Salvēte, amīcī!
Μέγα χαίρετε! We are pleased to share our sixth annual newsletter from the department looking back over 2023 and introducing some activities and changes for 2024. Despite the challenges that UNCG is currently facing, Classical Studies had a great year filled with adventure, new students, and changes.
As you can see from the signature, Dr. Maura Heyn is no longer department head because she has moved to the dean’s office where she is doing a great job as an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. We said "good-bye" to Dr. Rebecca Muich and wished her well in her new role as Director of the Honors College at Saint Louis University. We welcomed the return of Dr. Georgios Doudalis to the department, who is making a fabulous contribution teaching a rich variety of courses.
We have introduced new classes like Games in the Ancient World Ancient Medicine, and Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which are all attracting a larger and more diverse student body to the department. Next year we are hoping to introduce an online degree in Classical Civilization – so if you want to take some classes you can do so at your own pace.
We were happy to see so many of you at the reunion this year at Old Town and thank you to those of you who made donations to the department fund so we can continue providing great opportunities to our students for summer travel.
Continue reading for more updates on our students, faculty, and more!
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Classics Day
Our students, as those of you who took part in previous years will know, had a lot of fun preparing for and conducting Classics Day, which with 250 visitors is moving back towards its pre-COVID size and splendor. As usual, Dr. Zarecki's legionary encampment was a crowd-pleaser, and the Oracle booth was a raucous (and very interactive) returning favorite. Our face painting booth featured snakes, owls, and vases, and booths centered around trivia, ancient board games, archaeology, and Roman food enjoyed long lines. The club also hosted study halls and game nights in the spring and worked hard to increase member numbers.
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Jon Zarecki and Jessie Craft (’13) in Ostia
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Faculty Updates
We are sad to say that Dave Wharton began phased retirement in Fall of 2023 and will be teaching only three courses each Spring semester in 2024, 2025, and 2026 before full retirement. Read more >>
Maura Heyn continues to work on different topics related to the funerary portraiture of Palmyra. On July 1, Maura took a new position: Associate Dean in UNCG’s College of Arts and Sciences. Read more>>
Jon Zarecki had two articles published in Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought. The first argued for a specific date for the end of Cicero’s military authority during the civil war and the other one the philosophy of old age in the Philippics. Read more>>
Joanne Murphy was thrilled to be awarded the Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award from the Archaeological Institute of America last year. As usual, she ran the annual field school on Kea and the Kea Archaeological Research Survey study season and was joined by 12 students, who labored tirelessly and delighted at their first visit to Greece. Read more>>
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Michiel Van Veldhuizen and students with knuckle bones in Oracles class
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Robyn Le Blanc spent part of 2023 on research leave, which included research trips to Rome and Denmark for a nascent book project on Roman "piggybanks." After a hiatus imposed by COVID, her World of Alexander the Great class in Fall 2023 picked up with a new (Bigger! Larger! More pirates! Now with giant angry bird monsters!) version of her "Heirs of Alexander” role-playing game. Read more>>
Michiel Van Veldhuizen has had an exciting year, not least because he celebrated the birth of his fourth child (and first daughter!) in October. In the summer, he traveled to Coimbra (Portugal) to give a paper at the Celtic Classics Conference on the topic of animals in the ancient world sensing disasters before they happen. Read more>>
Derek Keyser had a busy and rewarding year in 2023. He taught a wide range of courses, including surveys of Greek mythology, an advanced Latin course on Pliny the Younger, and a Greek class on Euripides’ tragedies. Read more>>
Aisha Dad’s year has been full of exciting opportunities. As the Director of the Classics Gaming Collaborative (CGC), Aisha brought together a global community of scholars invested in innovative pedagogy. Through the CGC platform, she has organized lecture events and research and scholarship opportunities that create dialogue around understudied but prolific avenues of Classical Reception. Read more>>
Georgios Doudalis had a very productive 2023. During the summer, he directed the study season of the Mochlos Archaeological Project, in Crete with Jeff Soles. In collaboration with students from Italy, Canada, Australia, and the United States he examined the ceramic material from the recent excavations (2021-2022) and produced preliminary reports about the life in the site in the Middle Bronze Age (1900-1700 B.C.). Read more>>
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As you can see from all of our news, we continue to be a vibrant and healthy department of Classical Studies, with the highest number of majors in the NC system. Our courses fill with students of all majors who are eager to learn about the ancient Greeks and Romans, and we have students traveling to Rome and Kea this summer. We still offer spoken Latin once a week, as well as sight-reading, and we continue to have a peer tutor in the department for the elementary and intermediate Latin students.
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Stay in touch!We invite you to keep up with departmental activities in the following ways:
Please keep us updated on what is happening in your lives and careers; we appreciate the opportunity to highlight your accomplishments on our website. Feel free to contact me directly at jmmurph2@uncg.edu.
Best wishes,
Dr. Joanne Murphy
Head, Department of Classical Studies
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