2015 Newsletter

CLASSICS A PUBLICATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE VOLUME XXV WINTER 2016 Visitors to the Department 2014–2015 Classics Advisory Board Guides Events, Outreach CHRISTOPHER CRAIG ETS/AIA Lecturers Haines-Morris Lecturer Our Classics Advisory Board con- Coordinated by Coordinated by tinued to give essential support and ALEYDIS VAN DE MOORTEL THEODORA KOPESTONKY sage advice this last year. Their pres- Sinclair Bell, Northern Illinois Witches, monsters, and serial killers ence at the Fourth Annual Tennessee University, “Chariot Racing in may not be topics you would expect Undergraduate Research Conference Roman Society” to hear about in classics, but that is (see separate story) was a key to the Jean-Pierre Brun, Collège de exactly what Debbie Felton, associ- tremendous success of that event. The France, “Pompeii Beyond the ate professor of classics at the Uni- board has also helped us think about Clichés: Historic Development and versity of Massachusetts, Amherst, the different target audiences among Economic Activities.” Eighth Harry discussed during her visit in April. our majors and potential majors, and to identify students whom we should g INSIDE THIS ISSUE C. Rutledge Memorial Lecture in Felton intrigued the audience with Archaeology. Extra class seminar her lecture, “Serial Killers in the An- be welcoming to our events. As a result Classics Advisory Board........ III Clas/Anth 444, “Gold, Granite and cient World,” in which she presented of their strategizing, invitations for our Rapp Memorial Scholarship ..... III Luxury Trade: Excavations of Gold references to murderers in Greek and fall kickoff reception for our majors also Faculty Notes .................. IV went to seventy-five other students Mines, Imperial Quarries, Roman Roman mythology, such as Pro- Stephen Collins- who had taken at least two classics Eta Sigma Phi .................. VI Forts and Ports in the Eastern crustes, who were horrifying repeat Elliott has a genial Latin Day ...................... VI Desert of Egypt.” Haines-Morris offenders. She discussed what may debate with students courses in the last four semesters and Rutledge Memorial Lecture ..... VI Distinguished Lecturer, Depart- have been the impetus for such at the fall majors had excelled in their work. These kinds reception. ment of Classics. myths and whether we could con- of ideas are pure gold for us as we JP Dessel, UT Department of sider these characters as serial killers spread the word about the value of the History, “The Changing Face of as defined by modern profilers. Her ancient world in modern lives. Tell Tayinat, Turkey: The Assyrian lecture was well attended, and she Remaking of a Luwian Landmark” received many excellent questions Kenneth Harl, Tulane University, from the engaged audience. “Make Haste Slowly: Constantine, the Students from Theodora Coinage, and the Conversion” Kopestonsky’s Greek and Latin Jan Simek, UT Department of An- Literature in Translation class were thropology, “The Early Mississippian privileged to get an extra lecture Cave Art of Picture Cave, Missouri” where Felton talked about the way Vergil characterizes Dido as a Other Visitors witch in the Aeneid. Drawing upon Donald Haggis, University of Vergil’s language as Dido commits North Carolina-Chapel Hill, “Re- suicide, Felton noted that many of cent Excavations of an Early Greek her actions and words found paral- City in Eastern Crete.” Extra class lels in descriptions of witchcraft. seminar: Clas/Anth 443, “Recent The circumstances heralding Excavations at Azoria and Some Felton’s visit were as unusual as Problems Regarding Urbanization her topic. Kopestonsky met her in the Archaic Aegean.” Haines- after their plane to Waco, Texas, Morris Distinguished Lecturer, for the CAMWS conference was Rapp Memorial Scholarship Connects Past and Future Department of Classics. canceled. Riding from Dallas to Aleydis Van de Moortel, UT De- Waco in a rental car along with a partment of Classics, “The Middle nurse and a grandmother, the two Professor Albert Rapp and Professor Arthur Moser were difference in thousands of lives. With his wife, Beth, herself Bronze Age Boat from Mitrou: found common ground in their for decades the classics faculty at the University of Tennes- a nurse, Smeltzer in 1998 established the Rapp Memorial What We Have Learned from the love of classics, and the basis for see. Rapp retired in 1968, but his memory and energy are Scholarship. After her husband passed away in 2012, Beth Oldest Seagoing Boat in the Medi- this visit was established. You nev- still present; the scholarship that honors him goes to one Smeltzer settled in Maryville, near her daughter Amanda. terranean” er know who you will meet when of our most promising students. One of Rapp’s own stu- Chris Craig was able to connect with her this summer. It is Tom Des Jean and Martha Evans you are stranded at an airport! dents was Clark Smeltzer, a young man who never forgot a special pleasure to be back in touch with a founder of the A Publication of the Wiley, Nwational Park Service, The department was truly hon- how Rapp’s Latin course in the early 1960s made him push Rapp Memorial Scholarship, and to be reminded again of University of Tennessee “Archaeology at Cumberland Gap ored to be able to invite Felton as himself to succeed. He rose to the challenge, followed in his the enduring good that can result when a gifted UT student Department of Classics National Historical Park” a Haines-Morris Lecturer. father’s footsteps as a medical doctor, and made a positive rises to the challenge of a classical education. II THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS NEWSLETTER VOLUME XXVII WINTER 2016 Faculty Notes JUSTIN ARFT, the newest member of our KATHRYN DEBUSK is the MERLE LANGDON had the pleasure of over- DAVID TANDY, professor emeritus and visit- department, joins us after completing his PhD Classics Department’s seeing the completion of Jared Johnson’s MA ing professor at the University of Leeds, has at the University of Missouri, where he was man- ever-efficient administra- thesis on homosexual scenes on Attic vases, published “Traders in the Archaic and Clas- aging editor of Oral Tradition. Justin’s primary tive assistant. which has brought new insights to a much- sical Greek Koine,” in Traders in the Ancient research area is archaic Greek poetry with an discussed subject. He is now taking his own Mediterranean, ed. T. Howe (Chicago, 2015). eye toward comparative oral tradition. His cur- JOHN FRIEND spent an enjoyable year teach- dip into erotica by preparing a study of the On the Greek island of Paros in June, he gave rent work focuses on the oral poetics of Homer’s ing Greek and classical civilization. On the re- erotic inscriptions among his graffiti finds in Attica. He hopes to the opening plenary paper at the conference Odyssey, and he is working on a monograph focusing on Arete search front, he continued to make progress have it published in the electronic journal Grammateion. on Paros and its colonies, and was able to and her compositional role in the epic. Justin’s most recent pub- on his book manuscript, The Athenian Ephe- hear reports about the unpublished excavations at Pharos and lications include a chapter, “The Epic Cycle and Oral Tradition,” beia in the Fourth Century B.C., and spent a SUSAN MARTIN continues to serve as pro- Parion, and hear too about the latest work on Thasos in the co-authored with the late John Miles Foley in The Greek Epic month in Greece examining numerous ephe- vost and senior vice chancellor at UT. She is northern Aegean and on Paros itself. Current projects? Two on Cycle and its Ancient Reception: A Companion (Cambridge) and bic inscriptions. He published a book chapter, “The Nemesia happy to report that the university is making aspects of Hesiod’s world, one on agricultural production and “Immanent Thebes: Traditional Resonance and Narrative Trajectory in Lycurgan Athens,” in a volume of Brill Studies in Greek and significant progress on its goals for student one on land alienation and exile in Boeotia and Aeolis; the ongo- in the Odyssey” in Trends in Classics, 6.2. Justin is delighted to be Roman Epigraphy, and delivered a paper, “The Spartan Defeat retention and success. Her office is oversee- ing big project on Greek economic development and one on the teaching early Greek mythology along with his smaller language at Lechaeum,” at the 2015 CAMWS meeting. He continues to ing a five-year refresh process of the univer- history (and prehistory!) of private and public debt, which most courses this year, and joins John Friend as faculty co-sponsor of serve as the co-departmental representative for the Beta Delta sity’s strategic plan this year. She is also en- of the time makes him feel like he’s at the dentist’s. He gets back the Classics Club and our department’s chapter of Eta Sigma Chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, as faculty liaison for the Classics Club, gaged in fostering relationships internationally, and has traveled to Knoxville a couple of times each year and is always pleased Phi. Justin joins us with his wife Elaine and two sons, Henry and and as the Undergraduate Research Conference coordinator. to China and Brazil to further collaborations on research and to see former colleagues and other old friends, and to work in Benjamin, along with a forthcoming Arft #3, available in March. teaching. She continues to enjoy travel with family, as well, in- Hodges Library, where you will find one of the world’s finest col- Professor Emerita GERALDINE GESELL, con- cluding a trip to Argentina. lections for the study of early Greece. STEPHEN COLLINS-ELLIOTT returns for his sec- tinued to work on the publication of the Ka- ond year as assistant professor with a fellowship vousi excavations at the INSTAP Study Cen- DANIEL WALKER MOORE is a second-year ALEYDIS VAN DE MOORTEL taught upper- at the University of Tennessee Humanities Center.

Load more