THE CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION
OF NEW ENGLAND
One Hundred-First Annual Bulletin
2006
2006-2007 OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES
CANE Executive Committee
President: Cynthia Damon, Classics Department, AC @3357, Amherst College,
Amherst, MA 01002, cdamon@amherst.edu. (413) 542-8126.
Immediate Past President: John McVey, 110A Milford Street, Medway, MA 02053;
j.mcvey@rivers.org (978) 256-4737.
President Elect: Shirley Lowe, 2 Laurie Lane, Natick, MA 01760,
sfglowe@fastmail.fm. (508) 655-8701;
Executive Secretary: Rosemary A. Zurawel, c/o Berwick Academy, 31 Academy
Street, South Berwick, ME 03908, (207) 384-2164, ext. 2902,
rzurawel@berwickacademy.,org.
Treasurer: Ruth Breindel, 617 Hope Street, Providence, RI 002906; (401) 521-
3206 (h), (401) 831-7350 (o); rbreindel@yahoo.com.
Curator of the Funds: Donna Lyons, 11 Carver Circle, Simsbury, CT 06070;
(860) 658-1676; mdlyons@sbcglobal.net.
Editor, New England Classical Journal: John M. Lawless, History Dept.,
Providence College, Providence, RI 02918-0001; (401) 865-2548;
necj@earhtlink.net.
Coordinator of Educational Programs: Kathleen L. Braden, 43 Auburn St.,
Concord, NH 03301, or KBRADEN@ bownet.org. . Editor, CANE Instructional
Materials: Gilbert Lawall, 71 Sand Hill Road, Amherst, MA 01002; (413) 549-
0390; glawall@classics.umass.edu.
Classics-in-Curricula Coordinator: Allen M. Ward, Department of History, BoxU-
103, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-2103; (860)228-4681 (h);
(860) 486-4266 (o); ward@uconnvm.uconn.edu.
Director, CANE Summer Institute: Ellen Perry, P.O. Box 130A Department of
Classics, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, 01610, (508) 476-0169,
EPERRY@holycross.edu.
At-Large Members:
Katy Ganino, 63 Forest Hills Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, (617) 524-1766;
ganino@alumni.williams.edu.
Sally Morris, c/o Classics Department, Philips Exeter Academy, Front Street,
Exeter, NH 03833, swmorris@exeter.edu.
Roger Travis, University of Connecticut 338 Mansfield Rd Storrs CT 06269;
(860) 217-1036; ROGER_TRAVIS@uconn.edu
State Representatives:
Connecticut: Nina Barclay, 3 Lathrop Lane, Norwich, CT, 06360;
nfalatin@aol.com.
Maine: Beth Gwozdz, 1 Village Green Drive, #7; Saco, ME 04072; (207) 878-0821
(h); gwozdzbe@spsd.org.
Massachusetts: Emil Penarubia, Boston College Parkway, 150 Morrissey
Boulebard, Boston, MA 01610; (617) 776-1490; penarubia@bchigh.edu.
New Hampshire: Paul Langford, 59 Sheafe Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801;
(603)431-3635; PLANGFORD@exeter.edu.
Rhode Island: Lydia Haile, c/o Moses Brown School, 250 Llyod Avenue,
Providence, RI 02906 ; lhaile@mosesbrown.org.
Vermont: Leanne Morton; 98 Vincent Drive; Bristol, VT 05443; 802-453-5504
;LEANNE@rvuhs.org
Committee on Scholarships
Edmund F. DeHoratius 45 Coventry Road, Worcester, MA 01606, 508-853-1011
EDEHORATIUS@verizon.net
Joseph Meyer 43 Whitman Ave West Hartford CT 06107 860-561-1985
Chris Richards, Belmont Hill School, 350 Prospect Street, Belmont, MA 02178;
(617) 924-7907; RICHARDC@belmont-hill.org.
Webmaster
Allan Wooley 675 Hatton Heights Rd . Morgan, VT 05853; 802-895-4322;
WEBMASTER@caneweb.org
Finance Committee
Donna Lyons (Chair), 11 Carver Circle, Simsbury, CT 06070; (860) 658-1676;
mdlyons@sbcglobal.net.
Ruth Breindel (ex officio), 617 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02906; (401) 521-
3204 (h), (401) 831-7350 (o); rbreindel@yahoo.com
Allen Ward, 35 Ball Hill Rd., Storrs,CT 06268; 860-429-2503;
WARD@uconnvm.uconn.edu
Michael Deschenes, St. Sebastian's School, 1191 Greendale Avenue, Needham,
MA 02192; 978-682-0652 MICHAEL-DESCHENES@stsebs.org
Membership Committee
Ruth Breindel (Chair), 617 Hope S6treet, Providence, RI 02906; (401) 521-3204
(h); (401) 831-7350 (o); rbreindel@yahoo.com.
Kathleen L. Braden, 18 Fisk Road, Concord, NH, 03301, (603) 225-9104,
kbraden@bownet.org
Katy Ganino, 63 Forest Hills St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; (617) 524-1766;
kganino@mail.sl-regional.k-12.ma.us.
Stephany Pascetta, 250 House Street, Glastonbury, CT 06033; (860) 657-0336;
spascetta@msn.com.
Emil Penarubia, Boston College Parkway, 150 Morrissey Boulebard, Boston, MA
01610; (617) 776-1490; penarubia@bchigh.edu
Raymond J. Starr, Department of Classical Studies Wellesley College, 106
Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481 (781) 235-1514, rstarr@wellesley.edu
Other Committees as Established by the By-Laws
Nominating Committee
Anne Mahoney, 6 Hathon Square, Charlestown, MA
02129; AMAHONEY@perseus.tufts.edu
Jeremiah Mead, 20 Dalton Road, Chelmsford MA 01824 978-256-2110;
MEAD@msn.com
Barlow-Beach Distinguished Service Award
John McVey (Chair), 110A Milford Street, Medway, MA 02053; j.mcvey@rivers.org.
Sr. Mary Faith Dargan, Albertus Magnus College, 700 Prospect Avenue, New Haven, CT; 06511
203-401-4074; BRANTF@albertus.edu
Ruth Breindel, 617 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02906; (401) 521-3204 (h),
(401) 831-7350 (o); rbreindel@yahoo.com
Committee on Discretionary Funds
Jacqui Carlon (Chair), 5 Morning Glory Circle, Chelmsford, MA 01824; (978)
256-4737; jcarlon@att.net
Katy Ganino, 63 Forest Hills Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, (617) 524-1766;
kganino@mail.sl-regional.k-12.ma.us.
Mark R. Pearsall, Glastonbury High School, 330 Hubbard Street, Glastonbury, CT
06603; (860) 657-1569;mpearsall@earthlink.net
Sally Morris Brooks School, 1160 Great Pond Road, North Andover MA 01845
SMORRIS@brooksschool.org
Program Committee (2007 Annual Meeting)
March 9-10, 2007
University of New Hampshire
Cynthia Damon (Chair) , Classics Department, AC #2257, Amherst College,
Amherst, MA 01002, 413-542-8126 (W), 413-549-7471 (H), cdamon@amherst.edu
Local Arrangements Coordinator
TBA
Auditors
Stephen Pingree, 210 Merrow Road , Coventry, CT 06238, 860-742-3114,
MAGISTERP@charter.net
Thomas A. Suits, 12 Hillyndale Rd, Storrs, CT 06268, 860-429-1608,
AMTSUITS@earthlink.net
Resolutions Committee
Francis R. Bliss, Beata Arva, 375 Taylor Hill Rd., New Vineyard, ME , 04956,
(207) 652-2232, FRBLISS@tdstelme.net
Richard E. Clairmont, Murkland Hall, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH ,
03824, (603) 886-1319, RICHARDC@cisunix.unh.edu
Classics in Curricula
Oversight: State Representatives (or the designees)
Working Group:
Allen M. Ward, Department of History Box U-2103, University of Connecticut,
Storrs, CT , 06269, (860) 429-2503, WARD@uconnvm.uconn.edu
Margaret G. Cook, , 12 Lakeshore Dr., Winthrop, ME , 04364, (207) 377-2186,
COOKDSMG@adelphia.net
New England Latin Placement Service
Stephen A. Brunet, Classics Program Murkland Hall, University of New
Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, (603) -868-2007, SABRUNET@cisunix.unh.edu
Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr., 471 State Street, Belchertown, MA, 01007, (413)
325-5607, KKITCHEL@classics.umass.edu
Director, CANE Summer Institute, 2006 & 2007
Ellen E. Perry, College of the Holy Cross, PO Box 130A, Dept of Classics,
Worcester, MA, 01610; 508-476-0169, EPERRY@holycross.edu
Steering Committee, CANE Summer Institute
John M. Higgins, Box 351, Monterey , MA 01245, 413-528-6691;
HIGGINS@vgernet.net
Charles Bradshaw, 54 Potwine Lane, Amherst, MA 01002; 413-253-2055
CBRADSHAW54@comcast.net
Alison Harvey, 15 Gilman Street Waterville ME 04901; 207-872-8276;
AHARVEY@msad47.org
Kenneth E. Wheeling, PO Box 38, North Ferrisburgh, VT, 05473, (802) 453-3759,
WHEELING@together.net
Daniel T. , Russo, Austin Prep. School, 101 Willow St., Reading, MA, 01867,
617-333-6601, DANIELR@austin.mec.edu
Miranda Marvin, 72 Dover Road, Wellesley, MA 02482; 781-235-1563;
MMARVIN@wellesley.edu
Other Officers and Services
Coordinator for CEUs
Donna Lyons, 11 Carver Circle, Simsbury, CT 06070; (860) 658-1676;
mdlyons@sbcglobal.net.
Writing Contest
President-Elect (Chair, ex officio); Executive Committee State Representatives
(ex officio)
Student Paper Award
President (Chair, ex officio)
Weincke Prize
At-Large Members of the Executive Committee (ex officio)
Phinney Scholarship
John M. Higgins, Box 351, Monterey , MA 01245, 413-528-6691;
HIGGINS@vgernet.net
Phyllis Katz, P.O. Box 1048, Norwich,VT 05055, 802-649-
3947;PHYLLIS.B.KATZ@dartmouth.edu
Paul Langford, 59 Sheafe Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801; (603)431-3635;
PLANGFORD@exeter.edu
CANE Certification Scholarship
See CANE Scholarship Committee list above
Emporium Romanum
Donna Lyons, 11 Carver Circle, Simsbury, CT 06070; (860) 658-1676;
mdlyons@sbcglobal.net.
Newsletter
Emil Penarubia, Boston College High School, 150 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston,
MA 01610; (617) 776-1490; penarubia@bchigh.edu
Representative on the Council of the American Classical League
Paul Properzio, , 15 Ballardvale Road, Andover, MA , 01810, (508) 474-0195,
PJPROPERTIUS@aol.com
Alternate to the Council of the American Classical League
Deborah Rae Davies, , 123 Argilla Rd, Andover, MA, 01810, (978) 749-9446,
DDAVIES@brooksschool.org
Delegate to the National Committee for Latin and Greek
Deborah Rae Davies, , 123 Argilla Rd, Andover, MA, 01810, (978) 749-9446,
DDAVIES@brooksschool.org
Delegate to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Mark R. Pearsall, Glastonbury High School, 330 Hubbard Street, Glastonbury, CT
06603; (860) 657-1569;mpearsall@earthlink.net
Delegate to the National Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Madelyn Gonnerman, 10 Fox Lane, Newton Centre, MA 02459, 617-964-6141;
MADELYN_GONNERMAN@brookline.mec.edu
IN MEMORIAM
BARLOW-BEACH AWARD 2006
Barlow-Beach Award
Friday, March 17th, 2006
Campus Center Auditorium
University of Massachusetts
7 PM Banquet
The Barlow-Beach Award this year goes to the Theodora Stone Sutton Professor
of Classics, who received his BA from the University of Michigan and his PhD
from Princeton. He’s taught at the same institution since 1979. He loves the
combined emphasis on teaching, research, and service. His research has been
supported by two fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies
and his teaching has earned him both the Pinaski Prize and the Apgar Award.
He has served as President of the Classical Association of New England, he was
a founding member of the CANE Newsletter, CANEns, he instituted a “Shadow
Program” at his school in which students majoring in the Classics have had an
opportunity to visit a local high school in order to get a feel for the
everyday life of teaching at the secondary level – I can say that I personally
have benefited from having some of his students visit my school and that some
of my students have benefited from studying with him at his school.
One of his most enduring contributions to CANE was the initiation and
implementation of CANE’s original website whose influence and impact is
immeasurable.
I understand that Vergil is his favorite Latin poet: I hope he will find it
appropriate then that the inscription on the Barlow-Beach Award comes from the
other half of Vergil’s soul, Horace: Exegi monumentum aere perennius “I have
built a monument more lasting than bronze”
He is Professor of Classics at Wellesley College, Chair of their Department, a
friend of CANE most deserving of this award:
Raymond J. Starr
CANE WRITING CONTEST PRIZE PAPER AND STATE WINNERS
The Death of Britannicus, by Sierra Hunt
The room, dark except the flickering halos of candles, is perfect. Away from
the meager light emanating from the table, Locusta stands in the shadows;
they are deep shadows, thick shadows, shadows made for watching and waiting.
Spectating, she tells herself with an invisible smile. My work will soon be
complete. Nero, sitting at the head of the table, is visibly anxious. The
emperor cannot seem to keep his eyes on the food or his mind on the guests.
His dinner companions, aware of their host's growing uneasiness,
surreptitiously trade worried glances over their chicken and breads and then
busy themselves with careful examinations of their fingernails. Dinner is
deathly quiet except for the rattle of bracelets and the slow crunch of
chewing. From her shadowy vantage point, Locusta feels the need to stifle a
laugh. They're animals, she thinks, rough, slow animals grazing stupidly and
unwittingly outside the slaughterhouse. Ripe for the butchering. It's a pity
my fee covers only Britannicus. Britannicus himself, at Nero's right side, is
the only one who refuses to be upset by the gloomy atmosphere. The few jokes
he attempted earlier received only weak smiles and a polite chuckle or two,
and although he has long since allowed them to trail off into silence, his
mood remains light and his eating enthusiastic. It is, after all, in the
nature of boys to laugh boldly in the face of unpleasant situations and,
failing that, to ignore them. Death, however, is notoriously difficult to
ignore. Locusta looks forward to watching the boy attempt that particular
feat. The boy's food taster stands behind him, delicately picking the worst
pieces off a drumstick. Although the taster is unaware, he will be escaping
sharing his master's fate tonight only through the ingenuity of Locusta. The
unfolding of her brilliant plan will leave seven stunned, one dead, and one
utterly secure, knowing that the biggest threat to his throne had, at long
last, been eliminated. Oh, she will be rewarded richly for this. How far she
has come since her humble beginnings in simple, modest Gaul! Already feared,
the name of Locusta will be whispered in terror in every corner of the forum!
Nero's eyes dart to Locusta's corner, searching for her in the darkness. His
urgent look snaps her out of her reverie, telling her that the dinner wine is
arriving, hot enough to burn Britannicus' tongue. She smiles into the
blackness again. Locusta watches the tasters sip the wine, then hand the cups
to their masters. This is the crucial moment. If Britannicus doesn't complain,
the plan is ruined and she will be forced to hatch a new one under Nero's
displeased eye.
But he does. Waving his hand at the taster, Britannicus frowns and signals
that his wine is unpleasantly hot. Water is hurriedly added by the slaves. It
is lovely, cold water, clear and soothing, carefully poisoned by Locusta's own
hand. Nero eyes the now deadly cup in his half brother's grasp. A mixture of
anxiety and frenzy lurks in his gaze, a treacherous combination which Locusta
marks with disdain. Her own countenance betrays nothing of her feelings. The
plan has worked and the wine is once again in Britannicus' hand, the water
left untasted by his slaves. He drinks...
...and shakes. The boy's throat appears to seize up and his thin body is
racked with convulsions. Nero remains sitting, calm now that the deed is
done. Locusta hears him speak to the guests, telling them that the boy's
epilepsy is the obvious cause of this fit and that there is no need to worry.
It's too late for that, my lord, Locusta thinks. Thev're frantic. But her
thoughts linger mostly on the riches she will have and the awe she will
inspire as a result of this most wonderfully executed job. As Britannicus dies,
Locusta smiles widely. Nero will not forget this.
References
Leon, Vicki. Outrageous Women of Ancient Times.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.
A Brief History of Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Weapons. 2004. 11
Dec. 2005 .
STATE WINNERS
CANE Writing Contest, ‘05/06
Topic: Women in Antiquity: The Good, the Bad, the Beautiful. Modern and
Ancient Perspectives
The overall winner is the Vermont 1st-place winner, Sierra Hunt.
CONNECTICUT
1st place Katharine Conroy, Latin V
Coginchaug Regional High School. Dunham, CT
teacher: Mrs. Mary Sersanti
2nd place Nicole Rubin, Latin III
Norwich Free Academy, Norwich, CT
teacher: Dr. Elizabeth Tylawski
3rd place Stephanie Cuomo, Latin V
Coginchaug Regional High School, Dunham, CT
teacher: Mrs. Mary Sersanti
MAINE
1st place John Mondor
122 Franklin Street
Saco, ME 04072
Thornton Academy, Saco, ME 04072
teacher: Sally Cody
2nd place Alison Leary, grade 11
Thornton Academy, Saco, ME 04072
teacher: Sally Cody,
3rd place Rachel A. Meyer
South Portland High School, South Portland, ME 04106
teacher: Beth Gwozdz,
MASSACHUSETTS
1st place Andrew Horne
41 Locust Lane
Needham, MA 02492
St. Sebasian’s School
teacher: Mr. James Ferguson
2nd place Rachel Taylor
Milton High School
teacher: Ms. Markarian
3rd place Nora Lawrence
Concord-Carlisle HS
teacher: Mr. Jeremiah Mead
NEW HAMPSHIRE
1st place Sam Hammond
42 Watson Road
Dover, NH 03820
Dover HS
teacher: Mrs. Grimes
2nd place Lauren Strand
Pinkerton Academy
teacher: Mrs. Allen
3rd place Meaghan Cassidy
Pinkerton Academy
teacher: Mrs. Allen
RHODE ISLAND
1st place Grace Alloy-Relihan
53 Reservoir Street
Norton, MA 02766
Moses Brown School
teacher: Ruth Breindel
2nd place Kimberly Kalunian
Moses Brown School
teacher: Ruth Breindel
3rd place Abbey Littman
Moses Brown School
teacher: Ruth Breindel
VERMONT
1st place Sierra Hunt
262 Maplewood Common
Moretown, VT 05660
Harwood Union High School
teacher: Tami Munford
2nd place Carly Schwer
Mt. Mansfield Union High School
teacher: Robert Slayton
3rd place Alec Jacobson
Champlain Valley Union High School
teacher: Leanne Morton
2006 CANE SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
Endowment Award
David Harpin from the Hopkins School , New Haven, Connecticut
Cornelia Catlin Coulter Award
John Higgins from the Gilbert School
Renata Poggioli Award
Tim Casey from Wayland High School
ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS READ AT THE 2006 ANNUAL MEETING
FRIDAY MORNING
Paper Session 1
1. Teresa Ramsby is an Assistant Professor at UMass Amherst where she teaches
courses on Rome and Latin literature. A recent article in Classical Journal
articulates the theme from which today's paper also derives, namely the
presence of inscribed text in Augustan poetry and its relationship to the
epigraphic culture at Rome. She is currently working on a book on this very
topic, and expects to finish it in the coming months. Controlling Women and
the Use of Text in Paris’ Seductions in Heroides 5 & 17.
1. Controlling Women and the Use of Text in Paris’ Seductions in Heroides 5 &
17
The nymph Oenone and Helen, queen of Sparta, are the two women who
dominate the love life of Paris, a man known more for his beauty than his
cleverness. Yet as Ovid shows in the Heroides, even he had to woo his women.
In Heroides 5 and 17, Ovid links Paris’ success in seducing the women he loves
to his use of inscribed or drawn text on surfaces for these women to read. He
inscribes twice on trees for Oenone (5. 21-22 & 26-28), and he first proclaims
his love for Helen by drawing the words in wine upon a table (17.87-88). In
both letters, the women remember precisely these textual seductions and they
reveal by their words that these written texts played a significant part in
their decisions to succumb to his charms. In fact even though both women
complain that Paris is below them in status, his written affections count for
a great deal in making them his lovers.
There is of course a Greek literary model of inscribing things on
surfaces to provoke the attention of women—such as the famous golden apple
thrown into the wedding of Peleus and Thetis by Eris to arouse jealousy among
the great goddesses. Yet as Ramsby (CJ 2005) has shown, Ovid has a history of
using inscriptions within his text in order to draw intriguing correspondences
between the epigraphic culture at Rome and the narratives of his characters.
Furthermore, the fact that inscriptions twice appear in the letters about
Paris suggests an attempt to characterize him as a lover who uses text to
influence well-educated, and well-read women. If we compare Paris’s tactic to
the advice that Ovid gives his lovers about writing to women in the Ars
Amatoria (1.571-2 & 2.273-86), we see that Paris is truly an Ovidian lover par
excellence.
2. Phylis Katz is currently teaching at Dartmouth and a long-time member of
CANE. She has most recently served as the executive secretary of CANE. She
is a former President of CANE and a Barlow-Beach Award recipient.
2. Re-visioning the Myth of Medea: Christa Wolf’s Medea: A Modern Retelling
No woman in history has a grimmer reputation than Medea, woman who is said
to have killed her brother, her two children, and the new wife of her husband
Jason. Christa WolfÆs Medea: A Modern Retelling 1996 is remarkable for
itsôstream of consciousness , prose-poemö style and especially for its
innovative treatment of the ancient myth. The novel is particularly important
because the author has re-appropriated ancient texts and re-visioned, as
Adrienne Rich puts it, the story of Medea so that the tragic heroine becomes a
victim rather than a murderess. This paper looks at WolfÆs ôre-visioningö of
ancient myth and argues that WolfÆs innovative and non-traditional retelling
of the story of Medea is of vital importance as a lens through which we can
view the ancient world and our own. As Margaret Atwood puts it, ôWolfÆs Medea
stirs up uneasy resonances . . . . it is a study of power, and of the
operations of power, and of the behavior of human beings under pressure when
power squeezes them tight.ö
Edith Hall reviewing WolfÆs novel writes: "Wolf is hardly the first novelist
to discover that classical mythology can be interpreted to yield powerful
resonances for modernity, but the trajectory from which she approaches her
chosen legend is wonderfully original. She forces us to ask what barbarous
subtexts are concealed in all our mythologies.ö Wolf asks us to evaluate the
kinds of societal beliefs that informed the works of Homer, Euripides, and
Aeschylus and to think about the beliefs of our own culture. Thus, WolfÆs
Medea is a vital retelling of MedeaÆs story because it forces us to question
the ômythsö behind all myth.
3. Ann Higgins is a PhD candidate in the English Department at UMass, working
on Middle English romance. I expect to receive my degree this May. I
presented a paper at the 2003 CANE Annual Meeting titled "Horatian Echoes in
Henryson's *Testament of Cresseid*" and subsequently published an article that
derived from that paper in the February 2004 issue of NECJ.
3. Orpheus Without the Backward Glance
The Middle English romance Sir Orfeo is, as its name suggests, a
version of the Orpheus legend found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses X. However,
despite its obvious debt to Ovid, whose version of the myth was far better
known than Vergil’s in the Middle Ages, Sir Orfeo departs from its source at
almost every turn. In this version Orpheus and Eurydice are transformed into
an English king and queen (Orfeo and Heurodis) who enjoy a long and happy
marriage before the crucial loss that drives the plot; that loss itself is
caused not by Heurodis’s death but by abduction as the king of the fairies
snatches her away to his otherworldly kingdom; finally, while Orfeo, like his
classical counterpart, goes to the otherworld and is given his beloved back
again as a reward for his harp-playing, no conditions are attached and, in a
stunning reversal of the original plot, he leads Heurodis out of the fairy
kingdom and back to his royal city of Winchester. Although Sir Orfeo is
generally agreed to be one of the finest Middle English romances, critics have
tended to avoid the issue of its substitution of a happy ending for the
harsher denouement of the original myth, and I suspect that classicists
particularly may have some difficulty in regarding it as a valid retelling of
Ovid’s legend. As the critic Oren Falk observes, when compared to Ovid’s, the
English poet’s version of the myth can seem “a sugar-candied, bowdlerized
variant” of the myth. As I argue in this paper, however, to view it in this
way is to lose sight of the challenge the Orfeo poet presents to Ovid’s view
of love, a challenge that, I contend, stems directly from his transfer of the
myth to England, and his reconfiguration of the godlike musician Orpheus and
his virgin bride as a late medieval English husband and wife. In his version
of the myth, the Orfeo-poet refocuses the classical legend’s discussion of
love and rejects its implicit valorization of frustrated desire over marital
union as the wellspring of artistic productivity. On the contrary, he argues
that love grows from union with, not separation from, the beloved, that broken
human relationships lead only to silence, and that the eloquence that is
Orpheus can flower only through the restoration of his union with his wife.
4. Carolyn Swan received her BA in Classical Archaeology from Dartmouth
College in 2002, and her MSc in Archaeological Science from University College
London in 2004. Her scholarly work ranges from sex and gender in the ancient
world to high-temperature industry and trade in the Mediterranean and Near
East."
4. Hippocratic Gynecology’s “Womb Theory:” Classical Greek Medical Science and
the Female Body
Ancient Greek culture was steeped in a belief that women were
inherently inferior to men; this perceived difference goes back to some of the
earliest and most important writers and flavors many myths and founding
legends. This paper explores ideas about the female and the female body that
were put forth by Greek medical writers during the Classical period (450-323
BC). During this time a collection of more than sixty theoretical and
therapeutic medical treatises was written, known as the Hippocratic Corpus;
while the Corpus was attributed to Hippocrates by the medical writers of the
Hellenistic Period, it is more likely that it was written by several different
authors. How were contemporary views about females and the female body
reflected in these medical writings of the Classical period? What did
scientific study have to say about the nature of women? To what extent was
detailed medical research skewed to fit presiding cultural theories, or to
what extent did it mirror ideology?
Hippocratic method and interpretation appears to have revolved around
the uterus, with the idea of a “wandering womb” informing all theory and
treatment. The womb explained every female illness, and this interpretation
implied that women were governed not by their philosophical parts—as were
men—but rather by their reproductive organs’ appetites. One of the cardinal
virtues in Greek thought was sophrosune, which translates as moderation,
judiciousness, or self-control; thus, by nature, women could not embody this
virtue and required external assistance from men (doctors and/or husbands). In
short, the womb defined woman as a creature who was fundamentally different
from and inferior to men, while medical theory and therapy promoted the
control of women and male decisions about the role of the female. It can thus
clearly be seen that the study of biology by Greek medical doctors was highly
colored by contemporary cultural conceptions; the science of the Hippocratic
Corpus justified and mirrored a tradition of social polarization and the
strict dichotomy present in Greek life.
Workshop 1 A
1A. Ruth Breindel is a long time member of the CANE executive committee, who
has presented many times at CANE conferences. Ruth Breindel has served in a
number of capacities most notably as CANE’s current Treasurer. She is a
former President of CANE and a Barlow-Beach Award Recipient. Ruth currently
teaches at Moses Brown School in Rhode Island.
1A. How to teach any student anything
This hands-on workshop will deal with how students learn, and how you can
teach them in different ways. Through verb games, movies, powerpoint
demonstrations and other activities, the various learning styles of students
will be addressed. You’ll return home with many new ideas and variations on
old ideas, too.
Workshop 1 B
1B. Mariless Osier was first an English teacher in Kenya, East Africa after
graduating from Bates College 1974. I have been a Latin teacher at Sacopee
Valley H.S. for 18 years, and was self-taught in Latin in order to keep the
Sacopee Latin program alive. I received certification credit via tutorials and
classes with Reg Hannaford, then at both Portland HS and St. Joseph's College.
The CANE Summer Institutes at Dartmouth honed my excitement as well as my
comprehensive mastery of the worlditoprd of the Romans. Since then, I have
attended 11 National Junior Classical League conventions, numerous CANE
conferences, and mirabile dictu, received the CANE Fellowship in 2004 for
study of AP Catullus in Italy with Barbara Weiden-Boyd and Peggy Brucia. I am
also an active officer of the Maine Classics Association, past president and
now have returned as editor of the MCA Clamor newsletter. Lindsey Campbell is
an honor roll senior at Sacopee Valley High School in Hiram, Maine and a Latin
intern. After completing the first two years of Latin, she then studied Latin
III advanced grammar over the summer so that she could enroll last year as a
junior in Latin IV (a Latin literature survey class). This, in turn, enabled
her to enroll this year in AP Vergil (independent study). Lindsey plans to
become a teacher of Latin and other languages. She has already been accepted
at Centenary College in Louisiana and is eagerly awaiting word on her other
applications, including Bates College.
1B. STUDENT INTERNSHIPS IN THE LATIN CLASSROOM: or…Golden Apples Now and
Golden Teachers Later
Student internships are highly encouraged at Sacopee Valley High
School and I have been blessed with one or more student interns a year. Each
student has brought different skills and talents to assist in the instruction
of Latin, especially at the Latin I and II levels. My current senior student
intern (her second year as my intern) is an AP Vergil student named Lindsey
Campbell, who plans to become a future Latin teacher herself. Lindsey would
like to join me in a co-presentation that focuses on the various aspects and
benefits of student internship, especially the positive influence on future
Classics teachers!
Via a PowerPoint slideshow and handouts, the presentation will
delineate the job description – as developed by my students along the way – as
well as the pros and cons of having a student assistant, my assessment rubric
(which enables the intern to receive course credit), and successful classroom
assistance strategies. Numerous Classics teachers might be interested in
developing an internship program of their own, especially in light of Ken
Kitchell’s ACL platform to encourage new teachers! This workshop will
certainly be informative, creative, and fun!
Paper Session 2
1. James P. Conley "Conley, James P." jconley@smcvt.edu teaches in the
Department of Classics, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, VT. He earned his
BA in Latin Academic degrees from Duquesne University, and his MA, PhD
Classical Studies from Loyola University. He has been a member of the
Department of Classics at Saint Michael’s since 1970. His interests are:
Greek and Latin literature [drama, epic, poetry] and History [Hellenic
culture, the Roman world].
1. Walking the Wall: Remnants of Roman Rule at Empire’s Edge
In 2003 the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization [UNESCO] designated Hadrian’s Wall, a seventy-three mile long
defensive perimeter at the northernmost edge of the Roman world, as a World
Heritage Site. This move allowed the interested general public access up-
close to one of the wonders of the emperor Hadrian’s reign. A recent trip to
the Northumbria region of England permitted on-site examination of what
remains of this Roman limes, with its accompanying V-shaped ditch. Parts of
the wall have totally disappeared and others exist in total disarray, given
centuries of neglect and outright banditry in which this Roman wall served as
a convenient quarry. Yet, sufficient structure remains to give a clear idea
of what this monument to Roman might here at the Empire’s edge really meant.
The emperor Hadrian had traveled to this northern frontier in 122 AD
and had ordered a suitable barrier erected to separate Romans to the south
from barbarian Picts to the north; the task was completed in 130 AD. Remains
of this barrier exist, in some form, from Wallsend-on-Tyne in the East to the
Solway Firth in the West and extend across the width of Britain for close to
eighty Roman miles. Roman legionaries from distant parts of the Empire
comprised the work force. Among their ranks must have been, as shown by the
wall’s remains, surveyors, skilled architects, masons, carpenters, and those
with muscle and will to hew, heave, and haul stones from the fields and stones
extracted from quarries of a quantity sufficient to construct, on the eastern
side at least, a wall roughly nine feet wide and almost twenty feet high. At
regular intervals, milecastles were set in place, each with a pair of turrets
to shelter soldiers serving as look-outs.
One highlight in walking the wall is the number of museums set up to protect
materials excavated from the settlements and the milecastles along the wall.
Chesters Roman Fort Cilurnum and Vindolanda are most outstanding.
Opportunities for photos were plentiful both outdoors at the excavations and
inside the museums themselves. This brush with Roman imperial history has
yielded both visions of legionaries engaged both in construction and in
soldierly duties and the greater reality of actual artifacts giving strong
witness to Hadrian’s Wall as a bulwark of Roman might in a world of humanity
so distant from Rome herself.
2. Daniel R. Blanchard is currently a Latin tutor and assistant at Portsmouth
High School in Portsmouth New Hampshire working specifically with learning
disabled students in elementary and advanced Latin classes. I design
different strategies, skills, and techniques for these students in order to
help them study, comprehend, and translate Latin.
2. An Unenviable Task: The Roman Army’s Punitive Expeditions Into Dacia, 86-88
A.D. Domitian’s efforts to curb the violence along the Dacian frontier, by all
accounts, both modern and ancient, were a failure. Suetonius and Dio Cassius
condemned Domitian for his neglect of the frontiers, vacillating policies and
his all-consuming maniacal personality. Modern historians reinforce this
analysis by comparing the military defeats during the reign of Domitian in
Dacia with the great success of Trajan’s Dacian wars. Certainly the Dacian
frontier policy of Domitian, and the entire Flavian dynasty, was disastrous.
In 84 A.D. Oppius Sabinus was defeated and killed by the invading Rhoxolani
that had also wiped out two cohorts of auxilia in 69 A.D. The Sarmatians
annihilated Fonteius Agrippa and his army in 70 A.D. The culmination to all
of this bloodletting came in 86 A.D. with the destruction of Cornelius Fuscus
by King Decebalus near the mountain pass Tapae. The only bright spot to this
carnage was the victory achieved by the veteran commander Tettius Iulianus in
88 A.D. when he marched north and defeated Decebalus at the second battle at
Tapae. Tragically, Domitian who proffered Decebalus a peace treaty that
resembled more of a bribe than an agreement to end hostilities, however,
squandered Iulianus’ victory. What made Domitian’s efforts along the Dacian
frontier weak and ineffectual, and thus in consequence so disastrous, was not
a result of the personal qualities of the Emperor, or his field commanders’
ineptness, or the strong willed personality of King Decebalus. What Domitian
had to reckon with, and what ancient and modern scholars have overlooked was
that the empire’s resources could no longer maintain the physical integrity of
the legions. The battles at Tapae demonstrate clearly a decline in the
effectiveness of the Roman Army. Augustus had created an army that the empire
could not maintain except during periods of peace and stability. War,
especially civil war, strife and mutiny upset the delicate balance required to
continue the adequate supply of manpower to preserve the strength of the
legions. The Civil Wars of 68-70 A.D. wrought terrible carnage and change
among the legions. After the war, Vespasian and Titus consolidated some
legions to make up for the large gaps in trained soldiers. All three
emperors, especially Domitian, were forced to rely upon a collection of
undermanned legions to defend the frontier. The V Alaude legion suffered
destruction in the first battle of Tapae as a consequence of their decrepit
state not because of the military genius of Decebalus or the impetuousness of
their commander Cn. Fuscus. The losses the V Alaude legion sustained during
its participation in the two battles at Cremona and during the massacre at
Vetera were heavy and could not be easily replaced. When the legion marched
north into the mountain defile at Tapae, it mustered perhaps only 2500 men.
Their destruction was not another Teutoburg Wald as claimed by some scholars,
but rather a clear example of why Domitian’s policies were so ineffective and
why peace was so necessary. Peace, no matter how shameful, was more
preferable to a war that the Roman Army had not the resources to wage. The
battles of Tapae then were the catalysts that brought the entire northern
frontier policy of not only the Flavians, but Nero and Caligula as well, to a
final resolution. The outcomes of these two battles reverberated throughout
the empire resulting in great change. Moreover, the practice of punitive
expeditions was ended by Domitian’s successors in preference to a concentrated
all consuming war of conquest. These battles provided Trajan with a map for
victory and he ruthlessly applied the lessons learned in 86 and 88 A.D. to his
own campaigns. What Trajan could not resolve, despite his victories, was the
same problem that plagued Domitian. The empire could not supply the Roman
Army with enough soldiers to bring the legions back to full strength, and
restore the integrity and fighting capability of the legions.
3. John Oksanish earned his BA 2000 at UMass Amherst in Classics, and his MAT
in 2002 also at UMass Amherst in Latin & Classical Humanities. In 2002-04 he
was a Latin teacher at Walpole. He is currently a graduate student at Yale in
Classical Philology. He is interested in Latin Prose, especially,
historiography and technical prose (in particular Vitruvius), Homer and
Homeric narrative technique. Recently at Brown at the Graduate Student
conference, 10/2005, he presented a paper on the social implications of
Vitruvius' moral stance in "De Architectura," an elaborated version of a talk
given at CANE (2001).
3. Dignum Memoria : Gallic and Roman Reminiscence in Bellum Gallicum 1 and 7
The importance of memory, the past, and exempla as tools of the
historiographer has been a topic of recent interest. Notably, Jane Chaplin’s
Livy’s Exemplary History (Oxford 2000) addresses Livy’s application of these
devices and their effects within a historiographical narrative. This paper
takes a similar approach to certain elements of books 1 and 7 of Caesar’s
Commentarii de Bello Gallico (BG) and attempts to elucidate Caesar’s marked
interest in memoria and the past as programmatic. Particular attention will be
paid to the effects of the commentarius genre on the use of exempla, and to
the links between exemplum, memory, and image in the BG.
I argue that Caesar “marks” memoria early in BG (esp. BG 1.7-15) as an
important element in his commentarius narrative. On the one hand, memoria
seems a catalyst for correct action when invoked and “focalized” by the
Romans: at BG 1.7.3, it is the memory of Cassius’ slaughtered legion that
prompts Caesar to deny the Helvetians passage, leading to the demise of the
latter; at 7.62.2, Labienus leads his troops to victory against Camulogenus
after citing suae pristinae virtutis memoria. On the other hand, Gallic
citations of memoria are quickly shown to be ineffectual (1.13-15) and become
omens of defeat (7.25, 37, 76, 77).
Thus the remark of the first-person narrator at BG 7.25 is
particularly salient: “…accidit inspectantibus nobis quod dignum memoria visum
praetereundum non existimavimus.” As a rare intersection of Caesar qua
narrator and Caesar qua actor-in-the-narrative, the comment is per se worthy
of note. Yet, given Caesar’s apparent concern with memoria, we may also read
this comment programmatically. It suggests, as I attempt to show, that by
publishing the BG, Caesar is specifically concerned with writing himself into
the collective body of memoria and exempla.
Workshop 2 A
2A. Maureen Toner received her B.A. in Classics from the College of the Holy
Cross in 1997 and her M.A. in Classical Archaeology from Tufts University in
2002. She is currently in her fifth year of teaching at Boston College High
School, where she has taught Latin I, II and III and Greek I and Greek III,
and the upper level Homeric Academy course. Last summer she participated in
excavations at the Etruscan site of PoggioCivitate (Murlo) through the Tufts
University summer program.
2A. Latin I! The Musical: Successful strategies for incorporating musical
mnemonic devices into your Latin (and Greek) curriculum
Teaching introductory level Latin and Greek via noun and verb charts
and paradigms has many benefits, but it increases the already heavy burden of
memorization upon its recipients and makes rich languages appear dull to new
students. Rote memorization at times feels like a Herculean labor, and
student interest in the subject is often a casualty. Although a rich treasure
trove of helpful hints and mnemonic devices are available to today’s Latin and
Greek teachers, only a few musical mnemonics are widely familiar. Musical
mnemonics in general are underrepresented in secondary school classrooms due
either to the teacher’s dubious musical talent or concerns about age
appropriateness. Such misperceptions deny students access to a very powerful
memorization technique, one particularly attuned to the iPod generation.
Over the past few years, I have incorporated numerous musical
mnemonics into my Latin I and Greek I curricula with very pleasing results.
Through trial and error, I have also learned a great deal about incorporating
musical mnemonics into the classroom. While musical mnemonics are ideal for
middle school students, students up through the 12th grade are generally
delighted by the technique. In selecting music, the teacher should take into
consideration several factors, including rhythm, phrasing, repetition and
student familiarity with the song, as well as the song’s appropriateness
within the culture of the school. In addition to memory enhancement, the
teacher can also use songs to emphasize pronunciation and encode additional
grammar rules. Finally, using musical mnemonics engages students and creates
a positive, energetic classroom environment conducive to further learning.
In this workshop, I will explain and demonstrate the process for
creating musical mnemonics for Latin I (and Greek I, if there is interest),
and provide guidelines for selecting effective and well-received melodies. In
addition I will give suggestions for incorporating musical mnemonics into the
fabric of the Latin I curriculum and provide example materials for teaching
many of the core elements of the Latin I (and Greek I) curriculum.
Workshop 2 B
2B. Brian Walsh, UVM I have tried to get his introductory biography to no
avail. He is a nice fellow, but… 2B. ‘Comparative Prose Colometry: the
Construction of the Period’
How did the great Roman prose authors construct the impressive
periodic sentences for which they are known? Certainly they marshalled
lengthy clauses into a greater syntactic whole. But from what materials did
they construct such grand clauses? If one looks only at the storeys or spires
of an impressive edifice, it is quite possible to overlook the underlying
structures and materials that support them and lend the whole its final
effect. Thus in stylistic terms I hope to offer the viewers some perspective
on the essential materials behind the greater structures of period and clause:
the ‘cola’ or ‘commata,’ as they are variously called. For it is the
interplay of these important building-blocks that lend the period its
unltimate majesty and achieve a special effect upon the ancient
listener/reader and the modern reader.
This workshop will provide a practical demonstration of the value of
colometry in analyzing both narrative and oratorical periods across a fairly
broad spectrum of prose texts. Among the select topics to be addressed in
comparative fashion are (1) result clauses, (2) infinitive phrases in indirect
discourse, (3) Cum-clauses, (4) ablative absolutes and (5) historical
infinitives. On the phrasal level I will discuss the articulation of cola
through various means such as word order (including hyperbaton, chiasmus and
‘framing’ techinques), sound (alliteration, assonance, homoeoteleuton, etc.)
and even rhythm, as reference to rhythm (both clausulae and ‘internal’
rhythms) is essential to such a discussion. In the end I hope to show the
functional importance of the interaction of these cola on the grand level of
clause and period.
My discussion will be informed by the pioneering work on colometry of
E. Fraenkel, T. Habinek and R. Nisbet among others. Overall I hope to
stimulate teachers of prose (Latin and Greek) at the high school and college
level to use colometric analysis as a teaching tool, for themselves and their
students.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON
Paper Session 3
1. Z. Philip Ambrose is Lyman-Roberts Professor of Classical Languages and
Literature and Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of
Vermont, a past Secretary-Treasurer, a past Curator of Funds and a member of
the Centennial Committee of CANE. He is also a Barlow-Beach Award Recipient.
1. “Re-reading the Classicists: the First Meeting of the Classical
Association of New England, April 6-7, 1906," a.k.a. "The Eponymous Seven”
CANE was founded in 1906 in alarmed concern about the decline in the teaching
of Greek in the schools. Anxiety about the state of learning in the modern
academy continues in the rhetoric of our new century and with it continued
debate about how and what to teach in the field of classics. The proceedings
and papers of the founding meeting reveal disagreement about the very nature
of philology and the purposes of learning Latin and Greek. But the seven
papers, in content and range, imply that in the broad sense philology meant
reading and interpreting both the literary and material remains of the past.
The papers also make clear that the sine qua non of this noble undertaking was
the knowledge of Greek and Latin. The seven Centennial respondents to the
original papers leave no doubt that despite continuing disagreements in
approach and despite its many sub-disciplines the field of classics during
CANE's first one hundred years has flourished. The golden ages of the past
were the ages of renaissance, always nourished by reawakened appreciation of
Greek literature, whether in 5th-century Athens, Augustan Rome, or 15th-
century Italy. CANE's covenant with the past should serve hopes no less
grand.
2. “Some Impressions of Knossos and King Minos’ Time” Mary Hollinshead is a
Classical archaeologist (including earlier cultures in Greek ad Roman regions)
who teaches ancient art at the University of Rhode Island. Trained at Bryn
Mawr (A.B., Ph.D.) and Harvard (M.A.), she has excavated in Italy, Cyprus and
Greece. Her research interests have ranged from the wall paintings of Bronze
age Thera to Roman sculpture, to Greek architecture, her major focus. She is
currently writing a book on monumental steps in Greek architecture.
3. William Mierse is Professor or Art History at the University of Vermont.
Has published works on a number of aspects of Roman art and architecture but
in the study of Roman Iberia.
3. "A Century of Excavations on the Roman Forum".
I tried to get an abstract of this workshop, but don’t seem to have one.
4. Allen Ward has been a CANE Member since 1962; AB Brown 1964; Ph.D.
Princeton 1968; Taught ancient history, Greek, and Latin at the University of
Connecticut since 1969 Past Director of several CANE Summer Institutes; Author
of numerous articles and reviews in the field of ancient history, Marcus
Crassus and the Late Roman Republic (U. Of Missouri, 1977), lead author of A
History of the Roman People ed. 4 (Prentice-Hall, 2003), currently working of
Rome and Its Culture, a Brief History for Focus Publishing.
4. “The Place of Geography and Biography in Elementary History: Edwin Hall
Higley, a Case in Point”
One hundred years ago, at the first meeting of the Classical Association
of New England, Edwin Hall Higley decried the growing trend to de-emphasize
geography and biography in favor of the social-scientific approach to history
in textbooks and courses at the introductory level. Unfortunately, the trend
has only intensified over the last century in academe. Not surprisingly, while
students abandon history in droves, the general public devours books by non-
academic historians like David McCullough, Stephen Ambrose, and Dorothy Kerns
Goodwin, and eagerly awaits the next historical documentary or dramatization
on the History Channel, Biography Channel, Arts and Entertainment Network, and
Home Box Office, all of which present vivid accounts in words and pictures of
the people and places associated with the great events and developments that
have shaped the world.
As Higley rightly noted, “The local and personal elements should not
be obscured by a desire to exhibit the general movement of national progress
or decay.” He believed that by attempting “to localize and visualize the
landscape” of events rather than dryly enumerating them, introductory
narratives can make history for beginning students “a mental possession
solidly grounded, not simply swaying in the foggy obscurities of the mind.”
Moreover, to him biographical forms of narrative not only “show history in a
vivid and moving presentation,” but also illustrate the values and ideals of a
people, which are just as important to understand as their sociology,
institutions, and constitutions, which the social-scientific approach
stresses.
Indeed, when properly executed, the integration of geographical
descriptions and individual biography into an historical narrative can provide
concrete illustrations that make the abstract themes preferred by modern
academic historians more understandable, personally meaningful, and,
therefore, memorable to young minds and the public in general. Nothing
illustrates that point more than the story of Edwin Hall Higley himself. His
family’s origins in New England’s seventeenth-century Puritan social and
economic elite, its role in settling constantly expanding frontiers, and his
personal life as a student, cavalry officer in the Civil War, musician,
professor of Greek and German at Middlebury College, and master under Endicott
Peabody at Groton School vividly illustrate the geographical, social,
economic, political, military, and cultural forces and events that shaped
colonial New England and the American Nation as well as the founding of the
Classical Association of New England and the success that it has enjoyed over
the past century.
Workshop 3 A
3A. John Sarkissian is Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages at
Youngstown State University, where he teaches Latin, Greek and Ancient
History. He is currently in his third as Chief Faculty Consultant for
Advanced Placement Latin. Sally Morris is presently an instructor of Latin and
Greek at Phillips Exeter Academy, after a twenty-year stint in the classics
department at Brooks School. Sally also taught in Italy for School Year Abroad
in the first year of the Latin program, 2001-02. Sally has served as an AP
reader and has written several articles about teaching AP Latin on the AP
website. Sally is currently a member of the CANE executive committee, and she
is also on the Board of the Vergilian Society. She received her BA at Trinity
College, and her MA at Tufts University. She has also studied at the
Classical Summer School of the American Academy in Rome
ABSTRACT: Literal Translation on the AP Latin Vergil Examination
This is essentially what I receive as an abstract.
Workshop 3 B
Lydia Haile received her B.A. with honors in Classics and History from
Williams College in 2002, and her M.A. in Classics from UVa in 2004. Since
then, she has been teaching Latin at Moses Brown School. Her current research
interests include ancient textile manufacture, ancient warfare, and classical
influence on Victorian dress reform.
Lanam fecit: A Workshop on Roman Wool Processing and Spinning
In Roman women's epitaphs, the working of wool is a constant refrain. This
activity was not only the sign of a good woman and wife, but something that
took up a great deal of time and attention. In this workshop, participants
will follow the path that wool took from the back of a sheep to finished
thread. They will learn how the Romans did each step along the way and how to
process fleece both with modern facsimiles of Roman tools and with more
readily available modern objects. This will bring home what a long and
complicated task stood behind the terse lanam fecit. Participants will also be
able to demonstrate to others how wool would have been processed. The workshop
will start out by looking at different breeds of sheep, seeing which modern
ones are most like Roman ones and the different characteristics that various
breeds and parts of a fleece have. Participants will examine unwashed and
washed fleece and sheepskin. From here we will move to getting the fleece from
the sheep to the woolbasket, looking at how it was sheared, cleaned, and dyed.
Participants will learn modern fleece washing techniques and about modern
dyes. At this point, we will look at combing, the most common Roman method
used to get the fleece into spinnable form. I will teach how to comb wool
both on modern wool combs and on more readily available flea combs. Then the
participants will move on to learning about spinning and the different types
of spindles used by the Romans. They will learn how to spin and how to make
spindles. After completing this workshop, participants will understand why
spinning was such an important part of Roman life and will be able to
demonstrate Roman wool processing to others.
Paper Session 4
1. Allan Wooley is an emeritus teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy. Allan has
been a part of the CANE for a number of years serving on the CANE Executive
Committee in a number of capacities including executive secretary and
president. He is a former recipient of the Barlow-Beach Award. He is also
one of the authors of our Centennial History and is currently serving as
CANE’s webmaster; This spring he will be teaching a Plato course online
through UVM.
1. “The Oak and Reed” In this somewhat muted eulogy of Willard Reed, I try to
pronounce a worthy epitaph to the noble oaks that fell while the reeds
survived. In good Roman fashion I praise Mr. Reed and Mr. Kirtland as two
noble exemplars of their opposing beliefs and draw my moral lesson from their
great deeds. Mr. Reed believed as Archilochus' fox that we should range about
and collect various different things to interest our students, while Mr.
Kirtland believed with equal fervor that we must teach the language first;
until the grammar and basic vocabulary is mastered, nothing else must distract
the student. The one cherished students' enthusiasm for the many varied
aspects of Roman culture, while the other expected skilled mastery of the
language that would make the students independent readers of Latin literature.
As evidence I offer Mr. Reed's talk and Mr. Kirtland's book, both clear
instances of their convictions. Together they provide the ying and yang that
enlivened the early years of CANE, and that, I suggest, are still operative
today. I use the experience of the Classics Department of Phillips Exeter
Academy as an example of the fall of Mr. Kirtland's mighty oak, and CANE as an
example of the survival of the Classics by following Mr. Reed's advice. I try
to point out that the mastery of the classical languages is the point and
justification for survival of the discipline.
2. Francis Bliss is Emeritus Professor at the University of Vermont.
Professor Bliss has been a long time member of CANE who has presented numerous
times; and is famous for his Latin perorations. He is an “elder-statesman” of
CANE and also a Barlow-Beach Award Recipient.
2. “Library suggestions for a beginning Classics teacher” "I am most
interested to influence the beginner's own book collection, and I agree with
Seymour's remarks of a hundred years ago when he urged the advantage of
reading widely without an extensive apparatus, thus securing facility in
reading and independance of judgment. The beginner should have at least a few
plain texts, and keep them, and aim at getting more. Translations are of
course helpful, but they can be a snare and a delusion. A knowledge of the
growth of modern criticism will grow with age, and can help our historical
understanding, but one should be wary of it, especially when it creeps into
commentary. Constant attention to texts is the only real justification for
calling our study Literae Humaniores."
3. Barbara Saylor-Rodgers received her AB in Greek from Brown University and
her MA and Phd from University of California, Berkely. She is currently
Professor of Classics at UVM. Since she works with prose authors her interest
in prose composition is clear - especially since Cicero is the model of choice
and she is working a lot with Cicero right now. She would rather mark up a
document with html than use a program to do it: this preference (especially in
avoiding the spaghetti in web page programs) clearly has a lot to do with
composition as well. She is a fanatical gardener and breed irises; pictures of
these appear on her web page.
3. “The Efficient Teaching of Latin Prose” Another sterling abstract ;)
4. Bill Wyatt Professor of Classics (Emeritus) at Brown University, former
President of CANE, recipient of the Barlow-Beach Award (at some point), and
now live in Westport MA, where I am President of the local historical society,
and a docent at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford.
4. “The Classics as a Means of Teaching in English” At the first meeting of
CANE in 1906 Professor Alice Walton of Wellesley College delivered a paper
entitled: "The Classics as a Means of Training in English ", which is in turn
the title of my paper here. Professor Walton restricted her argument to the
presumed – and in fact, undoubted – value of Latin as a guide to or training
in English, and made four points that lead to a conclusion (5): 1) “It is our
bounden duty to lose no opportunity to make the process of speech consciously
correct in these days when traditions of correct English are breaking down
before the influx of foreign idiom, resulting in a careless and often ignorant
usage.” 2) “We need to combat the tendency on the part of our pupils to
isolate the facts of experience;” i.e., that literature and historical context
should be correlated. 3)“The relation of classical to modern languages,
especially English, must be kept constantly in mind and similar and divergent
features be noted, in syntax and idiom.” 4) “We have also a responsibility in
leading the way to appreciation of literary structure.” She concludes her
summary: 5)“Surely we ought to stand in the closest relation to the work in
English and help it by precept and practice, realizing the dependence of our
own language and literature on the Classics, and the fact that no appreciation
of either can be vital without the other.” Some of her points have an archaic
and even biblical air, but one can probably share her views to a fairly
considerable extent. In my paper I dwell primarily on her third point, and
argue for an intelligent and consistent application of Latin to the English
vocabulary. Latin still remains one of the bases of our literate discourse,
and students should, through Latin, learn to converse intelligently in their
own language.
Workshop 4 A
4A. Emil Penarubia originally hails from Philadelphia. He earned his BA from
Holy Cross and his Master's from Boston College. Since 1998, he has taught
Latin and Greek at Boston College HS. He is the MA state representative on
the CANE executive committee, and the editor of CANEns, the official CANE
newsletter. He attended the 2001 American Academy in Rome Summer School on a
Fulbright fellowship, and last summer participated in a Taft Educational
Center workshop called "Preliminaries in Latin," which focused on crafting
multiple-choice questions in the style of the AP exam. 4A. “Writing AP-Style
Multiple Choice Questions: Preparing All Levels for the Exam”
This workshop will focus on the more difficult section of the AP Latin
exam: the multiple-choice section. Participants will learn how to ask
specific questions to aid students’ understanding of sight passages, and begin
to understand why the AP exam asks the questions that it does. Specific
emphasis will be given to writing practice questions for various levels,
including not only the AP-level passages, but also for passages suitable for
Latin I and Latin II. Passing the AP exam will depend on students’ ability to
navigate the multiple choice section, and this workshop will provide insight
into it.
Since a sight translation on the AP examination would be too difficult
to grade, the examiners designed multiple-choice questions to test students'
knowledge of how Latin works. A foreknowledge of their question-writing
techniques will undoubtedly aid teachers who are preparing their students for
this unseen part of the exam. This workshop will show participants how to
write multiple-choice questions for students in all levels of Latin in order
to prepare them for Section I of the AP exam. Students must also then be
taught how to use these questions to their advantage. Special emphasis will
be placed on the selection of the passage, the specific wording of the
questions, as well as writing questions specifically to aid the students in
their comprehension of the sight passages. N.B.: This workshop will benefit
teachers of all levels of Latin, not only those currently teaching the AP
syllabus.
Workshop 4 B
4B. Stephen Daitz earned his Ph.D. Harvard U. Professor Emeritus of Classics,
City Univ. of NY Editor of the Teubner edition of Euripides' Hecuba. Founder
and editor of the recording series, The Living Voice of Greek and Latin
Founder of the Society for the Oral Reading of Greek and Latin an APA
affiliated group Published a complete recording of the Iliad and the Odyssey
in the restored pronunciation of classical Greek
4B. Reading the Vergilian hexameter aloud. The workshop is based on the first
seven lines of the Aeneid and contain five stages: 1. Learning the
quantitative rhythm of the hexameter by chanting. 2. Fitting the rhythm to
the words, still chanting. 3. Coordinating rhythm and word accents, still
chanting. 4. Coordinating rhythm and word accents, now in spoken tones. 5.
All the above, now with individual poetic expression.
Workshop 4 C
4C. Presenter/Bio: Francis Bliss is Emeritus Professor at the University of
Vermont. Professor Bliss has been a long time member of CANE who has
presented numerous times; and is famous for his Latin perorations. He is also
a Barlow-Beach Award Recipient.
4C. “Reading Latin & Greek” This workshop is on Reading Latin and Greek aloud
– bring your own poetry to be read – transparency for an overhead would do
nicely.
Workshop 4 D
4D. Presiders: John Higgins has taught Latin and Greek at The Gilbert School
in Winsted CT since 1980. Before starting there, he served as Editorial
Assistant to the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources at the Royal
Irish Academy in Dublin where he developed an interest in Hiberno-Latin. In
1993-94, as an NEH Teacher-Scholar and spent a year as a Research Scholar at
the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, researching Hiberno-Latin
literature. He has published several articles and reviews in the area. Gil
Lawall is Emeritus Professor UMass Amherst. He has served CANE in a number of
positions on the CANE Executive Committee. He is also a Barlow-Beach Award
recipient.
4D. Greek Teacher Sharing Workshop Greek Teacher Sharing Workshop and
Materials Exchange This workshop is for those teaching Greek in regular
courses, or before or after school, or as independent study, or as part of
their Latin classes, and for those wishing to introduce Greek in some way or
other; teachers are invited to bring and share 30 copies of some print
material or a sample of some electronic material (handouts, exercises,
quizzes, projects, resource lists, etc.) that they have produced themselves.
All are welcome, whether bringing materials or not, including those not yet
teaching Greek.
Workshop 4 E
4E. Presider: Rosemary Zurawel is the middle school director of Latin and
French at Berwick Academy in South Berwick, Maine. She is actively involved
in CANE and is currently the Exectutive Secretary for CANE, Coordinator of
Educational Programs, and editor of Auxilia magistris.
CANE Teachers’ Material Exchange
SATURDAY MORNING
Ecce Romani Workshops
Presider, Shirley Lowe is Emerita, Wayland Middle School. She has been a long
time member of CANE and has served on the Executive Committee editor of
“auxilia magistris” and in a number of other capacities. The presenters of
the Ecce Romani Workshops will use Ecce Romani as a working base, but the
workshops will be applicable to teaching with any text. Gilbert Lawall is
Emeritus Professor UMass Amherst. He has served CANE in a number of positions
on the CANE Executive Committee. He is also a Barlow-Beach Award recipient.
ECCE ROMANI WORKSHOP SESSION I:
Presenter: Dr. Melissa Schons Bishop, Boston Latin School Abstract: Curriculum
Development: Making Latin Accessible to Students of the 21st Century Topics to
be covered in this presentation include the following: What kind of students
do we have today? Learning styles/tendencies Impact of technology/internet on
students & learning styles Focal points of curriculum design and development
Translation/Reading Vocabulary acquisition Grammar acquisition
Mythology/Culture Assessments Infusing technology Internet Interactive
games/activities (Quia/Hot Potatoes) Building web sites to support classical
learning and to create active learning environments Online vs. simple
repositories of links/data Writing across the curriculum Concluding remarks:
Teacher training & resources Resource sharing/networking (Ecce listserv)
Articulation between high school and college programs As I discuss these
points, I will use examples from the Ecce series to show how this kind of
curriculum development can be achieved with maximum effectiveness. Access to a
projector and the Internet would allow me to display examples from my
curricular materials and web site. I would like to bring a sample packet to
hand out along with the resource document that others and I distributed at a
workshop in October 2005 at the Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of
the Atlantic States.
ECCE ROMANI WORKSHOP SESSION II:
Presenter:
Gail Cooper, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania Abstract:
Classroom Implementation: Sine LitterisTeaching without the Printed Word
Latin teachers have traditionally relied heavily on written feedback and
exercises for drilling, for practice, and for assessing comprehension. During
this workshop participants will focus on some non-written means of reinforcing
reading comprehension and syntax practice. Among the methods we will explore
are cooperative flashcards, using oral Latin as an approach to handling
reading comprehension, singing as an aid in memorization, creating cartoons
for introducing grammar concepts, and the Rassias Method in a Latin classroom.
Participants will take part in the demonstrations as well as develop and then
share their own materials for classroom use.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
ECCE ROMANI WORKSHOP SESSION III:
Presenter:
Nancy Snyder Irons, Reading (Mass.) Memorial High School
Abstract: Cantate cum Cornelia
Find out what Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, and Bob Marley have to do with
Marcus, Sextus, and Cornelia! This presentation is aimed at middle school and
high school Latin teachers who use the Ecce Romani textbook series. The
presenter will share a Lain I project that requires students to adapt lyrics
from a familiar song to describe events and characters from Ecce Romani.
Participants will listen to recordings of student songs and will receive
copies of student lyrics. This lively musical project enables students to use
their ômusical intelligenceö in Latin class.
ECCE ROMANI WORKSHOP SESSION IV:
Presenter:
Donna LeSage, Prospect Mountain High School, Alton, New Hampshire
Dennis Wimer, Virginia Satellite Educational Network, Richmond, Virginia.
“Teaching Ecce Romani with a Long Distance Learning Program from Virginia”
Abstract:
Donna LeSage facilitates a Latin distance learning program set up by the
Virginia Department of Education and broadcast via satellite from schools in
Virginia. She will describe the program, the methodologies and activities
employed, and the advantages and disadvantages of this kind of Latin
instruction. She will provide information as to how the program can be
introduced in other schools.
ECCE ROMANI WORKSHOP SESSION V:
Presiding: Gilbert Lawall, Emeritus, UMass Amherst, and Chief Revision
Editor, Ecce Romani, and Shirley Lowe, Emerita, Wayland (Mass.) Middle School
“Ecce Romani Teacher Sharing Workshop”
Abstract:
Teachers are invited to bring and share 30 copies of some print material or a
sample of some electronic material (handouts, exercises, quizzes, projects,
resource lists, etc.) they have produced themselves and use in their
classrooms in their teaching of Ecce Romani, but the session is open to all
teachers of Ecce Romani and to others interested in attending.
SATURDAY MORNING
Paper Session 5
1. Phyllis B. Katz’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research
Matthe C. Farmer is a graduate Student at Tufts University and he is first
recipient of the Phyllis B. Katz’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate
Research
1. His paper topic is “Closure in Iliad XXIV” You may want to get more from
him on his paper?
2. Sam Findley is currently Assistant Professor at Rhodes College, with
doctorate received from Duke University in Classics and interests in
comparative myth, poetic consolation, and Roman agriculture.
2. To Teach Atrocity
I wish to speak about the way in which I have discussed horrible things with
my students, as both formal object of study and in the informal discussions
where ethical teaching often takes place. I will use as a foundational
template my participation in the audience at a lecture which showed 8th
century BCE reliefs of Judaeans impaled by Sennacherib interspersed with
images of New Yorkers jumping from The World Trade Center on September 11th.
I will also cite my own experiences as a teacher of classics courses which
focus on war’s various phenomena in the ancient world. The final book of the
Aeneid will be the locus classicus, along with citations from Antiphon,
Tacitus, and the RSV Hebrew Bible; I will also show some of the modern
pictures that so perturbed me. I hope thereby to confront something that is
problematic for anybody teaching in the modern world. It is contingent upon us
as teachers to discuss the violence of the past and present. To deny any
student the chance to know the truth, however brutal, of their own history
would be an unconscionable error. Students must witness the horror of Roman
and Greek society, if their understanding of the past is to be anything but
superficial. In this act of witnessing, I have always found a kernel of hope:
to witness is to begin to be able to decide and act as truly moral agents.
Thus, teaching good judgment without proposing the problem of brutality – as
forcefully as we can – would be teaching in bad faith. But the critical
distance built into any thoughtful reading of horrific circumstances conceals
a new problem. We can compare atrocities, decipher their deeper meaning, and
debate a just response. But, treating the pain of others as “subjects for
analysis” means that we objectify victims’ humanity in much the same way as
did their killers. This obduracy is a peril greater even than ignorance; how
do we responsibly expose students to it, without hardening their hearts?
Bibliography Bataille, Georges. 1929. “le langage des fleurs” Documents 3.10-
14 Scarry, E. 1987. The body in pain. Oxford UP Sontag, S. 2004 Regarding
the pain of others. Picador
James F. Patterson is a native of Cambridge, MA. I received a B.A. in
Classics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and will receive my
M.A.T. in Latin and Classical Humanities, also at UMass., this May. He will
begin doctoral studies in Classics in the Fall and is interested in Latin
philosophy and the early Church. 3. (Latin) Philosophy for Kids: Introducing
Ancient Philosophy to the Latin Classroom Philosophy for Kids
(www.philosophyforkids.com), a project inspired by Professor Gareth Matthews
(University of Massachusetts, Amherst), has provided a successful framework
for encouraging philosophical discourse and critical thinking in middle and
high school classrooms around the world. In a “community of inquiry,”
children not only learn about famous philosophers and their beliefs, but they
actively participate in the philosophical discourse by actually doing
philosophy. In this approach, children read short stories that raise
important philosophical questions and explore such issues as pertinent to
daily life as what it is to be a friend and as abstract as whether flowers can
be happy. This method has won acclaim world-wide; and, with one slight
alteration, its value can extend even into the Latin classroom. (Latin)
Philosophy for Kids does just this by focusing specifically on the
philosophical issues raised in Vergil’s Aeneid (e.g. did Aeneas violate his
moral responsibility to Dido, was he justified in killing Turnus?), in various
passages in Lucretius (e.g. is the universe finite, can one weigh the human
soul?), and elsewhere in classical literature. Using the original Latin texts
as their guides, students not only learn how to think philosophically but,
through the community of inquiry, the texts themselves are illuminated and
their content suddenly finds a personal relevance. This paper explains the
motivation for (Latin) Philosophy for Kids and discusses the practical
application of the project, which has had success with the Latin students at
West Springfield High School (West Springfield, MA) and undergraduates at the
University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA). It concludes with an overview of
the project’s website, which provides an open forum for teacher and student
contributions. (Latin) Philosophy for Kids thus offers a dynamic resource for
teachers interested in approaching ancient philosophy through a community of
inquiry and encourages critical thinking skills while traversing the physical
boundaries of the classroom.
Workshop 5
Presider: John Higgins has taught Latin and Greek at The Gilbert School in
Winsted CT since 1980. Before starting there, he served as Editorial
Assistant to the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources at the Royal
Irish Academy in Dublin where he developed an interest in Hiberno-Latin. In
1993-94, as an NEH Teacher-Scholar and spent a year as a Research Scholar at
the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, researching Hiberno-Latin
literature. He has published several articles and reviews in the area.
Presider: Gil Lawall Lawall is Emeritus Professor UMass Amherst. He has served
CANE in a number of positions on the CANE Executive Committee. He is also a
Barlow-Beach Award recipient.
Dr. Therese Sellers Glen Urquhart School Beverly Farms, MA
Ms. Karen Zook The Riverside School Lyndonville, VT
Ms. Kristen Boose Asistant Director, Ascanius Youth Classics Project
Augusta County, VA
"Greek in the Early Grades"
The presenters will discuss their materials for teaching Greek to students in
grades 1-8 in a variety of settings from inclusion of Greek in Latin classes
to home-schooling, share strategies for teaching younger students, and display
students' projects and other student products.
Paper Session 6
1. Stacie Raucci received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2004 and
is currently in her first year as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Assistant Professor of Classics at Union College in Schenectady, NY.
1. Hollywood and Classics: Teaching the Ancient World in Film Greco-Roman
antiquity has been a favorite topic of Hollywood for years. This fascination
continues now, with the recent appearance of the blockbusters Troy and
Gladiator, as well as such TV productions as HBO’s Rome and ABC’s Empire. Why
do the Greeks and Romans appeal to a modern audience? These on-screen versions
of the Classical world are often seen as inaccurate and anachronistic attempts
to bring antiquity to the masses. This paper will question if a course on the
ancient world in film can enhance students’ knowledge and appreciation of the
Classics. It examines my own film course that strives not to consider where
the on-screen versions went “wrong,” but to question how films recast and
reinterpret classical texts to reflect modern interests. In a New York Times
article, students at various North American colleges were quoted as enjoying
the study of antiquity, but disliking films dealing with the same topic. For
example, one student said the following about the movie Troy, “It’s like a
train wreck: you stare in fascinated revulsion.” (NY Times, 10/8/2005 “In a
Classical World, Nerds Walk with Gods”) Can film and TV versions of the
Classics, as well as other artistic representations, enhance a student’s
education and critical thinking skills? Can these representations be used to
a department’s advantage, to attract students to classes and attract interest
in the text beyond the film? I will discuss my own course on the ancient
world in film in order to question how such a course may be valuable to both
students and faculty. I will draw on anecdotal experiences as well as
existing articles on the ancient world in film to examine these questions.
2. Christine Emmert is the author of the book, ISMENE (THE JOURNEY BACK),
which makes use of greek myth and legend to tell the story of Oedipus'
youngest daughter. ISBN is 1-4137-9804-7. Her talk today is based on my work
in writing this as well as the extensive work I put into my Humanities classes
of the past combined with my vast theatre experience.
2. Myth, Writing, and Personal Journey
Joseph Campbell's HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES explains how we use myth todefine
our own journey from doubt to certainty concerning our identity. The
creativity and yet underlying solidarity of myth helps structure in a personal
sense the road we take. The use of Greek myth especially has been a touchstone
for literature in the Wetern world. There are several overlays of concepts
of "myth", "legend," "story," and "fairytale." One needs to explore where
these concepts touch and where they are completely separate. A writer can use
any or all of them to shape the narrative he/she wishes to give. Exploration
of myth is exploration of self in relation to the Cosmology we find. Because
all myth has an element of divinity or Other-ness, there is an element of
magic that promises to transport us in terms of knowledge - emotional or
intellectual. Such themes are what I want to touch on in my workshop.
3. Stephen R. Wilk is an optical scientist working in Massachusetts. In
addition to his everyday job, he is a Visiting Scientist at the Harrison
Spectroscopy Laboratory at MIT and a Contributing Editor for Optics and
Photonics News. He has written on a variety of topics, and his articles have
appeared in Weatherwise, New Jersey History, and Scientific American. His book
Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon came out in 2000.
3. Follow the Cow with the Moon on its Flank: Kadmos and the Stars We
speculate that the myth of Kadmos, Settler of Boeotia and Founder of Thebes,
is represented by prominent Constellations in the sky. Salient elements of the
myth are, we suggest, inspired by dramatic objects easily visible in the
northern sky.
Workshop 6
6. Michelle Tucci holds a degree in classics from USM where she studied under
Gloria Duclos and MSEd in Education from University of New England. She
teaches Latin and sometimes Greek at Portland High School in Portland, Maine.
Recently, Reg Hannaford has been gracious enough to allow me to teach Latin
and Greek at Saint Joseph's College in Standish, Maine.
6. Where the Boys Are: Latin Enrollment and Gender Preferences at Portland
High School
What is a Latin teacher to think when the entire Latin IV enrollment
consists of male athletes? What is a teacher to do to “rectify” the
situation? After putting aside all feelings of inadequacy and chastising
myself for driving away all the girls in the program, I decided to look at
this enigma rationally. I first read the research regarding gender
preferences and foreign language enrollment in both Britain and the United
Sates. I then conducted classroom research to understand enrollment trends in
Latin at PHS. What did I find out? The answers to this question may surprise
other teachers as much as it did me.
At the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year 247 students were in
enrolled in Latin making this program one of the largest in the state of
Maine. Despite these record enrollments, I became concerned about the paucity
of girls completing the full Latin course of four years. My concerns led me
to investigate the relationship between gender preferences and the most
frequent activities in which students engage during Latin class, as well as
friendships and initial and continued enrollments in Latin. The duration of
time between Latin I and Latin IV led me to additionally question initial
enrollments in Latin I, and if the enrollments were at all gender heavy
towards males. I also wanted to research how many students did not complete
the program simply due to graduation. Lastly, I sought to see if there was a
correspondence between achievement at the state and national levels and
continued enrollment.
The findings from this action research would be best discussed in a
workshop setting allowing for questions and comments from other high school
teachers of Latin.
Paper Session 7
1. John Higgins has taught Latin and Greek at The Gilbert School in Winsted CT
since 1980. Before starting there, he served as Editorial Assistant to the
Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources at the Royal Irish Academy in
Dublin where he developed an interest in Hiberno-Latin. In 1993-94, as an NEH
Teacher-Scholar and spent a year as a Research Scholar at the Dublin Institute
for Advanced Studies, researching Hiberno-Latin literature. He has published
several articles and reviews in the area.
1. Patrick’s Confessio as Autobiography: Some Generic Considerations
St. Patrick’s Latin writings have been constantly misunderstood for
centuries, from his first hagiographers in Seventh Century Ireland down to
modern scholarship and popular writing. The Confessio has in particular been
the subject of attempts by later writers to discover more about Patrick’s life
than he is willing to tell us. But the text is not a biography in the modern
sense and reading it in that way is inappropriate. Its genre in ancient or
medieval terms is a matter of uncertainty among many readers. Interpretation
of the text must depend on how we read it; therefore on a literary analysis.
The place to begin is with the genre.
A generic approach will tell us things about the intentions of the
author and the expectations of the audience. The recent work of David Howlett
has identified Patrick’s main literary influence: he writes a “biblical
style.” There is more than that, though: far from being a “homo unius
libri,” as he has been described, Patrick seems to have been better read and
more aware and ambitious as a writer.
Certain features of the Confessio seem to indicate that it is
connected to ancient biography. Biography was traditionally a form that was
not considered history, but was rather like an essay or tract. The ancient
biographies of Suetonius and Plutarch are like that: they are sub-
philosophical, and see their subjects as examples of vices or virtues in the
context of moral philosophy. The Confessio displays some features of ancient
biography: its character is much more like a disputatious tract than anything
else. In particular, the beginning of the work records Patrick’s ancestry
and place of birth in a way closely parallel to the ancient biographies; it is
also notable that the last word of the work is ‘moriar.’ The specific variety
of ancient biography to which the Confessio’s author would have had access is
Christian hagiography. It is most likely that Patrick’s proximate model is
the slightly earlier Life of St. Martin by Sulpicius Severus. This text was
likely to have been available, and perhaps was first brought to Ireland by
Patrick himself.
2. Anne Mahoney teaches in the classics department at Tufts University. She
holds a BA from Fordham and a PhD from BU. Her specialty is Greek and Latin
poetry. She is the author of a commentary on Plautus's Amphitryo published by
Focus, and most recently editor of "Morice's Stories in Attic Greek" from the
same prestigious publishing house; primary scholarly interest is meter and
poetics, in Greek, Latin, and Indo-European generally.
2. In Praise of Patrick: St. Sechnall's Hymn
The hymn "Audite Omnes," in praise of St. Patrick, is attributed to St. Sechnall (or, in Latin, St. Secundinus), who was St. Patrick's nephew and one of his successors as bishop in Ireland. The hymn appears in the Irish Liber Hymnorum, an eleventh-century illuminated manuscript now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. It is also in the Franciscan Hymnal, of the late eleventh century, the Antiphonary of Bangor, a seventh-century book, and the Speckled Book of religious texts, dating from the fourteenth century. Two of these manuscripts include a preface to the hymn, in one case in Irish and in the other in a curious mixture of Irish and Latin.
The hymn itself, in Latin, consists of 23 stanzas, each of four lines.
Each stanza begins with a different letter of the alphabet. Although the Latin
is quite simple, in two of the manuscripts it is accompanied by notes. These
notes expand some of the mildly elliptical references, mark antecedents for
pronouns, and occasionally gloss difficult words. The notes are mostly in
Latin but some of the vocabulary notes are translations into Irish.
In this paper, I will present the hymn and its accompanying materials.
I will discuss the use of Latin and Irish in the preface and notes as evidence
for the changing positions of these languages in the Irish church between the
fifth century and the fourteenth. I will supply the text of the hymn as a
handout.
3. Paul Properzio teaches Latin and Greek at Boston Latin Academy. Editor of
The American Classical League Newsletter, he is also vice president of the
Archaeological Institute of America (Boston Society). He has just learned
that his article, “North American Classics: An Inner-City Model,” will be
published in a 2006 issue of The Classical Outlook.
3. “Bring in the Wine . . . Fill up the Cups:” Echoes of Alcaeus, Anacreon, and Horace in Ancient Chinese Lyrics
An anonymous Chinese lyric from the 12th century BC may be the oldest known
drinking-song (Lin 1942, 872). In China, this genre is documented as an art-
form as late as the 8th century AD in the poetry of Li Po (Lin 1942, 869). In
the west scolia, or drinking-songs, appear as an art-form in Greece from about
the middle of the 7th century BC and find their fullest expression in lyrics
by Alcaeus and Anacreon (Edmonds 1940 III, 657-58; Campbell 1967, xxiv).
Nearly 700 years later the Roman poet Horace, translating the first words of a
poem by Alcaeus (fragment 332), composes what is arguably the best known and
most quoted drinking-song on the carpe diem theme in Odes 1.37 (West 1995,
182-83). This paper looks at representative drinking-songs by the anonymous
Chinese lyricist, Li Po, Alcaeus (fragments 332, 346), Anacreon (fragments
356a/b, 396), and Horace (Odes 1.37) to consider common themes and events that
may have inspired the Chinese, Greek, and Roman poets to compose their
drinking-songs. It has recently been argued (P. Properzio, New England
Classical Journal 2003, 7-21) that literary parallels in the form of
descriptive epithets exist between the Greek Iliad and the Chinese Warriors
and Battles from the Book of Songs composed between 800 and 600 BC. Given the
similarities found in the Chinese, Greek, and Roman drinking-songs, what
evidence, if any, is there that Chinese poetry of the drinking-song genre
influenced Greek and Roman lyrics of the same genre? Or, is it the
universality of the carpe diem theme that transcends cultures?
Workshop 7
7. Mark Pearsal currently teaches at Glastonbury High School. He is a member
of the CANE Executive Committee and is working toward his doctorate at UCONN.
7. Identity in Rome: A Thematic Approach
Rome in the first century was a thriving, cosmopolitan center. The
Pax Romana ushered in a period of new stability, prosperity, and opportunity.
It also resulted in greater diversity as people with foreign ideas began to
pour into Rome from all around the empire seeking the benefits of this new
era. Following immediately after a century of civil war and social and
political upheaval, this exciting and hectic period brought with it a crisis
of identity for the Romans who struggled to re-evaluate themselves and their
society after such turmoil.
As teachers, we must somehow make this chaotic and self-absorbed Roman
world accessible to our students in the classroom today. In order to do this,
with must provide them with the necessary familiarity with the cultural norms
of the time to appreciate the issues presented to us in reading the words of
ancient writers. This is essential since the literature of Rome is, in effect,
our primary source of communication with the Romans themselves. Students who
are asked to translate texts for which they have been insufficiently prepared
either culturally or linguistically are bound to find no satisfaction in their
effort and recognize no relevance in their reading. Beyond simply
understanding the grammar of the language, we must help them to recognize the
importance of the study of a society from two millennia ago and the
contributions it has made and, through its lessons, still can make to us now.
This workshop will focus on developing an understanding of some of the
cultural trends in Rome which can be studied in a Latin classroom. We will
discuss how cultural knowledge and thematic units may be used to spiral
reading strategies to aid students in their learning. I will give examples of
thematic units that can be used and demonstrate how they can be spiraled
through an articulated language program. I will also demonstrate to
participants some activities to develop interpretive and writing skills which
reinforce their students’ abilities.
MINUTES OF THE 2005-2006 CANE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Cane Executive Committee Meeting
24 September 2005
The Rivers School
Weston, MA
9:00 AM
In attendance: John, McVey, Rosemary A. Zurawel, Jacqueline Carlon, Cynthia
Damon, Ellen Perry, Gil Lawall, Ray Starr, Sally Morris, Emil Penarubia,
Katy Ganino, Allen Ward, Ed DeHoratius, Marion Lewis, Ruth Breindel, Mark Pearsall
1. Announcements by the President
* John McVey called the meeting to order at 9:20 AM
* Welcome and thanks for the work done for this meeting. Special thanks for
the work Emil had done for CANEns, to Rosemary for the Executive Secretary’s
work.. * Introductions all around the table * Next Meeting: 4 February 2006,
9:00 AM, The Rivers School Library. Snow date: 11 February 2006.
2. Announcements by the Executive Secretary
* Attendance, and cell phone numbers; update email addresses
3. Reports
* CAM News : Fall Meeting will happen along with the MAFLA meeting. Great
presentations are in place. The Spring meeting will take place at the Higgins
Armory. Papers regarding any aspect of the collection of armour are
solicited. National JCL Convention notes are attached.
* Emporium, CEU, Curator’s Reports - In the absence of Donna Lyons, questions
may be directed to her via email
* Curator’s report: In the absence of Donna Lyons, questions regarding the
Funds may be directed to her via email. Discussion regarding the health of
the Phinney Fund, thanks to a favourable market. Spending it down within the
20-year time limit is still the goal. Challenge remains in soliciting good
proposals. John Higgins will be able to answer some questions this afternoon.
* Editor of CANE: Gil Lawall passed out a current listing of materials. He
has limited some of the titles, and has stocks of books in his two homes so
that he can respond promptly to orders. His suggestion is that the Executive
Committee begin thinking about the future of the program. He does not want to
see diminished interest due to unavailable orders, as there is strong interest
among many west coast universities. Q: Could any be put on line? A: The
universities want some 30 copies that can be distributed to students in
classes. This may not be a good direction to go. Ed DeHoratius: Perhaps a
downloadable pdf file, after scanning, could be put up. Ruth Breindel: What
if we put them on disks and mail the disks? Gil Lawall: I use a very old
program, and that may not be compatible. Ruth: Scanning them all in would be
a problem. Allen Ward: What about seeing if Focus or Bolchazy-Carducci were
to take some these over? Gil Lawall: Someone may really want to take this
program in a different direction, and we should look for them. John McVey:
If you have any more considerations, please send them to RAZ via email, and we
will take this up at the 4 February 2006 meeting. Keep in mind that this is a
revenue stream.
* Treasurer’s Report: Reminder that the CSI surplus is because we have not
received Dartmouth’s bill, yet. Secondly, should we move the donations in
Alison Barker’s memory to a fund so that it can gain interest, turned over to
the Curator. Ruth moved that it be turned over to the Curator to establish an
income generating fund. . The motion passed unanimously. No awards can be
made this year, but when the fund has grown large enough to be distributed, Ed
DeHoratius, as Scholarship Chair, who will be responsible for the
distribution. There has been nearly $1900 raised for the Centennial Booklet.
* Membership Committee Report: Ruth reported that a letter has been drawn up
and sent to college professors who received the letter and a free copy of the
August NECJ with a renewal form for the membership. She has received a bunch
of new memberships. She added a suggestion from CAMWS that members outside of
New England not be allowed to vote or to serve on committees.
* CANE Scholarship Committee Report: Ed DeHoratius: Focus on Scholarships
this year, as this is a Poggioli year. Certification Scholarship is also
taken over by this committee. Ed has created a pdf file of each application
to make it easier for him to send applications out electronically. He has
solicited photos of recipients at their study sites for publication in
CANEns.. Massachusetts, in particular, is moving away from pedagogical
courses to content courses for meeting certification requirements. Concern
was expressed that candidates be enrolled in bona fide programs that will lead
to licensure (M.A.T., M.Ed., M.A., etc.). A statement of intent should be
included in the application, if a candidate is not officially enrolled in a
graduate degree program. Suggestion: include an outline of study with the
application. Question: Is the funding adequate? Ed seems to think that
increases will cover most expenses, but he will check on current prices for
the programs.
* Marion Lewis reported that NH Classical Association held its fall meeting
yesterday. She has the new slate of NH officers : President, Flora Sapsin,
President-elect- Scott Smith, Secretary- Richard Clairmont, Treasurer- Carol
O’Leary, Representative to CANE- Marion Lewis. The John Rouman Lecture will
be 26 October at UNH.
John McVey asked for a motion to accept reports. MOVED/SEC/UNAN.
4. CSI Report and Discussion- Ellen Perry. Report was submitted by Heidi
Wilson. Ellen was happy to answer any questions regarding “The Golden Ages.”
There was no overwhelming recommendation to continue lengthened classes, so
going back would likely not pose a problem. Budget is in very good shape,
according to Ruth. Non-members in attendance automatically become members in
CANE. This coming summer, 2006: Topic: “Freedom and Its Discontents.” Dates:
10-15 July 2006. Request: Miranda Marvin to be appointed to the Steering
Committee. This will need to be made by the President in March, 2006 when the
President makes appointments. John McVey asked for a motion to accept the
theme and the dates for the 2006 CSI. Discussion concerned some of the
possible sessions that were in mind. There appear to be a number of
interesting courses in breadth and topic under this theme. MOVED/SEC/UNAN.
5. Centennial Committee:
* If our magazine can go to 72 pages, we will have a magazine that will look
like NECJ in its format. The history of the organization will be supported by
photos of some of the original founders. With $1900, we will probably need
about $4000 in order to mail to the membership. Ed: Would it be worthwhile
to mine the newspapers for CANE members’ news? Should the publication be made
available to the attendees at the Centennial Meeting? If some 200 members
attend the Centennial Meeting, and we print 400 copies, those interested in
receiving a copy outside of attendance, would have to take separate action.
John McVey would like to see all of the members receive a copy. Ed suggested
that institutional copies be sent out, rather than individual copies. Ruth:
Library copies would exclude high school and middle school people. We could
put it on the website as a pdf file, and if anyone wanted a bound copy, they
could buy it from us. Otherwise, they could download it. Allen: What about
pursuing a state Humanities Council for some support? He will call the CT
Humanities Council. Ed offered to check out the MA Humanities Council, as
they may have funds for preserving documents. Jacqui: she thinks it is proper
for the members to receive a copy. So, could it be mailed along with the
February issue of NECJ in the same envelope? John said that he had asked 1
December 2005 deadline, so it can be mailed inexpensively with the February
NECJ mailing.
* John McVey has received some information from Donna Lyons regarding a tote
bag (@ $3.00/ea.) for attendance with a new logo. Suggested donation of $5.00
to the Alison Barker Fund.
* Speakers Fund at UMass will pick up the fee for the key note speaker,
Michael Parenti. His recent book on the assassination of Julius Caesar. He
is funny, engaging, and a good speaker. His address on Thursday night will be
open to the general public.
* This will be followed by a reception. Saturday afternoon will also include
a luncheon. Jacqui has approached some of our “faithful vendors” to help
support or to sponsor some receptions or luncheons. Already, she has had
favourable responses from two publishers (Prentice-Hall, Focus). Soliciting
others is encouraged (Cambridge, Yale, Oxford, others). Annual Meeting, then,
will begin a little earlier than in the past. There are still some details
still to work out. The site has all meetings on one level, with the hotel
above. Mark Pearsall said that ClassConn may wish to contribute to a session.
* The Executive Committee Meeting is scheduled for 4:00 PM on Thursday. It
may require us to continue the meeting at a later time, if we become pressed
for time. The meeting room for us will be available from 4:00-11:00 PM, so
that we can finish the meeting after the end of the key note and reception.
We will have a working lunch meeting on Saturday afternoon. Gil Lawall
suggested that the States each be invited to support a reception. Cynthia
Damon suggested that Parenti’s publisher. Be invited to sponsor a reception.
Rosemary added that a book signing of the new Julius Caesar book could be
attractive to the publisher and good for CANE. Sean Smith, a colleague of
John McVey’s from UMass, does a middle school musical play each year, and this
year plans one of Perseus as an interlude somewhere in the program.
6. New Business:
* NECJ Editor Proposal: John Lawless proposed $1000.00 Honorarium for the next
editor of NECJ (May 2006). Discussion: John has done a great job as the NECJ
Editor, raising the bar considerably for this journal. Alan Ward: If we are
going to offer a stipend to the Editor, we should do something for the Book
Review Editor, as well. He has heard that NECJ is the premier classical
journal in the country. It seems unfair to exclude the fine contributions of
the Book Review Editor. Ed: Is the bigger issue one of Honoraria, in general?
Do we have the difficulty of drawing the line? John: We have already decided
not to stipend or offer honorarium to the Executive Secretary. Gil Lawall:
Can we afford stipends/honoraria for both positions? Ruth: We can always take
money from the Endowment. The money is there. For me, it’s the philosophical
idea of choosing offices for honoraria. Ed: Would stipended positions
increase the number of interested parties to assist? Jacqui: Remember, we
are the biggest bargain in town in the world of professional journals and
organizations. If we start paying stipends, it will be difficult to keep the
cost to members low, and the first to flee could be the high school members.
We are a joint venture for high school and university people. I think there
is an issue that goes beyond the monetary value of people’s work. It has long
been an organization that has relied upon volunteerism. The $1000.00 is a
small amount for the work an editor does. The experience of editing for this
organization is certainly more valuable. Cynthia Damon: If you get someone to
do the nitty gritty work for hire, that would be a practical contribution.
Ruth: Apropos of the third thing, the mailings are done through me, so having
someone help me to do the mailings, I hire high school kids. I do the
mailings, keep copies at home, and instead of hiring a business manager, we
just need money for the jobs. I don’t think it needs to be a special person.
Jacqui: Just a comment on the Business Manager, it’s a nightmare for the AIA,
because it is not in-house; one loses control of accuracy. John has done such
a wonderful job, it is a changed instrument, and it is unlikely to be
difficult to find a replacement editor, but it should be possible to hire
clerical help. Allen: How much money do we withdraw from the Endowment?
Ruth: $7k - $8k. Allen: So there is still room for withdrawal from the
interest. I think the recommendation is that we shouldn’t take more than 80%
of our interest income. We are not anywhere near that break. We can afford
to spend $1k for clerical work. John McVey: Is it the will of the committee
to make the funds available for clerical help? It is a lot of work, but one
does it for a greater cause. Allen: Some institutions can give released time
to a faculty member for this kind of work. Jacqui: I want to bring some
closure to this conversation about honoraria. We want to preserve the ethos
of this organization. Cynthia Damon: Perhaps if we can provide computer
equipment or upgrade programs? Ruth: We have done that. Alan: should we
start advertising for this position sooner rather than later?
* Jacqui made a Motion: We agree to empower John Lawless to advertise for the
next editor of NECJ with the stipulation that funds will be available for
clerical support or computer software/hardware. SECONDED. Discussion: We
should provide similar assistance to Nina Coppolino. UNANIMOUS.
* Website Discussion: We want to update the website and Ray is ready to pass
the webmaster role over to Allan Wooley. He (Allan Wooley) is willing to take
this over, and has the skills and eagerness to do this work. The issue is
where it is to be housed. Suggestion that the site be a professional site,
and not placed at Wellesley or at Exeter. A commercial site makes a lot of
sense, since Allan can change it at will, and it can last longer than a person
who might add it to a school’s own site, and then may leave the institution.
Hosting the website should be easier at a commercial site. Allan submitted a
report of costs, and the Executive Committee received a proposal for setting
up a website from a site designer, Jeffrey Carlon. Jacqui MOVED that we
appoint Allan Wooley as the new webmaster, and with deep gratitude to Ray
Starr as its first and devoted webmaster. SECONDED by Ray Starr.
DISCUSSION: UNANIMOUS.
* MOVED: To authorize Allan Wooley, as webmaster, to find appropriate and
economical commercial space for the CANE website. SECONDED/UNANIMOUS
* Proposal by the web designer. The appearance of the website will be
enhanced by a series of photo images that cycle through. The goal is that
whole page comes up on the screen with no scrolling, and drop-down menus. The
work would be done in consultation with Allan Wooley. The goal is for a site
easy to update and to maintain. The old information would be integrated.
There are eight steps to the process. The cost would be based on a
$50.00/hour fee, with an estimate of 15-20 hours spent to complete the task.
John McVey believes we should do this; it’s a one-time cost, and Allan will
oversee it. It is also less expensive than some designer costs. MOTION: To
accept the proposal given for the design of the new website. SECONDED.
DISCUSSION: Emil said that the experience he had with Jeff Carlon was spent
watching an efficient transition to a full website. Ed DeHoratius wants to be
kept in the loop for keeping applications for scholarships up and on time.
UNANIMOUS.
Lunch Break. Emil Penarubia entertained us with a video he had assembled of the 2005 Annual Meeting.
* Auditors: This year, the auditors did not respond to Ruth’s having sent the
statements. Both auditors were contacted, accepted. Neither Donna nor Ruth
heard from them regarding the disposition of the accounts. John McVey will
ask for a report.
* ACL in Spring: Do we want to take a table at the conference? Ruth will be
giving a workshop in Philadelphia in June, and suggested that she and Donna
could bring the Emporium there. Ruth was directed by the Executive Committee
to investigate.
* Back issues of the NECJ on line? There is an organization that manages
this, and there is payment to the organization every time that a person goes
on line to do research in NECJ back issues. Ruth will pursue and report back
to us.
* John Higgins: Phinney Committee Report. The Fellow has been chosen for
2006-07: Mark Pearsall. As Chair, John has interest in discussions around the
success of the program, with an eye to the future. A group met at the end of
August. Four current or past Fellows reported on the successes of their
programs in their various schools. Greek Day was held in CT with success (100
student participants) last year. Concerns expressed included a worry that
there were more CT Fellows, and more men than women. Requirements for the
Phinney include: Having taught in Latin for five or more years as well as
having had Greek in college. The school’s administration must also agree that
a Fellow may develop a Greek program for the school. So, there are only a few
candidates possible. Finally, there is a certification issue. The Phinney
Fellowship is working the way it was intended to work. There is some effort
to develop materials for high school use. Proposal: With only 12 years left
in the fund, the group proposes the establishment of a successor fund. If
there were a separate fund to succeed Phinney, it would start in 2018, and in
perpetuity. It would be established to promote Greek in schools. The new fund
could have fewer restrictions, or be more reasonable in terms of requirements,
expenses, etc. “There are a lot of possibilities. Everything is in the
subjunctive, of course.” In anticipation of the question of how to establish
a new fund. John would be happy to solicit funds from foundations. What he
would like to see is the seed money in the bank, aggressively invested, with
no draw on the funds before 2018. This would require approximately $234k now.
Ruth suggested that it might be prudent to contact Mrs. Phinney to see if she
would be flexible regarding the final disposition of the fund. This would
require a change in the agreement. Gil Lawall reported that while it would be
worth talking with her, she had resisted suggestions in the past to change the
nature of the agreement. However, she may not yet fully appreciate the
aggressive ways in which CANE has pursued funding the Fellows these past eight
years. Ed DeHoratius expressed concern that if CANE were to take it over at
some time, that the perception of the organization’s support of Greek programs
over those in Latin, could be daunting. John McVey said he would be happy to
visit Mrs. Phinney in March when CANE is out at UMass. Regardless of
conversations that may take place, the Executive Committee would like to
encourage further consideration of the assumption of a fund to honor Professor
Phinney, and for John Higgins to pursue some sources of funding. John Higgins
asked if CANE would seed a fund, and there was general reluctance to take that
step. John Higgins received the thanks of John McVey on behalf of the
Executive Committee.
7. Old Business:
* The Manual is nominally finished, but we will need descriptions of the other
scholarships and their origins. The Coulter (1947), is described. Phil
Ambrose is doing more research. We need to have a discussion of the Student
Prize for Undergraduate Research before the final printing. Officially, we
hope to accept the final version in February. The Manual can then be placed
on our website.
* ACTFL subventions? Mark will report in February.
* Subventions for graduate students to give papers at the Annual Meeting?
Suggested: Let departments with graduate students know that CANE can assist
if departmental support has been exhausted. Jacqui will send an email.
* Student Prize: Back in May, Jacqui received a letter from _______________
who offered to endow the student prize for “The __________ Prize for
Undergraduate Research.” (The blanks are inserted to respect the donor who
wishes that the honor and the donor’s name be kept secret for the time being.)
Discussion covered the challenges in the past of aggressively pursuing student
papers. MOVED: To accept the offer from __________ to establish The ______
Prize for Undergraduate Research.” SECONDED. Discussion concerned the
reading of papers at the Annual Meeting as opposed to publication in NECJ. A
paper for publication may not be appropriate for reading. Sophomore or
Junior papers could be the best source for the presentation and the prize.
Jacqui will need to get in touch with ______ to discuss the parameters of the
Prize. TABLED UNTIL FEBRUARY.
* P-R: In the absence of Beth, John McVey still would like to have a group to
spearhead Public Relations efforts. The new website can be more of a
marketing tool. Ed did more marketing at colleges and universities. It does
work. That should be part of the Membership Committee. Ruth: We were going
to send out a poster in a tube for placing up on a wall. Ed suggested that
the Newsletter is a form of P-R, and this could be subsumed under the
Newsletter Editor. Emil suggested that among the three issues of the
Newsletter, there could be submissions that include a one-page flyer. Direct
contact is probably just as important. Email can be better used. The new MAC
OS, allows a person to make anything a pdf file. Mark: Members-at-Large
could be more active within their own states. We need someone to work on P-R.
Emil would be interested in working on this. Emil agreed to be the point
person along with Beth and Members-at-Large. Cynthia Damon also volunteered
to help as a college-level person who has personal contact with other
professors. We will revisit their work in February.
* Naming of the Archives: MOVED: That we name the Archives the “Z. Philip
Ambrose Archive Collection of CANE.” SECONDED. UNANIMOUS. We will make a
presentation at the Centennial Meeting.
* Archives up-date. Ed suggested that we take steps for proper storage, for
digitizing, etc. Jacqui will get in touch with Phil Ambrose to ensure safe
and proper storage of physical properties. We will rejoin this conversation
in February.
* Announcements: Emil has a specific email address for the Newsletter:
canens@gmail.com He would like submissions no later than 13 October.
* The next meeting will be 4 February 2006 with a snow date of 11 February
2006.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 PM
CANE Executive Committee Meeting
4 February 2006
The Rivers School
In attendance: John McVey, Jacqui Carlon, Katy Ganino, Cynthia Damon, Paul
Properzio (representing Marion Lewis), Allen Ward, Mark Pearsall, Lydia Haile,
Ruth Breindel, Donna Lyons, Ed DeHoratius, Ellen Perry, Sally Morris, C. Emil
Peñarubia, Rosemary A. Zurawel
President John McVey called the meeting to order at 9:38 AM and welcomed all
in attendance.
Agenda:
1. Announcements by the President: Paul Properzio attended in the place of
Marion Lewis who has had open heart surgery. John McVey asked all in
attendance to sign the card to send to Marion.
2. Announcements by the Executive Secretary: Please update preferred email
and cell phone numbers.
3. Acceptance of 31 March 2005 Minutes (3 changes requested and noted made
to p. 3). MOV./SEC/UNAN Acceptance of 1 April 2005 Minutes – MOV/SEC/UNAN
4. Acceptance 24 September 2005 Minutes: (changes to p. 4, #5.) MOV/SEC/UNAN
5. Treasurer’s Report: Barker and Means funds are robust at this time, and
while we are not at the point to draw upon the accounts, should we invest the
funds to make better use of the money? Allan Ward suggested investing it.
Donna Lyons will contact the investment counselor regarding the funds, so that
we could consider their distribution in a year. Annual Meeting donation of
$5,000.00 to help defray the costs of the Centennial Meeting has helped us
tremendously, as UMass is costing us quite a lot for the meeting. Ruth tells
us that some libraries are asking for back copies of NECJ. John Lawless will
provide Ruth with copies from the computer. CSI bill from Dartmouth came in
from 2005, and it came to about $4,000.00. Classics Department at UMass has
been generous with assistance (about $5,000.00). The facilities at UMass cost
us approximately $6.00 per attendee. We hope to break even. The CSI turn-
around has been amazing; kudos to Heidi Wilson and to Ellen Perry.
MOV/SEC/UNAN
New Business:
Lydia Haile- introduced as the new Rhode Island representative in place of Joe
Delaney.
6. Proposed Budget for 2006-07 Donna Lyons went through the budget line by
line. Projected revenues are an estimate, and traditionally these are
actually higher. At the current level of dues, we expect approximately
$800.00 in income. Donna expects income to the level of $4-5k to the
Emporium. Cash on Hand estimate stays the same as last year ($3k). The Used
Book Sale at the Annual Meeting is continuing to grow, thanks to John Lawless
and his efforts. Under expenses, the Barlow-Beach costs run about $90 to
$100, depending upon the engraving costs. The Committee members recommended
that Donna Lyons recognize that the CIC Scholarship should more accurately be
renamed the Certification Scholarship ($1500.00). The Centennial Celebration
is listed at $2,000.00, but Ruth has requested an increase just in case there
is a deficit; she wants it covered. John believes that the conference will
end us in the “black.” Ruth reminded us that the accountant’s work on behalf
of CANE is money well spent, especially where our taxes are concerned.
Rosemary clarified the purpose of Educational Funds for the Executive
Committee members, and urged them to seek funding for programs in their areas.
Emporium expenses of $1,000.00 should be adequate for next year. Thanks to
Rivers School and to John for keeping our Executive Committee meeting costs
low. The Annual Bulletin mailing costs were adjusted to account for increases
in postage. The Finnegan-Plante Annual Meeting Scholarships are set to allow
$150.00 for three persons to attend the Annual Meeting. Discussion ensued
regarding the health of funding for the activities of the organization. The
auditors’ official letter was given to Rosemary to file with the Minutes of
this meeting. MOV/SEC/UNAN
Sincere thanks to Donna Lyons for her work as Curator of Funds. The
investments counselor at Morgan-Stanley recommends that we invest the Phinney
Funds in a more aggressive way, but Donna reminded us that we should stay the
course, spending it down within the 20-year time period. We have been
spending this fund (5 recipients to date, beginning in 1998). The investment
guidance overall has been useful in growing our endowment. The student prize
this year has received more money this year.
Emporium Report from Donna Lyons. Brisk sales at ACL last year, the website link is up and running emporiumromanum@yahoo.com). Aprons have been reprinted. Mug inventory now includes the reprinted charioteer. The blue mugs along with the bag, are gifts for attendees at the Centennial Meeting. CANE continues as a CEU provider.
7. John demonstrated the new website, and discussion ensued regarding the
categories on the left of the screen. Suggestions were made to distinguish
Awards from Scholarships on the website. Membership list contains the email
directory, and comments will be forwarded to Allan Wooley, webmaster.
Executive Committee members remarked upon the report sent from Allan Wooley.
The project is moving forward, and the menu system has changed since the
report was printed, hence leaving some expressed concerns already addressed.
Do we want membership email to be available? What can we do to stop
“scrapers?” Ruth: For the membership, I think we should use the word, ‘at’ in
lieu of the symbol, but for the Executive Committee, we could have a link.
Ed: We could have a CANE email address that is a link to our real address,
but would only show as a CANE address. John: Allan is working on this.
Ruth: I worry about angering the membership by opening them to SPAM. The
issue of real time updating, open to the President and others, presents
security issues, and this site may not allow it. Limited access to some
people could be given, or a blog could allow for posting messages form the
President, etc. However, if everything trails through Allan Wooley, emails to
him could permit current and secure posting. Recommendation of the Exec. Com.
members is that the webmaster be responsible for posting. A back-up plan that
permits one other person to technically take over, should Allan Wooley be
unavailable to update information, is recommended by the Executive Committee.
MOVED by John McVey that Jeff Carlon be granted security access as a back-up.
SEC/UNAN Recommendation that the Emporium Romanum password be copied to Allan
Wooley and to Jeff Carlon.
8. Reports from State Representatives, Members-at-Large, Scholarships, etc.
Massachusetts: Emil provided us with the report of CAM.
Connecticut: ClassConn donated generously to the Annual Meeting, as cosponsors
of a breakfast, and to the centennial booklet.
Rhode Island: no report
New Hampshire: no report
Vermont: no report
Maine: also support for the Centennial.
Members-at-Large:
Mark Pearsall provided a report on the Wiencke Award, and on ACTFL.
Regarding ACTFL, The current status of languages places Spanish first, French
second, and Latin moving up in popularity. The focus of the Bush
administration is on foreign language study in languages for national security
purposes. Mark Pearsall provided us with three articles for our perusal.
Regarding the Wiencke Award, a recipient has been declared the winner, and
will attend the Annual Meeting. Thanks to Shirley Lowe for her assistance.
It was MOV/SEC/UNAN to accept all the above reports.
Scholarship Committee: Applications were up this year. Thanks to Ellen Perry
for her assistance to the Committee Chair, Ed DeHoratius. He has sent a flyer
to the email addresses, and will gladly take additions to the flyer. Ed
discussed with the Executive Committee some of the challenges in readings and
awarding scholarships, and some of the limitations placed therein. The
Coulter is designated only for the American Academy in Rome. The Endowment
Scholarship is not fixed, but should be judged on the proposals of the
applicants. One cannot apply for both the Coulter and the Endowment in the
same year. The Poggioli also has restrictions (one must have been teaching
for ten years or less). Discussion by members of the Exec. Com. Reinforced
the structure of the scholarships as stated in the Manual and in the By-Laws.
MOV/SEC/UNAN
Educational Programs: $200.00 were granted to Classical
Association of Maine for their meeting in the Fall.
CIC: A replacement teacher at Rocky Hill High School, CT was found, thereby
saving the Latin program there when a teacher had to leave. To accept the
above reports: MOV/SEC/UNAN
9. Report on CSI July 10-15, 2006: “Freedom and Its Discontents” is the
theme. Brochures are out, and the mailing should arrive on Monday. It is
possible to download them on-line. The program, prices structure, etc. are
available at CANEweb. News: Bill Mierse will do two sessions at the Hood
Museum. Ellen Perry presented brief descriptions of the programs, lectures,
and presenters. Funding has come from NH Humanities Council, Vermont,
Massachusetts. Price this year reflects at $35.00 increase. The break-even
number of participants is 85. MOV/SEC/UNAN
10. Report on the Centennial Meeting- Registration has been mailed (First
class Mail), and Ken Kitchell has returned from sabbatical and to oversee the
details of the meeting. The program is full. On the Friday afternoon, the
seven original papers, redone for this centennial, will be presented. Breaks
for meals (Campus Center) and all of the presentations are unified in
location. Ed asked if abstracts could be available and included in the
folders. The Centennial History is at the publisher, and a final proof should
be complete by next week. Support of the publication has come from the
membership in a generous form. The motto submission has provided us with 20
options, and John McVey suggested that the way to provide the membership with
two or three options might include a “none of the above; keep looking” for
members who find none that they like. Cynthia Damon recommends that the Exec.
Com. Consider the mottos and recommend one to the membership. The Exec.Com
selected “CVRA SIT ET LINGVAS EDIDICISSE DVAS” “Take care also to master the
two languages.” The pair will be presented at the Business Meeting.
11. Other Business: As we create publications or other things, having
secretarial support is essential to our efforts. John thinks we should
allocate funds for the preparation of mailings. The organization should not
act as if we are penniless, and we should be able to bill CANE for assistance.
Ruth and Donna will be going to ACL, as will Jacqui Carlon. They will set
aside materials for an Emporium table. Jacqui offered to help drive materials
down.
Old Business:
12. CANE Materials: Materials in hard copy or materials on line is the
question. Who will be the next person to take on this awesome responsibility
that Gil has done so well for so long on CANE’s behalf? Ruth suggested that
we ask to have one copy of each publication to scan into a computer and
digitalize the inventory. Lydia suggested her interest in scanning and
proofing the files as scanned. John will talk with Gil about starting this
project.
13. Final Version of the Manual: The new Manual is now in the form of a CD-
Rom, which Jacqui will distribute to the President, Executive Secretary, and
webmaster. Jacqui reminded