvania)

Ovationes (115-215pm) for Lillian Doherty, University of Maryland, College Park, read by Katherine Wasdin (former RU Classics faculty, now Maryland); and for Ann Kiernan, Esq., read by Henry V. Bender (PhD 1987, now St Joseph’s University)

Paper Session E (230-500 pm): Material Perspectives on Culture and Society, Henry V. Bender (PhD 1987) and Stephen Ogumah, presiding

Paper Session F (230-500pm): Gender and Genre

“Structurally Feminine: An Elegiac Motif in Agathias’ Cycle”, Victoria Hodges, PhD candidate, Rutgers University

Jerry Clack Memorial Lecture (600-730pm) Donald Lateiner, John R. Wright Professor of Greek, Emeritus, Ohio Wesleyan University: “Epizêlos’ Tale: The Phantom Killer at the Battle of Marathon (Herodotos Histories 6.117)”. Introduction: T. Corey Brennan (current faculty, Rutgers University) and Clack Lectureship Committee Chair: Sulochana Asirvatham, Montclair State University

SATURDAY 16 OCTOBER 2021

Workshop (800-1000am): CAAS Anti-Racism Committee, organizers David J. Wright (PhD 2018, now Furman University) and Arti Mehta, presiders. Wright is also a co-presenter (with Mike Likier, PhD [Racial Justice Consulting], Danielle Perry [University of Pennsylvania], and Arti Mehta [Howard University]) in the Workshop’s focus, “Who Benefits from Diversity Policies?”

Paper Session G (800-1000am): Speech and Writing in Greek and Roman Texts, Scott Barnard (PhD 2017, now The Lawrenceville School) and Lyndy Danvers (PhD 2017, now Princeton High School), presiding

“Barbara Vota: Communications and Speech Acts in Tacitus’ Account of the Batavian Revolt”, Sasha Barish, MA candidate, Rutgers University

Panel 1 (10:30 am-1:00 pm): Undergraduate Research Session, co-sponsored by Eta Sigma Phi

“Virgil: A Second Laocoön”, Victor Park, The Lawrenceville School. Mentors: Scott Barnard (PhD 2017) and Brian Hill (PhD 2019)

Paper Session J (230-430pm): Historiography, Lawrence Kowerski (PhD 2003, now Hunter College) and Leah Himmelhoch, presiding

“Inopportune Virtue: Tacitus’ Unique Sympathy for Galba”, Tobias Philip, PhD candidate, Rutgers University

It’s been seven years since the frostiest joint Annual Meeting of the Society for Classical Studies and Archaeological Institute of America in recent memory—January 2014 in Chicago Illinois. An indescribably chilling air mass—technically known as a “polar vortex”—hit the city full force, and set records for the coldest temperatures recorded in two decades. Toward the end of the conference, thermometers never rose aboard zero Fahrenheit—for 37 straight hours. Temperatures eventually dipped to -16 F, with a wind chill of -42 F. Flights were cancelled left and right. Rental cars seemed scarcer than fragments of Corinna’s poetry. Conference participants asked why their professional associations just didn’t call it a day, and book all subsequent meetings in San Diego.

Welcome to the AIA/SCS 2021, which poses different challenges—in this case, thanks to the global public health crisis.  The 2021 joint Annual Meeting was originally scheduled to take place 7-10 January in Chicago. But the COVID-19 pandemic has turned the gathering into a completely virtual academic conference.

“The event will be held over a slightly longer time frame,”, explains the Society for Classical Studies on the official registration page, “Tuesday, January 5th through Sunday, January 10th, so that there are fewer conflicts with concurrently scheduled events and to avoid ZOOM fatigue.” Here’s the good news. “The virtual event will still feature the many academic paper sessions, workshops, colloquia, roundtables, and other events that are part of our in-person meeting. ” Plus there will be creative ways—formal and informal—to echo some of what the SCS describes as “the important social aspect that allows attendees to connect with their colleagues each year.” 

The full program of academic sessions, meetings, and events is available online here for the SCS and here for the AIA. As so often, Rutgers students, alums, faculty and past faculty are all over the schedule. Here is a finding list for your convenience.

Tuesday, January 5: SCS Second Paper Session (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)

SCS-9: Law and Society in Late Antiquity: Serena Connolly (Rutgers Classics faculty) presides

SCS-14 = AIA 2A: On Being Calmly Wrong: Learning from Teaching Mistakes (Joint AIA/SCS Colloquium).

—RYAN FOWLER (Rutgers Classics PhD ’08, now faculty, Franklin & Marshall College), “Adjusting Assumptions and Reevaluating Opportunities for Students”

Wednesday, January 6: AIA Session Block 3 (9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)

AIA 3G: Investigating Heritage and the Politics of Display in Museums and Public Spaces

—Elizabeth S. Greene (former Rutgers Classics faculty, now Brock University) panelist

Wednesday, January 6: AIA Session Block 4 (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)

4A: Household Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean

—John Bodel (former Rutgers Classics faculty, now Brown University) discussant

4D: Examining the Context of Monuments, Monumentality, and Counter-monuments

—Elizabeth S. Greene (former Rutgers Classics faculty, now Brock University) panelist

Thursday, January 7: SCS Fifth Paper Session (9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)

SCS-30: Philosophical Thought and Language 

—Leon Wash (Rutgers BA’07, now PhD candidate, University of Chicago), “On Nietzsche’s “Philology as Ephexis in Interpretation”

Thursday, January 7: SCS Sixth Paper Session (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)

SCS-41: Learning the Rules: Games and Education in the Ancient World, co-organized by Del Chrol (Rutgers BA’95, now faculty, Marshall University); he also presents on “Check Your Mate: Ovid, the Game of Love, and Learning to be a Man”

Friday, January 8: SCS Seventh Paper Session (9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)

SCS-45: Myth and History

—LUKE MADSON (PhD candidate, Rutgers Classics) “οὐ κατ᾽ ἀνδραγαυίην σχὼν ἀλλὰ κατὰ γένος: Spartan Kingship, Generational Power, and the Agōgē”

SCS-48: Emotions and the Body in Greco-Roman Medicine 

—MOLLY MATA (PhD candidate, Rutgers Classics), “Using Literary Eremetic Space to Prevent Emotional Distress in Galen’s De Indolentia”

Friday, January 8: SCS Eighth Paper Session (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)

SCS-52: COVID-19 and the Future of Classics Graduate Study 

—Alicia Matz (Rutgers Classics MA’17, now PhD candidate, Boston University), “More than Brains in Jars: A Graduate Perspective on the Future of Classics Graduate Studies”

Saturday, January 9: SCS Ninth Paper Session (9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)

SCS-57 = AIA 9A: Ancient MakerSpaces (Joint AIA/SCS Workshop), co-organized by AARON HERSHKOWITZ, Rutgers PhD’18, now staff, The Institute for Advanced Study, also presenting on “Digital Epigraphy for the Blind”

—Molly Kuchler (Rutgers BA’18, now PhD candidate, Bryn Mawr College), “Mapping Victory Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean”

Saturday, January 9: SCS Tenth Paper Session (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)

SCS-64: Ovid 

—Alicia Matz (Rutgers Classics MA’17, now PhD candidate, Boston University), “Re-presenting Woman: Pandora in Ovid’s Metamorphoses”

SCS-69 = AIA 10A: Between Myth and Materiality: The Origins of Rome, 800 – 500 BCE (Joint AIA/SCS Colloquium), co-organized by T. Corey Brennan (Rutgers Classics faculty), also presenting on “The Etruscan Spectacle of Fasces in Regal Rome: Some Unnoticed Implications”

Sunday, January 10: SCS Twelfth Paper Session (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)

SCS-79: Republican Latin Poetry: Leah Kronenberg (former Rutgers Classics faculty, now Boston University) presides

SCS-82: The Ancient Novel and Material Culture 

—VICTORIA HODGES (PhD candidate, Rutgers Classics), “The Mulier Equitans: Erotic Display in Apuleius’ Metamorphosesand Roman Wall Painting”

It’s that season of the year again —for the 151st time, the annual gathering of the Society for Classical Studies, held jointly with that of the Archaeological Institute of America. This year it’s in Washington DC, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel (901 Massachusetts Ave NW), from Thursday 2 January through Sunday 5 January.

You can see the full programs of the SCS and AIA meetings here and here. And to make things easier, below we’ve listed all the presenters—with times, places, paper titles—who have a connection, of one sort or another, with Rutgers Classics….

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In 1842, Washington Globe newspaper editor Francis Preston Blair and his daughter Elizabeth Blair came upon a “mica-flecked” spring just north of the District of Columbia line. They fell in love with the property, so much so that Blair Sr. bought it up, together with a large swath of the land that surrounded it, and there built a large summer home which he called “Silver Spring“. The Blair family’s primary residence would remain the famous Blair House in DC—now part of the complex that forms the US President’s guest house.

Alas, the summer home is gone and the mica stream is nowhere to be seen. However, a bit of the original Blair property can be glimpsed at Acorn Urban Park, a tiny (0.1247-acre) green space in south Silver Spring, that features a 19th-century acorn-shaped gazebo (believed to be from Blair’s property) and an artificial grotto to boot.

About three-quarters of a mile due north of Acorn Park is the Sheraton Silver Spring Hotel on Georgia Avenue—site of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States 2019 Annual Meeting that takes place 10-12 October. There’s too much going on to list all the highlights (see the full program at this link), but here’s a handy list of the Rutgers-related presentations… Continue reading →

It went by in almost the blink of an eye—or so it seemed. Over the course of two days marked by gloriously warm late spring weather, the Cook / Douglass campus of Rutgers University-New Brunswick hosted “Food and Drink in the Ancient World” (Friday 31 May-Saturday 1 June 2019).

It’s not often that one wants an academic gathering to extend well beyond its schedule, but for many participants, this was such a case. The topics presented here certainly were rich enough to provide discussion for many further days, if not weeks. And then there was the actual food and drink…

This Rutgers international conference (Twitter hashtag = #RUFoodDrink) featured 17 speakers, including presenters from Israel, France, Germany and the UK. Registration pretty much met capacity, and it was hard to spot spare empty chairs during the keynote (by Dr Kristina Killgrove) and five paper sessions. Conference-wide communal meals highlighted the cuisine of Greece, Italy, and—in a bold experimental gesture—ancient Rome. And it was all exquisitely organized by two Rutgers Classics PhD candidates, Emmanuel Aprilakis and Nicole Nowbahar.

Co-sponsors were many: the Rutgers departments of Classics, Art History, and Italian, its Center for European Studies, and especially the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (= SEBS), which provided major support.  The Classical Association of the Atlantic States helped fund the proceedings with a generous Leadership Initiative Grant. Douglass Residential College generously provided its cheery Trayes Hall for the first day of papers, and SEBS its striking new NJ Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health for the second, which closed with the “ancient” Roman feast.

Crucial support for the conference was offered by Classics chair James McGlew; Dr Robert M. Goodman, executive dean of the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and executive director of the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station; and also Dr Lia Papathomas, Director of Operations of the NJ-based team for the innovative New Agriculture for a New Generation Program.

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This past Sunday (19 May), Rutgers’ HighPoint.com Stadium was the sun-drenched venue for the University’s 253rd commencement exercises. Fully 18,825 candidates received undergraduate or graduate degrees, making the Class of 2019 the University’s largest ever.

Ten of the 12,187 baccalaureate degree recipients majored in Classics: Kathleen M. Carmien (double major with English), Max J. Duboff (with Philosophy), Emily V. Ezzo (with English), Khaleel-Allen Jackson, Olivia Lombardo (with Political Science), Ivan Maiorov (with an additional minor in Greek), Matthew R. Martin (with History), Emmet A. O’Brien (with History), Margarita Osmanoff, and Joseph V. Santoro (with Economics).

Plus Kathleen Carmien, Max Duboff, and Emily Ezzo received Honors for their work in the Classics major.

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The Cook / Douglass campus of Rutgers University-New Brunswick will be the location for “Food and Drink in the Ancient World” (Friday 31 May-Saturday 1 June), an international conference organized by Rutgers Classics graduate students Emmanuel Aprilakis and Nicole Nowbahar, with the co-sponsorship of the Rutgers departments of Classics, Art History, and Italian, its Center for European Studies, and especially the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (which has provided major support). The Classical Association of the Atlantic States also has helped fund the proceedings with a generous Leadership Initiative Grant.

If you are interested in attending, please register here. (Best by 27 May.) And check out the full exciting program below!

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The Whiting Foundation has awarded Emily Allen-Hornblower, associate professor of Classics at Rutgers-New Brunswick, one of its five Public Engagement Seed Grants for 2019-20 for a series of communal conversations, “The Public Face of Emotions: Public Engagement and the Emotions in Our Lives”.

The project aims to engage the public in discussions of ancient Greek tragedy and epic with formerly incarcerated men and women—mainly Allen-Hornblower’s former students from her teaching in NJ prisons—as an opportunity for the building of civic bridges.

The Whiting Public Engagement Seed Grants are part of the foundation’s larger Public Engagement Programs, initiated in 2016 “to celebrate and empower humanities faculty who embrace public engagement as part of the scholarly vocation”.

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