Professor Meredith Hoppin:

M April 22, 1:30-2:30

T April 23, 2:30-4:00

W April 24, 2:00-4:00

Th April 25, 1:45-2:30 and 4:00 – 5:00

Professor Edan Dekel:

4/22 : 2-4 pm

4/23 : 12-1 pm

4/24 : 10 am – 12 pm

4/25 : 12-4 pm

Professor Amanda Wilcox:

Monday 10-11 and 2:35-3:50

Tues 11-12

Weds 10:30-12

Thursday 11-12

Tuesday, February 19 at 7:00pm

Griffin Hall, Room 7 

The Classics Departments’ three thesis writers will give brief public presentations of the fruits of their labors for your enjoyment and edification on Tuesday, FEBRUARY 19TH, from 7 to 8 pm, in Griffin 7.

Refreshments will be served. Please bring your questions or comments about Homer, Egypt in Roman literature, and Cicero’s political philosophy so you can address them to our distinguished panel of scholars.

Have you ever wanted to participate in an archaeological excavation? Or spend a summer traveling in Israel? If so, please come to the Omrit Excavations Information Session on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 7:00 pm in Griffin 3.

Professor Benjamin Rubin will give a short presentation about his archaeological field project at Omrit in Israel. The purpose of this presentation is to familiarize students with the history and archaeological significance of the Roman temple-complex at Omrit, and to solicit volunteers for the 2013 field season. There will also be a short presentation by students describing their experiences on the dig.

Professor Rubin is currently seeking ten students to accompany him on the excavations this summer (May 26-June 30, 2013). Interested students will be required to fill-out a short application available at the information session. If you’d like to read more about the Williams College excavations at Omrit, please visit: http://sites.williams.edu/williamsinomrit/

Amanda Wilcox’s New Book Examines Two Major Collections of Roman Letters

The Gift of Correspondence in Classical Rome

Friendship in Cicero’s Ad Familiares and Seneca’s Moral Epistles

by Professor Amanda Wilcox

Amanda Wilcox offers an innovative approach to two major collections of Roman letters—Cicero’s Ad Familiares and Seneca’s Moral Epistles—informed by modern cross-cultural theories of gift-giving.

By viewing letters and the practice of correspondence as a species of gift exchange, Wilcox provides a nuanced analysis of neglected and misunderstood aspects of Roman epistolary rhetoric and the social dynamics of friendship in Cicero’s correspondence. Turning to Seneca, she shows that he both inherited and reacted against Cicero’s euphemistic rhetoric and social practices, and she analyzes how Seneca transformed the rhetoric of his own letters from an instrument of social negotiation into an idiom for ethical philosophy and self-reflection. Though Cicero and Seneca are often viewed as a study in contrasts, Wilcox extensively compares their letters, underscoring Cicero’s significant influence on Seneca as a prose stylist, philosopher, and public figure.

Wisconsin Studies in Classics

William Aylward and Patricia A. Rosenmeyer, General Editors

“The letter collections of Cicero and Seneca have rarely been considered in concert, a consideration crucial to furthering our understanding of ancient epistolography, epistolarity, and ancient literary gift-giving as a whole. Wilcox’s focus on letters as a sort of gift is an important, smart, and valuable one.”

—Sarah Culpepper Stroup, University of Washington

“Wilcox describes a ‘logic of practice’ for Roman letter-writing, reveals the contests and strategies at play in Cicero’s exchanges with his friends, and demonstrates that Seneca created his new genre of ‘moral letters’ through a brilliant short-circuiting of the forms and values of the epistolary system.”

—James Ker, author of The Death of Seneca

Amanda Wilcox is assistant professor of classics at Williams College in Massachusetts. She specializes in late republican and early imperial Latin prose, with interests in epistolography, ethics, and representations of grief and friendship.

Sunday, November 4 | 1:00 – 3:30 PM

Schapiro Hall 129

In Many Voices, the fourth annual CFLLC Student Conference will be held on Sunday, November 4 at 1 PM. Seven seniors will present topics related to their independent research or theses and the languages, literature and cultures they have studied at Williams.

Opening Remarks 

Panel I, 1:15 – 2:15 PM

• Professor Janneke van de Stadt, Moderator
• Jacob Gelman, “Natural Law as a Standard in Cicero’s Political Thought”
• David Kealhofer, “Odysseus’ Murderous Project”
• Amanda M. McLaughlin, “‘You will hear that this terrible, annihilating thing is true’: Simultaneity and Sequentiality in The Return of Martin Guerre“
• Sarah Zager, “Halakhic Orienteering: Moses Mendelssohn’s Path from Idolatry to Morality in the Face of the Kantian Critique”

break

Panel II, 2:30 – 3:30 PM

• Professor Christopher Nugent, Moderator
• Ian McLean, “Apuleius and Egypt: The Role of Egyptian Stereotypes in The Golden Ass“
• Madlyn Mgrublian, “The Arab Telenovela: Globalization in Middle Eastern Television”
• Hannah Wang, “Reflections of Narcissus: Ovidian Reception in the Victorian Period”

Lecture by Professor Vassiliki (Lily) Panoussi

Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 7:00pm
Griffin Hall, Rm. 6

Why does Orpheus die at the hands of Thracian maenads? What did he do to deserve being torn to pieces? How can the world’s greatest poet, the poet who overcame the shades of Hades, suffer the ultimate defeat by mortal women? These are some of the questions Professor Panoussi explores in “Mourning Orpheus.”

In this presentation, Panoussi argues that the power of poetry in Ovid’s Metamorphoses is pitted against female religious action. She suggests that Ovid examines the problem of poetic power through the lenses of religion and gender.

Vassiliki (Lily) Panoussi is the Robert and Sara Boyd Distinguished Associate Professor of Classics at The College of William & Mary. Professor Panoussi’s research focuses on Latin Literature of the Late Republic and early Empire, and on Vergil in particular. She is also interested in the study of women and gender in antiquity and in Greco-Roman religion. Her book Greek Tragedy in Vergil’s Aeneid: Ritual, Empire, and Intertext was published by Cambridge University Press (2009). She has taught a range of courses on Greek and Roman literature and culture and all levels of Greek and Latin. She is currently at work on a book project on women’s religious experiences in Roman Literature.

Check out the Omrit Archaeological Excavations Official Student Blog and keep up to date with what Williams students digging at Omrit right now have to say about what they are experiencing.

Williams in Omrit is an interdisciplinary learning experience open to all students at Williams College. Students participating in this program travel to Omrit in northern Israel to take part in an archaeological field school co-directed by Professor Benjamin Rubin of the Williams College Classics Department. The excavation season at Omrit normally runs for four-six weeks from late May through late June. This summer Professor Rubin will be taking six students to participate in the project. You can read more about the program here.

Future excavations at Omrit will focus on investigating the urban context of the Herodian temple. If you think that you may be interested in digging at Omrit, please contact Professor Benjamin Rubin (Benjamin.Rubin@williams.edu; phone: 413-597-3731).