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NOTA BENE Vol. 26 No. 1 News from the Harvard Department of the Classics Academic Year 2020–21 Notes from the Chair by Kathleen Coleman ooking back over my “editorial” in Nota Bene this on Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism has worked time last year, I seem not to have anticipated that very hard to make us aware of ways in which we can Lnothing much would have changed in our COVID-in- make our discipline and our department welcoming duced working mode in the interim, other than that and inclusive for everyone, regardless of identity, early last summer the Library was able to establish background, and prior familiarity with the study of a system for delivering certain books for pick-up at Greece and Rome; new opportunities for students Lamont Library, which has not replaced our need for from historically underrepresented backgrounds physical access to the stacks and Circulation, but has have been created via summer scholarships and other certainly helped. Apart from that, we have continued initiatives that are described further on in this issue. to teach and learn exclusively on Zoom, and each of In this way we are trying to ensure that Harvard’s us has our own favorite list of what we miss most response to current debates about the place of Classics from the “before times.” But any list of what we have in the United States in the twenty-first century is lost brings home that so much of what we used to timely, sensitive, and constructive. consider indispensable was inessential: thanks to the Finally, pride and congratulations are in order: to electronic age, our educational and research mission our colleagues, graduates, and current students, whose has continued, despite our physical separation from many achievements are described in this issue, and one another. to all our graduating students, both graduate and In July, our new Assistant Professor representing undergraduate, whose future paths will, we hope, keep Roman archaeology, Meg Andrews, arrived from leading them back to Boylston Hall. Gratitude and Chicago, and in January, the new incumbent of good wishes, too, require heartfelt expression: thank the Pope Professorship of the Latin Language and you to the entire community for all the hard work that Literature, Irene Peirano Garrison (PhD 2007), has kept the Department of the Classics functioning joined us from Yale. Their combined presence over the past year, and best of luck to the incoming has already made an immense difference to our Chair, David Elmer, as he steers the department over communal endeavors. Our newly formed Committee the next triennium. CONTENTS Class of 2021 ....................................................2 Faculty Books ................................................15 Senior Theses, Prizes, Plans, & Reflections ......3 Student Articles ............................................16 Senior Thesis Reflections .................................7 Sargent Prize: Winning Entries ....................22 New Graduate Students ................................10 Latin Oration ................................................24 Student, Department, & Faculty News .........11 Valete from PhD Recipients ..........................26 SENIOR HONORS THESES Joseph Barisas Frances Choi Classical Languages and Literatures History and Science and Classical Languages and Literatures “Trinitarian Sensation: A Commentary and “Pierre Gassendi: Translation of St. Augustine’s De Trinitate 11.1-6” From Epicureanism to Christian Ethics” Advisor: Adam Trettel Advisor: Mark Schiefsky Asst. Advisor: Suzanne Paszkowski (G6) Asst. Advisor: Iman Darwish (G4) Lincoln Herrington Emily Johns Classical Civilizations and Government Neuroscience and Classical Civilizations Joseph Anthony R. Barisas Frances Choi “Empires of Fear: Terrorism, Rhetoric, “An Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Psychosis: and the Forever Wars in Rome and America” From Antiquity to Modern Research” Advisors: Emma Dench, Harry Oppenheimer (G5, Gov.) Advisors: Mark Schiefsky, Martha Shenton (Neuroscience), Asst. Advisor: William Tilleczek (G5, Gov.) Amanda Lyall (Neuroscience) Asst. Advisor: Miriam Kamil (G6) Mikayla Morosky Classical Civilizations Bliss Perry “Stories of the Antonine Plague and the Significance of Computer Science and Classical Languages and Literatures Pandemic Disease in the Roman Empire” “Examining the Authenticity of Plato’s Epistle VII Advisor: Mark Schiefsky through Deep Learning” Asst. Advisor: Xiaoxiao Chen (G4) Advisors: Mark Schiefsky, Stuart Shieber (Comp. Sci.) Asst. Advisor: Nadav Asraf (G6) Lincoln Herrington Emily Johns Serena Shah Classical Civilizations and African American Studies Justin Tseng “To Revive a World and Rebuild a Word: Classical Slave Ancient History Names and Their Afterlives in the Antebellum U.S. South” “Boundaries, Pirates, Connectivity, and Brexit: Advisors: Paul Kosmin, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (AAAS) Britain’s Role in the Maritime Networks of the Roman Empire” Asst. Advisor: Justin Miller (G5) Advisor: Emma Dench Asst. Advisor: Supratik Baralay (G5) Katherine Vallot-Basker Classical Languages and Literatures Muhua Yang “Architectural Iconography on Roman Imperial Coins: Comparative Literature and Classical Languages and Literatures Monumentality, Miniaturization, “Selected Poems from Ovid’s Tristia, Mikayla Morosky Jordan “Bliss” Perry and the Role of the Viewer” Prefaced with a Poetics of Translation” Advisor: Harry Morgan Advisors: Richard Thomas, Thomas Wisniewski (Comp. Lit.) Asst. Advisor: Malcolm Nelson (G4) Asst. Advisor: Rebecca Deitsch (G4) THESIS PRIZES Ancient History Prize for a thesis on Ancient History Serena Shah Smyth Thesis Prize Bliss Perry Serena Shah Justin Tseng for a thesis on Greek Pease Thesis Prize for a thesis on Latin Joseph Barisas and Muhua Yang Classical Reception Thesis Prize for a thesis on Classical Reception Frances Choi Senior Concentrators • Class of 2021 Hoopes Prize Katherine Vallot-Basker Muhua Yang for an outstanding undergraduate thesis Serena Shah • 2 • • 3 • SENIOR PRIZES SENIOR REFLECTIONS Joseph Barisas Mikalya Morosky Arthur Deloraine Corey Fellowship Justin Tseng and Katherine Vallot-Basker for graduate study still remember, quite vividly, at the beginning of my knew from the moment, during Visitas for the sophomore year, when I received a (stern) email reminding class of 2021, that I attended the Classics open Louis Curtis Prize Joseph Barisas, Justin Tseng, Ime to fulfill my language requirement by the end of the year. I Ihouse in Boylston, that I could find a home in the for excellence in Latin and Katherine Vallot-Basker promptly marched up to Ivy Livingston’s office and demanded Classics Department at Harvard. Over four years that I be permitted to take Latin 1, despite the fact that I had later I am so incredibly grateful and happy to have “taken” Latin in high school (which had, admittedly, brought me had such a wonderful home in the department, both William King Richardson Scholarship Muhua Yang for distinction in both Greek and Latin to the 3rd declension and the imperfect tense). By the end of the in Boylston itself, and remotely. There are so many conversation, with great reluctance, I was enrolled in Latin Ax. moments, lessons, and encounters in the past four Three years later, I completed my undergraduate thesis in Latin, years in Classics that I will cherish as things that Department Prizes Frances Choi, Lincoln Herrington, Emily writing on St. Augustine of Hippo’s De Trinitate, having fallen have certainly made my overall time at Harvard so For academic achievement and Johns, Mikayla Morosky, Serena Shah, in love with a beautiful language with wonderful literature that much greater. contributions to the Classics community Justin Tseng, and Katherine Vallot-Basker I hope to cherish for the rest of my life. Not only was taking Classical Studies 112 my I am deeply grateful for my past few years here in the depart- sophomore year one of the best experiences of my SENIORS’ FUTURE PLANS ment and for those who taught and advised me, especially Dr. college career, for an amazing trip to Sicily, but it Trettel and Suzanne Paszkowski, who supported me so much was wonderful to experience ancient studies on site and in the flesh with such amazing and brilliant Joseph Barisas will be working and studying for the next year as a Junior Fellow at the Thomistic during the thesis process. I am glad to have found a home in our department, and I will never forget the wonderful memories and people, and for this reason I must highlight that Institute, which is located at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington D.C. The Thomistic friends I made here. Thank you all! spring semester. Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual There are so many individuals in the department formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square. Lincoln Herrington to thank for their endless support and inspiration, that there are truly too many to name. To Teresa Frances Choi will be teaching 9th grade World History at an all-girls’ high school in Philadelphia y first year as a Classics student in college did not and Alyson, I cannot begin to thank you for all that while obtaining a Master’s in Education. seem a particularly auspicious beginning for a future you do for every single member of the department Mconcentrator: both semesters, my lowest grade came in a and for being your amazing selves that I am always Lincoln Herrington will be returning home to New York City after graduation