Monthly Archives: August 2016

Roman Forum, looking E from the Tabularium. Credit: Alicia Matz

Alicia Matz is entering her second year in the Rutgers Classics graduate program, having earned a 2015 BA in Classics from the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma WA). Her research interests encompass both the Greek and Roman worlds, ranging from Aristophanic comedy, to Augustan literature and material culture, to reception of the classical past, especially in science fiction and fantasy literature.

This summer, thanks to the generosity of Rutgers Classics’ Ethel S. Cook Travel Scholarship, Alicia participated in the Classical Summer School of the American Academy in Rome. We asked Alicia a few questions about her Italy summer experience. Continue reading →

In Dublin’s St. Helen’s Hotel (24 June 2016), RU Celtic Conference presenters (from left) Steve Brandwood, Brian Hill, Prof. Thomas Figueira, Prof. Sarolta Takács, Prof. Emily Allen-Hornblower, and Dave Wright

Rutgers Distinguished Professor of Classics and Ancient History Thomas Figueira notes the strong Rutgers Classics showing at the 9^th Biennial Celtic Conference in Classics at University College Dublin, Eire (22-25 June 2016).

A major focus was the panel Ethnicity and Multiculturalism in Herodotus: Through Others’ Eyes which he organized with Professora Associada de Estudos Clássicos Carmen Soares of Coimbra University (Portugal).

In the panel, Figueira was joined in presenting a paper (“Language as a Marker of Ethnicity in Herodotus & Contemporaries”) by Associate Professor of Classics Emily Allen-Hornblower with “Emotion and Ethnicity in Herodotus’ Histories”, and Professor of History Sarolta Takács (a member of the Classics Graduate Committee and Director of the Modern Greek Studies Program) with “Herodotus’ (After)life in Byzantium”. Rutgers Classics doctoral Candidates Steven Brandwood (“Ethnicity and Translation”) and Brian Hill (“Protocols of Ethnic Specification in Herodotus”) also presented.

This panel is part of a larger initiative to strengthen intellectual dialogue between Lusophone classicists and ancient historians in Portugal and Brazil and North Americans.

Among Anglophone participants were Renaud Gagné (Cambridge), Rosaria Vignolo Munson (Swarthmore), and Gregory Nagy (Harvard). The videocast of a paper by Gregory Nagy and colloquium with the participants in the panel can be viewed below.

In another panel (Coins of the Roman Revolution, 49 BC-AD 14: Evidence without Hindsight), doctoral student David Wright presented the paper “Savior Imagery in the Coins of Demetrius Poliorcetes and Sextus Pompey”.

Distinguished alumnae were also presenters (in the panel Modern[Ancient] Epic): Janice Siegel PhD’94 (Associate Professor of Classics, Hampden-Sydney College) with “Apollonius’ Argonautica and the Wizard of Oz” and Liz Gloyn PhD’11 (Lecturer in Classics, Royal Holloway College, University of London) with “Release the Kraken? Ancient Monsters in Modern Epic”.

For full details on the proceedings of the conference, see here (pp. 17-20, 23-24).