Spring 2016 Letter from the Chairclassics New Works in the Field Is Precious

Princeton NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS Spring 2016 Letter from the ChairClassics new works in the field is precious. But one department at Berkeley, who was being book I had known for years would go to honored for her book on federations of the top of the pile was our colleague Denis city-states in Hellenistic Greece. And Feeney’s Beyond Greek: The Beginnings before the applause had died down, Jason of Latin Literature, which appeared from Pedicone, with his business partner Eric Harvard University Press last fall. Even Hewett received a President’s Award for with Alice Vavasor’s engagement to John his work with The Paideia Institute. This Grey hanging uncertainly in the balance, remarkably successful organization for I put aside my autumnal indulgence in promoting the classics through summer Trollope for this fascinating exploration of courses, travel, conferences and electronic the development of Roman literary culture media, just to name a few of its activities, through the lens of translation. For anyone has often been mentioned in this newslet- who studied Roman literature, it brilliantly ter for, in addition to Jason, it counts many Andrew Feldherr, Chair answers a question so basic that few of us Princetonians among its leaders, teachers, had even thought to ask it: Why did the and students. My colleagues and I continu- his has been an exciting year of Romans have a literature at all? ally have occasion to feel grateful for its transition and success for the depart- Hardly had Denis set the Romans on work in inspiring high school and college Tment. Colleagues at all levels have the path to centrality in Western literature, students to study classics. produced scholarship of great importance when I received the news that another new Continued on page 3 to the future shape of the discipline, and book, Genealogy of the Tragic: Greek Trag- in which we can all take pride. Current edy and German Philosophy, by our newest graduate students have completed path- colleague, Joshua Billings, had won a pres- breaking dissertations and are gaining tigious Goodwin Award from the Society Princeton Classics enviable footholds from which to establish for Classical Studies. (Josh is currently a their careers. Graduate alumni have been fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study; is online! recognized for outstanding contributions to all of us are looking forward to his symbol- classics as scholars and educators. Under- ic trek across the golf course to join us fully graduates will soon have the opportunity next year.) To quote the official citation, to discover new dimensions of the field, “Billings’ book is a model of what recep- @PrincetonCLA thanks to the addition of new faculty work- tion studies can and should be—a path to ing on Greek tragedy and its legacy, and help us to understand better how we have Princeton Classics Roman republican history and religion. arrived at our way of dealing with a given Even as I write we are completing a search Greek or Roman cultural phenomenon.” for a new colleague in Medieval Latin. Josh was joined on the podium by an A little secret about academics, at least alumna of our doctoral program, Em- Follow Us. this one, is that our time for reading even ily Mackil, now professor in the history Inside this issue… Undergrad Summer Travel ......................6 Graduate News .......................................9 Alumni Spotlight: Jason Pedicone .........7 Dissertations ...........................................9 News from the Faculty ............................2 In Memoriam ...........................................7 Q&A: Dan-el Padilla Peralta .................10 Senior Theses 2015 .................................5 Postclassicisms in Brazil .........................8 Lectures .................................................11 2. Princeton Classics News from the Faculty Yelena Baraz Joshua Billings Emmanuel Bourbouhakis Ted Champlin Marc Domingo Gygax Denis Feeney Yelena Baraz speak (I argue) to broader questions of Tiberius retired to the island paradise Despite the mockery of my colleagues, the Greek Enlightenment. Here and there, of Capri, where he may or may not have I continue to be fascinated by late Latin I also continue to work on the eighteenth devoted himself to a life of scholarship pastoral poetry and Calpurnius Siculus century and German Idealism, where my and wild indulgence. He never returned in particular. An article on Calpurnius’ project begins from scenes of suffering on to Rome. One thousand nine hundred and innovative treatment of natural sound as a beaches to look at the philhellenic imagi- ninety years later, I will retreat this autumn disruption to human creativity came out in nary more broadly. for a year of quiet contemplation in an- the spring 2015 issue of the American Jour- other earthly paradise, as a Member in the nal of Philology and the longer tradition Emmanuel C. Bourbouhakis School of Historical Studies at the Institute of post-Vergilian Latin pastoral was well Among the highlights of this past year was for Advanced Study. But then I will return represented at the panel that I organized a conference I organized, “The Sound of to the modest glory of an emeritus carrel in together with Petra Schierl of Basel at the Sense: Orality/Aurality in Byzantine Texts Firestone Library. January 2016 SCS meeting. In between I and Contexts,” attended by scholars from also delivered a paper on bucolic contests at the U.S., U.K., Cyprus, Germany, Austria, Marc Domingo Gygax a conference at St. Anne’s college, Oxford and Ireland. The ground-breaking papers In April 2015, I organized a conference on and a synthesis of my current thinking will be published next year in a larger “Benefactors and the Polis”, which exam- on Capurnius’ pastoral poetics at a lively volume I am editing on orality and literacy ined for the first time, the evolution of pub- interdisciplinary symposium on pastoral at in Byzantium, for Utrecht Studies in Medi- lic giving in the Greek polis from Homeric the CUNY Graduate center. From a differ- eval Literacy. Besides articles on vari- Greece to the Roman empire of the third ent stand of my current research, a chapter ous aspects of medieval Greek literature, and early fourth centuries AD. The speak- on Seneca the Younger’s treatise On the including a tribute to my former teacher, ers, who specialized in different periods of Constancy of the Wise Man appeared in Ihor Ševčenko, or aspects of Homeric Greek history, were Hans van Wees (UC an exciting collected volume on Roman poetics in Byzantine literary criticism, I London), Beate Wagner-Hasel (Univer- philosophy, Roman Reflections. The chap- have been at work on a monograph about sity of Hannover), Marc Domingo Gygax ter both builds on my work on Ciceronian mediaeval Greek letter-writing. This fall I (Princeton University), Robin Osborne philosophy and connects Seneca’s ideas was joined by David Jenkins, our Clas- (Cambridge University), Sitta von Reden about greatness of soul to the current book sics librarian and a keen Byzantinist, as (University of Freiburg), Christof Schuler project on Roman pride. Another offshoot co-editor of a forthcoming edition for the (DAI-Munich), Rolf Strootman (Utrecht of the book, a chapter on accusation of prestigious Teubner series of the Rhetorica University), Carlos Noreña (University kingship in late republican oratory should et grammatica of the 11th c. Byzantine of California-Berkeley), Arjan Zuider- appear in the near future. polymath Michael Psellus. The edition hoek (Ghent University), Onno van Nijf will profile the pedagogical practices of a (University of Groningen), Daniel Caner Joshua Billings watershed Byzantine intellectual. Finally, I (University of Connecticut ), and Chris- I am in the early stages of a project that am preparing a paper on the epistemologi- tophe Goddard (CNRS-Paris). During the looks at drama and intellectual culture in cal ramifications of narrative in Byzantine last few months I have been working on the late fifth century BC. As I understand historiography, for the International Con- the publication of papers delivered at the it now, it has two major components: first gress of Byzantine Studies to be held in conference in what should be an important is thinking through the modern concept of Belgrade next summer. However, all of the volume and on my own individual con- “Enlightenment” as it might apply to the above has been eclipsed by the birth of our tributions to it: an introduction, conclu- period. I am using some of the tools and daughter Penelope this past June, a cuter sions and a chapter on civic euergetism questions of eighteenth-century intellec- taskmaster there’s never been! in classical Athens. In the field of modern tual history in the hopes of articulating a historiography I published articles titled new understanding of the circulation of Ted Champlin “El projecte historiogràfic de Josep Antoni ideas and the stakes of conceptual devel- In the summer of 1976, newly promoted Llobet i Vall-llosera” and “Josep Antoni opments in classical Athens. Second is a from Instructor to Assistant Professor Llobet i Vall-llosera: contribucions a la more focused investigation of the way that of Classics, I moved into the office now història, epigrafia i arqueologia” (both co- certain mythological figures become nodes known as 151 East Pyne. In the summer authored with Albert Cubeles) in, respec- in drama for thinking about issues being of 2016 I will move out, and into retire- tively, the Butlletí de la Reial Acadèmia de discussed more explicitly in intellectual ment. I hope to complete several papers Bones Lletres de Barcelona and the Revista discourse. Some of the major figures so now in the pipeline but above all to finish de Catalunya. far are Helen, Prometheus, Odysseus, and my long-delayed book, Tiberius on Capri. Dionysus, all of whose depictions in drama In the year 26, at what is now my age, Princeton Classics 3.

Load more