Berkeley Classics Newsletter PAGE 2

C LASSICS DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY—DECEMBER 2005 BerkeleyBerkeley ClassicsClassics NewsletterNewsletter Five New Faculty Join the Berkeley Classics Community As a result of three searches last year (two in the Greek koinon. She is particularly interested in state Classics Department and one in History), five new fac- formation and collapse in the ancient world, and in the ulty have joined our ranks this year—a remarkable infu- intersection of state power and economic activity. “I'm sion of fresh perspectives and intellectual energy. We delighted to have become a part of the dynamic and are thrilled to welcome: energetic community of students and faculty at Berke- ley who are Sumi Furiya received her PhD in Classical Philology working on from Harvard University in 2004; before joining the the ancient Berkeley faculty she was Assistant Professor of Classics Mediterra- at Union College. Sumi’s research and teaching interests nean. Few are in Roman literature, particularly Republican and places can Augustan poetry. Last boast compa- year she gave papers at rable re- Bryn Mawr, Middlebury, sources or a Trinity College, and UC more lively Berkeley, including a intellectual paper on the Epicurean atmosphere, theory of dreams and and it's both a dreams in poems; she’s privilege and a thrill to be here.” currently completing a book, Lucretius on Po- Carlos Noreña, who received a BA from Berkeley in etry, on Epicurean poetic 1993 in History, returns to the History Department theory and practice in this year after receiving his PhD in Ancient History the De rerum natura. At from the University of Pennsylvania (2001) and teach- Berkeley Sumi is teaching for four years in the Department of Classics at ing courses on Republican prose, Roman lyric, bucolic, Yale University (2001-2005). He works on Roman his- and didactic poetry, and theoretical approaches to classi- tory, in particular the politi- cal literature. She is delighted to find that her Berkeley cal and cultural history of the students are highly motivated, intellectually alive, and a Roman Empire. He is cur- pleasure to interact with both in and outside of class. rently completing a book, The The department has been endlessly welcoming, she says, Circulation of Imperial Ideals and she’s enchanted not only by her colleagues’ minds in the Roman West, that ex- but by their culinary (and musical!) skills. “I’m ex- amines the figure of the Ro- tremely busy,” she says, “but everything I have to do is man emperor as a unifying also extremely fun. All in all, I can’t remember a time symbol for the western Ro- when I was in a more stimulating environment, or lead- man empire. He is also inter- ing a more exciting life.” ested in the monumental to- pography and urban history Emily Mackil, a historian of Classical and Hellenistic of the city of Rome, and is co- Greece, joined the History Department and AHMA this editing a volume of essays year. She has a BA from the University of Oxford and a entitled The Emperor and Rome: Space, Representa- PhD from Princeton University (2003); before arriving at tion, and Ritual. In the time between researching and Berkeley she taught in the Department of Classical teaching Roman history, he has been introducing his Studies at Wesleyan University. She is currently work- wife, Elizabeth, and his son, Carlos (who turned two ing on a book on the development and nature of the (Continued on page 2) Berkeley Classics Newsletter PAGE 2 that the study of the ancient world at Berkeley will this summer), to the wonders of Berkeley and the Bay remain at the cutting edge of the discipline. The Area. Carlos (Sr.) notes, “It is so wonderful to be sense of optimism and possibility is ubiquitous, and I back in Berkeley. After spending ten years in private can scarcely wait to see how things develop from institutions in the northeast, it is both refreshing and here!” invigorating to return to a world-class public university on the west coast. I now realize how much I have Kim Shelton is the new director of the Nemea Cen- missed the energy and vitality of this special place, ter for Classical Archaeology. She comes to us from and I have no doubt that both my teaching and re- the University of Texas Classics Department where search will benefit from this truly unique intellectual she had been teaching for three years (2002-2005) community.” and for nine years before that she was in a Dylan Sailor left the University of Washington in research position at the 1995 with BAs in Classics and History and moved archaeological site of here to Berkeley to enter the graduate program in Mycenae, Greece, after Classics. In 2002, PhD in hand, he resumed his receiving her PhD from southward course, in order to take up a position in the University of Penn- the Literature Department at UC San Diego. After sylvania. She works on three rewarding and really very sunny years in San Aegean Bronze Age ar- Diego, he has retraced his steps, and makes his re- chaeology in general turn to northern California this year. He works and Mycenaean pottery mainly on the writing of history at Rome and on the more specifically. Kim literary culture of the early Principate; he also has is working on a number interests in Roman religion, in freedmen in Roman of projects stemming from her work at Mycenae in- culture, and in the intersections between writing and cluding the publication of Tsountas House, the earli- other social practices. At the moment he is complet- est part of the Cult Centre and of Petsas House, a ing a manuscript on the ceramic warehouse and domestic complex in the set- poetics and politics of tlement currently under excavation. Kim tells us, “I Tacitus’ historical writ- am very excited to be here at Berkeley and to head ing, and framing a pro- the new Center. I am thrilled to be involved in the ject on the operation of research at Nemea and to provide for the wonderful considerations of au- students here through summer field schools, an op- thority and prestige in portunity to learn about Ancient Greece with their Roman historiography. own eyes and hands.” A long article on Livy relevant to the latter project will be appear- Faculty… ing in the Fall 2006 Leslie Kurke gave the Martin Classical Lectures issue of Transactions of at Oberlin in February 2005 (her topic was "Aesopic the American Philologi- Conversations: Popular Tradition and Cultural Dia- cal Association. In 2005, he has given papers here at logue in Antiquity"). She found the week spent in Berkeley, at UCLA, and at the annual meeting of the Oberlin enjoyable and rewarding, and a nice break Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association. from being Chair (otherwise, her life consists of hon- “Talk about good luck!" says Dylan. "Despite the won- ing her memo-writing skills). This October, she went derful experiences I had at UCSD, the one thing East again, as the official Berkeley representative to really missing was a robust graduate program in Ralph Hexter's Inauguration as President of Hamp- Classics that would allow me to get involved in the shire College in Massachusetts, using an academic training of future Classics scholars. And now I have gown borrowed from Chris Hallett and bearing gifts had the ridiculous good fortune to end up associated from Greenie (so it felt like the whole department with not just any Classics PhD program but, to my was there in spirit). Mark Griffith visited Oxford mind, the best one in the country. There is a tremen- to talk at a conference on Dithyramb, but spent most dous amount of intellectual energy around, and in- of his time badgering audiences on both American quisitiveness, and a real sense of purpose that I find coasts about ancient Greek mules (a much misunder- immensely invigorating. I am terribly excited to ar- stood and under-appreciated equid, he claims). He rive as part of this large crew of fresh hands in an- also enjoyed opportunities to join parties of under- cient studies: after only a few months of getting to graduate and graduate students at some excellent know my other new colleagues, I am utterly confident Bay Area productions of Classical Greek PAGE 3 Berkeley Classics Newsletter plays: Lysistrata (performed by the National Theater Crawford Greeewalt was on leave in the Spring of Greece), Antigone Falun Gong (at the Aurora Thea- semester (2005) and gave four lectures on Sardis ter), and The Persians (also at the Aurora). Another (legends, history, and results of excavation) for the highlight of Mark G's year was the reunion of his Carl Newell Jackson Lecture series at Harvard Uni- Soca-Calypso band The Sidewinders (after a long hia- versity. tus) for a gig at Ashkenaz, where the audience con- Kathleen McCarthy participated in an NEH tained numerous -- and boisterous -- representatives seminar over the summer at OSU in Columbus OH. of the Classics Dept (including Sather Professor The topic was "Narrative Theory." She is on research David Sedley) and also a contingent of Albany High leave this year, working on a project on first-person School Jazz band members (including Mark's son poetry, supported by a grant from the American Phi- Max, their drummer), who were apparently assigned losophical Society. this as their concert report. Erich Gruen is now a Professor of the Graduate Chris Hallett writes: In 2004-05 I spent my School, a form of fictional retirement. The fiction Spring Break in Libya, joining a group of scholars seems more obvious than the retirement.

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