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
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