UCL DEPARTMENT OF GREEK AND LATIN
Classics newsletter
October 2014 | Issue 12
INTRODUCTION BY HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
Gesine Manuwald
Time goes by very fast, and we are ready for
another Newsletter, to give readers an idea
of what has been happening in UCL Greek
and Latin over the past academic year. We
feel that Classics at UCL continues to thrive
with a number of great colleagues and
eager students, and we are also pleased
to see that there is an interest in Classics
among the general population.
In the Department students continue to enjoy the refurbished
common rooms and the teaching / study room. We have also
re-organized and re-catalogued the departmental library, spread
over shelves in these three rooms, to make it more accessible
and user-friendly (donations to enhance our collections are
of course always welcome). As for staff, there will be a major
change this autumn, when Chris Carey, who has been Professor
of Greek at UCL for ten years, is retiring, which was marked
by an event in September. We have all benefitted from Chris
as an excellent scholar and wonderful colleague with years of
experience, and we are sorry to see him reduce his activities.
Fortunately, we will not lose him completely, since he has
agreed to continue part-time supervising PhD students and
teaching undergraduate students on topics of his expertise! At
the same time we are delighted to welcome a new Professor
of Greek, Phiroze Vasunia (who introduces himself elsewhere
in his Newsletter). With several colleagues on leave last year
and this year, we are grateful to teaching fellows, such as
Antony Makrinos and Philippa Bather, to sustain the level of
teaching that we would like to offer to our students. Last but
not least, the Department is growing, and this creates more
administrative work. Last autumn we were successful in winning
approval for a third administrative post, and shortly afterwards
we welcomed David Alabaster, who is now the main point of
contact and has already made himself indispensable for a
smooth running of the Department (for any queries, comments or
suggestions, get in touch with him on classicsoffice@ucl.ac.uk).
All academic colleagues have again been very active in teaching,
researching and other projects (see their individual staff pages
on the departmental website). One of the recent publications,
which might be of interest to a wide audience, is presented
on the following pages. The Department now also houses an
interdisciplinary research project, co-directed by Maria Wyke on
the ‘Dynamics of Civilization’. Both staff and research students
organized a range of conferences and workshops, from early
Greek fragments over Vergil’s Georgics to the reception of the
Classics in Latin America (see reports on some of these events
later on). Students again put on a wonderful performance of a
Greek Play, Aristophanes’ Clouds; the academic advisor, Rosa
Andújar, organized an exiting outreach programme around it (see
reports from people involved). This year’s Housman Lecture was
given by Denis Feeney (Princeton); the topic was Ovid, and the
date was Ovid’s birthday! We are now looking forward to more
conferences, another Greek Play and a Housman Lecture on a
Greek topic next academic year. We continue to enjoy funding
from the A. G. Leventis Foundation for some of these initiatives.
Besides running their own conferences and contributing to the
Department’s teaching, our PhD students have carried on their
own seminar series and presented their work at departmental
research seminars. One of them, Emily Lord-Kambitsch was
awarded a Provost’s Teaching Award (just like two members of
staff were nominated for the Student Choice Teaching Awards),
which is a nice demonstration of the high level of teaching in
the Department. Several research students completed their
PhDs, and some of those managed to get a post elsewhere
immediately, which is a remarkable achievement in the current
climate. MA students also organized their own conference, and a
number of them are thinking about doing a PhD. This is fantastic,
considering that the funding situation for postgraduate students
continues to be difficult. Our undergraduate finalists did extremely
well this year: one received a Faculty medal and several were put
on the Dean’s list in recognition of their excellent results; others
were rewarded by departmental prizes.
Moreover, we continue to spread the word about Classics to
people who otherwise might not have heard about it and try to
attract highly qualified students from all sorts of backgrounds.
Later on in this Newsletter Peter Agócs, the Department’s
Widening Participation and Schools Liaison Officer, reports on
this year’s outreach activities, which have been praised by the
College. We are delighted in particular to be involved in the
Capital Classics project, a major initiative for bringing Classics
to disadvantaged areas in east and north London, funded by
the Mayor’s London Schools for Excellence Fund. For the first
time this year, we also had a Summer School in Homer, which
managed to bring together people with a long-standing interest
in this important Greek author and people who were new to him.
In addition to reading the text, the programme offered exciting
activities and performances (described in greater detail later).
It has been a pleasure to work with all members of staff, students
and supporters over the past year, and looking back it is amazing
what we have achieved. We hope that things will continue like
that in the coming academic year, in which we welcome a record
number of undergraduate students, await the results of the socalled Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014, which
assesses research culture and quality of departments nationwide,
and are planning a number of exciting events for alumni. Watch
this space and look out for further communications from us!
CLASSICS OUTREACH AND WIDENING PARTICIPATION IN 2013-14
Peter Agócs
Over the past year, the Department
has continued its activity in the areas
of Classics outreach and Widening
Participation. Together with our many
partners, including the Iris Project and its
Literacy Through Latin scheme, the East
End Classics Centre, and other higher
education institutions across the UK, as
well as the UCL Outreach Office (which sponsors many of our
programs) we have, apart from our constant visits to schools
and continued participation in University- and community-based
outreach projects, organised events for primary and secondary
school students, and took part in a number of schemes that aim
to increase access to teaching in Classics and the Latin language
across the London area and beyond. Our very successful Open
Days (held in February and June) and our Summer Schools
in Ancient World Studies and Homer (held in June and July),
the latter of which was organised by my colleague Antony
Makrinos, gave visitors the chance to experience University
life for themselves, and to expand their knowledge of the
Classics, as did the extensive program of fascinating lectures
organised by Rosa Andújar to accompany this year’s Classical
Play. The Department played host in April to a Classics Fair
co-organised with the Iris Project, an event aimed at younger
children and designed to familiarise them with what we do in an
entertaining and less-structured way. Student volunteers from
the Department played a crucial role in all of these events, and
I am very grateful to them for their help and commitment. The
Department also played host at the end of March to the launch
event of the Capital Classics Project, a program run by the East
End Classics Centre and the consortium Classics for All, and
organised a special professional development day for teachers
involved with this scheme. The Capital Classics Project aims
over the next twelve months to roll out Latin lessons, and to train
a new generation of Latin teachers, in schools across the East
End of London, with the intention of expanding the program in
coming years to other parts of the capital. This project, supported
by the Mayor’s London Schools Excellence Fund and involving
several other secondary and higher education institutions,
including our Department, the Nower Hill High School North
London Hub, the Iris Project, the Department of History, Classics
and Archaeology, Birkbeck, the Department of Archaeology,
Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, the Faculty of
Classics, University of Oxford and Wadham College, University
of Oxford, is an ambitious attempt to redress the sad lack of Latin
and Classics teaching in state schools, and I’d like to encourage
anyone interested in supporting our activities, either financially or
by volunteering, to contact Classics for All, the East End Centre’s
coordinator, or the Iris Project (http://irisproject.org.uk/index.php/
the-iris-project/contact-us) — who, as well as continuing their
very successful Literacy Through Latin scheme and supporting
the activities of Capital Classics, have started a similar and very
successful Community Classics Centre initiative for children in
the Oxford area. I also attended a wonderful and very inspiring
conference organised by the Classics in Communities project
run by Mai Musié (University of Oxford), Lorna Robinson (Iris)
and Steve Hunt (University of Cambridge), which gave me a
better understanding of the problems faced by Classics teachers
in primary and secondary schools and how we can support them
better, as well as enabling me to meet some of the amazing and
selfless people who do this work in schools, colleges, and even
prisons in every part of the land. In all, many people are doing
great work, vital to the survival and health of the subject we love,
in every part of the country, and there is a way for everyone who
is interested to get involved.
DANCING WINGED WORDS
Aeron Brown interviews physical performer Deborah Pugh on her performance with Dr Antony Makrinos ‘Dancing Winged
Words’ for the Summer School in Homer 2014.
We’re here today with physical performer Deborah Pugh, who’s
choreographing a reading of the Iliad for the Summer School in
Homer 2014. So Deborah, how was it different choreographing
the Iliad than any other work that you have done?
Well, first of all I work in a company and it’s the first time that I’ve
been solely responsible for everything that ends up on the stage!
So that’s been quite exciting; it’s normally a million other physical
performers in the room, we’re all bouncing ideas off one another,
and this time it’s all kind of physical side of things. But I generally
tend to generate work from the physical first, whereas this time
we’ve obviously got a well-known text so it’s been… just a shift
of head space in that respect.
You’ve offered some workshops in physical performance
before for the Greek plays of the Department of Greek and
Latin, and now you are performing the most dramatic scenes
of The Iliad; how has the whole experience engaged your
interest in the classical world, and specifically, Homeric epics?
I’ve always been drawn to classics and epics, in a sort of
uneducated kind of way. As a performer I’m not terribly cinematic,
I enjoy the physical, the passionate…the epic really! So the epic
world just lends itself so well to that sort of thing. The Iliad in
particular, is set against the backdrop of war; so you’ve got life
Newsletter 2014
and death right there. It’s immediately physical and passionate.
With the epics you’ve also got the gods, the contact with the
natural elements as well; they pair together very nicely with my
physical approach to work really. So it’s been really wonderful to
work with Antony who just (A) gets it and (B) is so happy to sit
there and go “YEAH she’s kind of air but a bit of water in there! But
yeah no this space is over there”. It’s been really nice to connect
the two in a much more cerebral as well as physical way.
What are your expectations for the project? And how did
you manage to reconcile the world of moving and the world
of poetry?
Reconciling the two came quite naturally really; I am trained in
movement, I work in the poetic body and the physical story-telling
rather than the necessarily balletic moves. So it came quite
naturally in that sense; everything is already there in the text, so
quite a lot of it lends itself naturally to movement. Expectations
of the piece… I don’t know. At this point I’d be lying if I weren’t a
little nervous about: (A) tackling something this huge, and (B) in
front of a room full of people who know a lot more about it than
I do, so I hope to go somewhat to doing justice to the piece and
help people see it that it’s lifted off the page.
The characters of The Iliad are complex in their nature. How
did you engage with them?
Some are easier to engage with than others. Again Antony has
been just brilliant. His passion for the Iliad and all of the characters
within it has just been brilliant. Because it’s like, getting to know
people rather than just, sitting and pouring over words really.
We worked a lot on… the elements, again, and certainly the
gods especially. With the humans down on earth, we tried to find
specific physical gestures and motifs that are linked with their
Homeric epithets. So Achilles is evidently swift-footed. Hector:
his connection to horses, we had to get the helmet in there as
well and an equine sort of physicality, that muscularity, the fast
moving horse.
“Dancing winged words” is a metaphorical interaction of two
entirely different personas: the reader and the performer.
Were there moments in which the reader challenged the
performer, and vice versa?
The interaction between the two is central and continues to be
worked on basically, where we’re sort of shifting... It’s finding
the point where the focus shifts from one to another. It’s a really
delicate balance between where the focus lies, and basically
it’s a sort of dance between
Antony and myself; giving
one another the impulses,
certainly everything he’s
doing vocally, helps me
to get to the right place
physically. And I would hope
that where I leave the gaps
and give the impulses it
would spur him on as well,
to support him on what he’s
doing as well, so it’s quite
an epic task in itself to be
honest!
Which character was
the most interesting to
choreograph, for you?
I’ve enjoyed, oddly trying to
find the differences between
Achilles and Hector. That’s
been a really interesting challenge, that’s been really good fun.
Whenever Achilles gets a bit radgy really I love that he’s just
like.. “Oh calm down”… Book 1 he’s just like “ARGGHH”, he’s
getting all in Agamemnon’s grill, he’s great. He’s good fun, I like
Achilles.
The production of LIGHT that you have also been rehearsing
for, explores a dystopian future. DO you think that The Iliad
presents a dystopian past?
Very good question, I guess in my head… Dystopia has to have
this kind of futility… that’s my definition. A lot of what I think of
dystopia happens in the future because you just don’t know
what is going to happen afterwards. With something that has
been set so far in the past you know that civilization is continued,
we’ve survived, so I don’t know about dystopia. There’s so
much humanity… it feels more human than I would think of as
dystopia. But THEN there’s that element of fate! It feels like
people are fighting partly because they care about stuff a bit too
much for it to be dystopian I think; there are human feelings in
there somewhere. So… question mark!
Do you prefer engaging with one particular character, such
as when you performed the role of Rose in Translunar
Paradise, or do you prefer involving yourself with a multitude
of characters such as in the performance of The Iliad?
It’s really nice to have the opportunity to do both. I mean with
Translunar… wow. We’ve been doing that show for three years.
For a good two years it was pretty much solid and I literally know
every breath of that piece. Whether that’s a good thing or not?
Umm! But Rose, I’ve worked on her to such an extent that she
is now a person outside of me? She exists, she has her own
personality and it’s been so wonderful to be able to do that. Yeah
it’s been a really good opportunity… but THIS is so much of a
challenge! This is amazing because it’s not just about playing
a million different characters; there’s all the landscape and the
space, there’s the passions in this and driving it that you have to
conjure up without scenery, without set and that’s a brilliant, fun
thing to be doing.
In what ways is it challenging to perform choreography
without the use of props?
It’s kind of what comes more naturally to me, I’m from a mime
background… But yeah again going back to my training, it
very much started with the
human body: you get rid of
set and text. How much can
you tell just with the actor
in an empty space? And
we keep having arguments
between us where Antony
keeps trying to introduce
an object and I’m just like
“AGGHH I don’t know how to
deal with it!” For me objects
are great, the right object is
perfect and you know it can
be a different provocation
in itself. But when you’re
dealing with things this epic,
mystical and magical and
things that are to do with the
gods, there is nothing I can
go out and purchase in this
mortal world that can possibly compare to things that can be
conjured up in the imagination of the audience.
So could you tell us a few things about your future plans
and the after-life of this project?
Well Antony has all manner of better ideas about what’s going
on than I do but hopefully taking it to Cyprus and Greece? Which
would be amazing and terrifying at the same time. But yeah that
would be incredible, there’s talk about turning it into a short film
which would also be amazing. Umm yeah hopefully it’s got legs;
it’s such a fun thing to be doing. It would be a shame not to rattle
it out all over the place quite frankly!
What about your plans?
I’m working with Ad Infinitum at the moment, and we have not
quite finished our latest piece which is called “LIGHT”. We’re
previewing with Latitude and The Pleasance in Islington before
we take it up to Edinburgh, and we’re taking it up to the Mime
Festival in January 2015. We’re going to be at the Barbican for
that…
Aeron Brown
UG Student
Department of Greek and Latin, UCL
Newsletter 2014
SUMMER SCHOOL IN HOMER 2014
More than 50 students have attended the London
Summer School in Homer held from Monday 30 June to
Friday 4 July 2014 at the Department of Greek and Latin,
UCL. Ages varied from 15 to 71 and the students were
divided into 5 groups: Greek from translation, Beginners
Greek, Intermediate Greek, Advanced Greek and
Mosaics workshop. The tutors for Homeric Greek were:
Antonio Cartolano (translation), Ifigeneia Giannadaki
(Beginners), Dimitra Kokkini (Intermediate) and John
Mosaic workshop
Thorley (Advanced).
Apart from the classes in Homeric Greek which were attended by the majority of
students, there was also a workshop on Homeric Mosaics taught by Viv Sendall.
Lectures were given by Prof. Lorna Hardwick (‘Homeric Voices: rewriting Homer in
English’) and Prof. Chris Carey (‘Humane and heroic values’). A roundtable on Homer
in Secondary Education was held on the first day of the Summer School. It was
chaired by Prof. John Thorley (Lancaster University) and brought together a number
of contributors: Eric Bateson (Camden School for Girls), Sorrel Evans (Notting Hill and
Ealing High School), Kiki Vagianou (1st Junior High School Chios), Angeliki Vasilaki
(Manor Hill Greek School). The participants were also invited to follow a special event
entitled “Dancing Winged Words”, an afternoon of performing and reading the Iliad with
physical performer Deborah Pugh and Dr Antony Makrinos and with accompaniment
of music by Belinda É. S.
The Widening Participation Office has kindly provided funding for students to participate
in the Summer School. I am grateful to Dr Peter Agocs who has offered enthusiastic
help and support in liaising with the WP Office. We had 7 students applying for the
Summer School and from those 5 students have eventually attended the classes
of Homer from translation. Students were introduced to Homeric studies and were
lectured on modern topics (such as the role of gods and women in the Homeric epics,
reception of Homer, narrative and plot, structure of the works, etc.). An additional visit
to the British Museum which was offered by the tutor (Dr. Antonio Cartolano) and
the Director of the Summer School was very much appreciated. During the visit, the
participants have followed a guided tour of the Museum and they had the opportunity
to admire the exhibits and to discuss with their tutor.
Overall the students have reported that they have enjoyed the experience a lot and
they have praised both the Summer School and their teacher. They have underlined
that the Summer School enhanced their knowledge of the Homeric world and made
them more confident in working with each other. They have also enjoyed the constant
exchange of arguments and views in a friendly academic environment and they have
been very enthusiastic about the performance ‘Dancing Winged Words’ by physical
performer Deborah Pugh and Dr Antony Makrinos. They have noted that they have
enjoyed the evening immensely and that the reading has communicated emotions and
ideas of the Iliad which otherwise would have been ignored.
The evaluation forms from both students and tutors were very positive. The students
reported overwhelmingly positive thoughts about the Summer School, pointing out
the high teaching standards, the stimulating quality of the evening lectures and the
amazingly engaging performance (which had very good attendance). They have
expressed their interest in watching the performance again when it is repeated and
in following its afterlife (some people suggested that it should be turned into an
educational short film). With the exception of some problems with rooms, the tutors
also found the Summer School a very enjoyable and rewarding experience.
In future we are planning to engage more with schools and to try to attract some
more participation from schoolchildren. We are also planning to hold a second
Summer School in Homer (29 June – 3 July 2015) at UCL and we have already started
organizing the events and enriching the agenda with more researchers, teachers and
artists. Additional classes such as Homer’s Legacy and Homer and the Romans will be
added to the already existing classes.
The Director of the Summer School in Homer 2014
Dr Antony Makrinos
For more details about the Summer School in Homer 2015, please visit our website
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/events/summerschoolinhomer
or contact Dr Antony Makrinos a.makrinos@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 7493.
Newsletter 2014
Summer School students.
One of the mosaics produced by Summer School students.
Twelve Voices from
Greece and Rome:
Ancient Ideas for
Modern Times.
Christopher Pelling and Maria Wyke:
to be published in October 2014.
‘Stand in the trench, Achilles….’: how
could it be that Achilles, the most special
of special cases, could mean so much to
some of those amid the horrors of the First
World War? How much difference does it
make that Sappho’s love was same-sex?
Is Herodotus’ history a foundation text, or
a critique, of racism and ‘Orientalism’?
Should international relations theorists
stop reading Thucydides? Is there any
comfort to be found in Euripides’ gods?
Is Caesar a safe text to put in the hands
of the young? If Barack Obama’s rhetoric
might make him the new Cicero, why do
his enemies see him as a new Caesar
instead? Why do we cry for Dido? Is
Horace really fit only for the middleaged? Why did the Nazis care enough
about Tacitus’ Germania to want to steal
the manuscript? Do we sneer along with
Juvenal, or find him the butt of his own
posturing wit? And do Lucian’s gods
undermine belief in religion, or might we
wonder if polytheism might make more
sense than monotheism after all?
This book, based on our contributions
to a Radio 3 series, deals with our own
and others’ ‘conversations’ with twelve
classical authors. That notion of a
conversation is important to us: we
have chosen texts to which readers
can keep going back, and bringing new
questions, find new things, and go away
with new reactions. We have certainly
chosen writers that have meant a lot to
us personally as readers, as teachers,
and in several cases as the teenagers we
once were. What matters more, though,
is their capacity to stimulate thoughts
and reflections about
the modern world:
‘ancient ideas for
modern times’, indeed.
Our fondest hope is
that we may provoke
our readers to some
fresh conversations of
their own.
CREDOC
I have been involved in establishing a
new cross-disciplinary research centre
at UCL that explores the concept of
civilisation. After some time trying to
avoid really clunky acronyms, we came
up with CREDOC (Centre for Research
into the Dynamics of Civilisation). Based
in the department, but with strong
ties to Anthropology and Archaeology
in particular, CREDOC seeks to
understand the social phenomenon of
‘civilisation’ and to challenge the role it is
being made to play in the modern world.
Ancient Greece and Rome have long
been treated as the foundation stones
of ‘Western civilisation’ – a term that is
very problematic. ‘Civilisation’ describes
a social phenomenon greater than the
nation. It has been identified by materials,
languages, institutions and habits that
are spread over time yet remain linked
to one another as an integrated system.
Civilisation appears in modern political
debate, whether in international policy
(China, for example, represents itself to
the world as a 5,000 year-old civilisation)
or in the popular idea of a ‘clash of
civilisations’ between Muslims and nonMuslims. Yet what is a civilisation? How
do civilisations form, develop, endure
and decay? And why does civilisation
matter so much to us now? Those are the
questions we are addressing in a series
of lectures and seminars. If the subject
is of interest to you, do take a look at our
website for upcoming events at
www.ucl.ac.uk/civilisation
Maria Wyke (Greek & Latin)
and Mike Rowlands (Anthropology) International Conference and Workshop on
Greek Fragments
Song Regained, July 2014
A Greek Poetic Fragments event uniquely combining a workshop with an International
conference was held at UCL in July 2014. The two-part event, organised by our
Department of Greek and Latin (Prof. Chris Carey, Margarita Alexandrou) in
collaboration with the Department of Classics, KCL (Prof. Giambattista D’Alessio),
consisted of:
I. A Greek Fragments Methodological Workshop (2 July)
II. An International Conference: Song Regained:
Greek Epic and Lyric Fragments from the Archaic to the
Imperial Era (3-4 July)
The workshop was led by an international team of distinguished papyrologists and
literary scholars and was attended by thirty-five postgraduate/doctoral students
who currently work on ancient literary texts and wished to develop or improve on
their technical skills. The workshop team offered eight sessions on key aspects of
methodology (dating of papyri, abbreviations, sigla and annotation, restoration of
lacunae, physical lay-out, identification of authorship, narrative reconstruction and
secondary tradition). Thanks to the generosity of the Egypt Exploration Society we
were able to have on site a number of original papyri from the prestigious Oxford
Oxyrhynchus collection.
The Song Regained conference brought together twenty presentations from an
international array of established scholars as well as early-career researchers who
work on Greek epic and lyric fragments (older or yet unpublished material) from
Archaic, Hellenistic and Imperial Era on to Late Antiquity, and was attended by over
eighty students and academics.
The event certainly had a great impact. First, we offered an important training exercise
for the next generation of philologists in the specialized technical skills needed to work
with fragmentary texts. Secondly, we provided a forum for the exchange of ideas on
cutting-edge research currently being done in the field of Greek literary fragments. We
have been able to film the event and the videos will soon be made available on the
Greek and Latin YouTube channel for the benefit of a wider audience.
Together with the conference contributors we are now working towards publishing the
outcomes of the event as an edited volume on fragments methodology. The volume
aims to offer a valuable contribution in one of the most exciting and vibrant fields of
study that continues to substantially and often spectacularly transform our picture of
Greek Literature with the new material that comes to light.
The event was generously supported by the Classical Association, the UCL FIGS, the
UCL Leventis Fund, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Institute of
Classical Studies, and KCL.
Special thanks are due to the departmental administrative office, staff and students.
Margarita Alexandrou
PhD student
m.alexandrou@ucl.ac.uk Newsletter 2014
Professor of Greek
This is an exciting time to be (or aspire
to be) a classical scholar. The study of
antiquity is flourishing, student interest in
ancient Greece and Rome is high, and
plays and films set in antiquity appear at
regular intervals. Admittedly, we don’t
inhabit the England of Wolf Hall in which
Thomas More ‘would, for a difference in
your Greek, kill you’, but no one, I think,
wants to make their home in such a
world! We live in an era in which students
and teachers are genuinely excited
by classical studies, and especially
Greek studies. And to be a part of the
Department of Greek and Latin here, in
the heart of London, is a real privilege.
The roll call of Professors of Greek
includes Chris Carey, Richard Janko, Pat
Easterling, and the late Eric Handley, to
name only the most recent occupants
of the position. The professors of Latin
are no less impressive and include A.
E. Housman in their number. These are
world-class scholars who are responsible
for some of the best work in classical
studies (and some of the finest English
verse). Of course, I’ve known about
the Department’s distinction for many
years, but there is a small coincidence
that’s worth mentioning. When I was
a graduate student at Stanford, T. B.
L. Webster’s presence was very much
within the living memory of my teachers
there; a few of the old-timers there
remember him to this day. One professor
used to speak of him as ‘the great Tom
Webster’ and also made a point of telling
us not to put the comma in ‘University
College London’. The Department of
Classics at Stanford still holds a lecture
in Webster’s name: the lecturer was
chosen by the teaching staff, but now,
I believe, the graduate students have a
say in the decision, which explains why
the event is styled the ‘Annual T. B. L.
Webster Classics Graduate Students
Lecture’. I am honoured to be joining the
very same institution that ‘the great Tom
Webster’ nurtured and elevated for some
twenty years.
Phiroze Vasunia succeeded
Chris Carey as
Professor of Greek in 2014.
Newsletter 2014
Higher Education Academy Conference 2014
Sing me Winged Muse: teaching Latin and the ‘monstrous’
wonders of the Aeneid
As a PGTA for Beginners’ Latin A, I had the opportunity to participate in an innovative
teaching approach, which involved introducing the students to the physical space of
professional research, to the greater purposes of classical study into which the study
of the grammar and vocabulary fundamentals ultimately figures. Course convener
Dr. Antony Makrinos invited me and fellow PGTA Bridget England to co-facilitate
a special session he had planned for the Beginners’ Latin students: a visit to the
Wellcome Trust to encounter grammatical principles and vocabulary studied
throughout the term in a new medium—the medieval manuscript. The class
opened with a PowerPoint presentation, featuring images of certain manuscripts
and highlighting passages the class was instructed to transcribe, translate, and
describe, with respect to familiar grammatical phenomena. The second stage of the
session consisted of a tour of the manuscripts, led by archivist Dr. Elma Brenner,
who described to students the features of the manuscripts’ composition, potential
readership, and regional and chronological origin. Group discussion revolved largely
around the relationship between text and image, and the various ways one text can
take on significance for its readers through its accompanying images, commentary,
or time and place of emergence.
In order for us to keep a record of student feedback and level of engagement with the
material, I generated a questionnaire that was in part evaluative and in part designed
to give the students an opportunity to express ideas about the function of images and
texts together, the complexity of textual transmission, or the experience of seeing the
‘live’ manuscripts and interacting with the materiality of Latin texts.
The responses to the questionnaire indicated a general appreciation for the context
the session provided for the grammar and vocabulary studied in class, and for the
privilege it offered the students to apply their Latin translation skills in realms where
in most cases only professional researchers work. The grounding of ‘anecdotal’,
or context-based teaching in material culture (manuscripts) clearly influenced the
students to develop a more curious, critical, and holistic perspective on the role of
Latin language and literature in the ancient world and in later periods. Dr. Makrinos
and I presented our approach to this type of language teaching, as demonstrated in
the case of the Wellcome Trust visit, at the Higher Education Academy Conference,
‘Heroes and Monsters: Extra-ordinary Tales of Learning and Teaching in the Arts and
Humanities’ in June 2014.
For more information on this teaching project please visit our webpage:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/students/undergraduate/wellcome-trust
Emily Lord-Kambitsch
PhD Student
emily.lord-kambitsch.12@ucl.ac.uk UCL TEACHING AND LEARNING
CONFERENCE 2014
Inspiring Students with Research-based Education
The conference gave the opportunity to Dr Antony Makrinos and
myself as his teaching assistant to present a paper with the title
“When Dicaeopolis met Petrie: teaching Greek in UCL Museums”
and, thus, share our teaching experience of a special class for
our Beginners’ Greek course. Our talk aimed to introduce and
promote object-based learning as an innovative methodology
for the teaching of ancient languages through visits to UCL
museums. The last class of Greek for Beginners A (first term)
took place at the Petrie Museum and it was not only a reward
for our students’ hard work but also an opportunity to engage
them with the material culture of Roman Egypt and allow them to
apply their knowledge of Greek through reading ancient artefacts.
Dr Makrinos carefully selected and presented ten objects (from
a collection of over 1,000 objects!) ranging from mummy labels,
to seals and ostraca, while I had the chance to introduce our
students to Papyrology, my area of research; I have presented
some school-papyri containing grammatical phenomena, which
we have already taught in our classes. In this way our students
felt closer to their ancient predecessors and realised they had
more learning habits in common than imagined. The class,
apart from deciphering some challenging handwritings, has also
detected and even corrected some ancient students’ spelling
errors. Furthermore, the museum curators demonstrated the
i-Pad application “Tour of the Nile” which was created by the
Petrie Museum in order to allow a detailed observation and virtual
manipulation of several 3D-scanned objects deriving from the
collection. When using the application, the students enjoyed this
blend of classics and technology. After the visit was completed,
the students’ positive feedback demonstrated that the night
at the Petrie museum had boosted their confidence since they
could transcribe ancient artefacts on the spot, with less than
three months of classes. The students also stressed that the visit
created an incentive for them to pursue further studies of related
topics later on and to even apply for volunteering at the museum.
Overall, our students were really engaged with this special class
and everyone expressed their hope to attend a similar event in
the future. It seems that Dicaeopolis and Petrie created a longlasting friendship and allowed the students to acquire a positive
experience in their studies and come closer to the ancient world
- as we did along with them. So, hopefully the “Night at the Petrie
Museum” will become a tradition, not just for the Beginners’
Greek class, but also for other modules that could benefit from
the collections of UCL museums.
Danai Bafa
PhD Student
danai.bafa.10@ucl.ac.uk
For more information on this teaching project please visit our webpage:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/students/undergraduate/petriemuseum
Greeks and Romans
on the Latin
American Stage
by Rosa Andújar
Greeks and Romans on the Latin
American Stage was held at UCL
from the 24 to the 26th of June 2014.
This international and interdisciplinary
conference explored the rich and
varied afterlife of Greek and Roman
drama in Latin America and the Caribbean, a topic thus far
neglected in accounts of classical reception, despite the fact
that Latin American dramatists have repeatedly engaged with
their Greek and Roman forebears in order to interrogate and
debate new political, social and religious paradigms. By bringing
together scholars from the UK and Europe, North and South
America, the conference — the first of its kind to be organised
at an international level — sought to address the broad appeal
and continuing relevance of classical drama, above all ancient
Greek tragedy, in a diverse and multicultural region such as Latin
America. Papers analysed the impact and ongoing importance
of plays such as Medea, Antigone, Electra, and Lysistrata
across various Latin American theatrical contexts, ranging from
Argentina to Cuba, and from Mexico to Martinique.
Our participants represented a diverse range of academic
disciplines, including Classics, Latin American Studies, Hispanic
Literatures, and Theatre Studies, which resulted in a productive
variety of theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives. There
were over fifty attendees, which included thirty-one speakers
and chairs. The participants came from eight countries across
Europe, North and South America, specifically: Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, France, Ireland, Italy, the UK and US. Thirteen were
postgraduate students from the UK, USA, Greece, and France.
Professor Lorna Hardwick (Open University), a pioneer in the
field of Classical Reception, served as the keynote speaker for
the event. The conference thus created a unique and enriched
atmosphere for discussion, in which postgraduate students
were able to mix freely and exchange ideas with established
international scholars of Greek and Roman drama and its
reception. One postgraduate student wrote the following of
the experience, ‘I had a really great time at the conference. It
was so informative and eye-opening, and it really helped me to
understand what sorts of questions I could be asking in my own
work. What a fun conference to have attended as my first one!’
The department was well represented in the event. Chris
Carey, Miriam Leonard, Maria Wyke, and our incoming Greek
Chair Phiroze Vasunia all served as chairs of various panels.
A. G. Leventis Research Fellow Rosa Andújar, one of the coorganisers of the event, presented a paper on the unique afterlife
of Aristophanes in Puerto Rico. Postgraduate students Danae
Baffa, Stefani Di Gaetano, and Florence Low helped with the
organisation and ensured the smooth running of the event.
The conference was generously supported by the A. G. Leventis
Foundation (UCL Leventis Fund), the Institute of Classical Studies,
the Institute of Latin American Studies, SLAS (the UK Society
for Latin American
Studies), the Society
for the Promotion of
Hellenic Studies, the
Classical Association,
the Gilbert Murray
Trust, and the UCL
Faculty Institute of
Graduate Studies
(FIGS).
Petrie Museum.
Newsletter 2014
‘Cock and Coquette’on Cloud nine
Staging Aristophanes
Directing Greek Comedy in the 21st century for such a broad
audience is a big challenge. The recipe for success lies in the
respect of the text and the ability to make the audience ‘travel’
back in classical Athens through scenery and costumes. The
Clouds is one of Aristophanes’ less rude comedies based
on philosophy and the Socrates’ burlesque, thus having few
references to politics. This enabled me and João to make people
laugh with Aristophanes’ jokes without changing anything in the
text.
When we got together for the first time in February 2013 to discuss
our bid for the Greek play 2014, Menander was our man of the
hour. The playwright’s sophisticated humour and his importance
to modern drama were appealing to Kyriaki whilst I was thrilled
with the challenge of staging a play by an important author most
British audiences only know from books. Our only main doubt
then consisted only of choosing a play - Samia or Dyskolos.
Apart from the laughter and the enthusiastic words of the
audience, the most exciting point for me as a director and
a classicist is the eagerness of school children to ‘watch
Aristophanes again’. Our aim as a team was not only to offer
the audience an enjoyable evening but also to give them
as much information as possible about Greek comedy and
Aristophanes, the Greek world and their culture, their language
and philosophy.
Nothing could have ever happened without our talented cast
and production team to whom I am grateful. A Greek and a
Brazilian were in need of ‘initiation’ into the essence of British
humour and culture, and through the fantastic improvisations
of our amazing actors during the rehearsals and the shows
people had a blast (even though this caused me several heart
attacks!). The chemistry and the hard work of our ‘family’
resulted in a great show with fantastic reviews, which those
adorable people I worked with were definitely worthy of. Apart
from the show and its success, what I shall keep from this
experience, is the short but exciting journey I had with all those
people. I will never forget how enthusiastic I was before and
after every single rehearsal and how much I laughed during
the shows even after having watched and heard the same
jokes for a thousand times.
Many thanks to everyone in the Department of Greek and Latin,
especially to our academic advisor, Dr. Rosa Andújar, for their
continued encouragement and support. A big thank you to the
people in the Bloomsbury theatre for their invaluable help, to
Anne Chmelewsky for composing music for our show, to my
lovely cast and production team, to Tippi Wilson and Antonia
Wood for their hard work and for being there to support me
throughout this journey. I am grateful to have met all those
wonderful people and hope to see and work with them again
next year in our UCL Greek Play 2015, Euripides’ Bacchae, to
be directed by the leader of the Cloud’s Chorus, Emily Louizou,
and me.
Kyriaki Ioannidou
PhD Student
k.ioannidou.11@ucl.ac.uk For more information on the Greek play please visit our
webpage: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/classical-play
However, soon we began exploring different possibilities, and
Aristophanes gradually crept into our conversations. We found
ourselves discussing the technical aspects of staging a play such
as Clouds. We would then consider the structure of the play.
Education is not only the main theme of the play; it is also its
main plot device. Just as the common teacher will teach by using
repetition, Aristophanes uses rote to produce laughter. When
Strepsiades quotes Socrates’ opening lines to him (“I’m walking
on air and eyeing up the sun” – line 223), one can almost imagine
Aristophanes, on the day of the original performance, looking
back at his audience to see whether they had remembered the
information provided before. The entire play is based on this
constant relay of information.
Soon we were holding auditions for the play. At this stage, both
of us shared two specific concerns about the selection of actors.
Firstly, the plot’s protagonist and hero, Strepsiades, a debt-ridden
simpleton who seeks the Sophistic teachings as a means to evade
his creditors, had to be played by someone capable of conveying
the immense charisma, naiveté and an almost feminine charm of
the character. In this respect, Felix Medd was an obvious choice.
The real gamble was casting Socrates. Whoever was to play
the philosopher was responsible for dictating the atmosphere
of the entire production. Dominic Hauschild presented us with
something far beyond this. His interpretation captured and greatly
expanded on the Aristophanic idea of a messianic Socrates, as
well as his patent charlatanism. Since Dominic’s audition I don’t
remember one single rehearsal going by without him making us
laugh to tears. Dr. Antony Makrinos, who came to three of the five
performances, told me he would never know what to expect from
him - Dominic would always come up with something different
each evening.
As a whole, we were lucky to have so many talented individuals
helping us: the composer Anne Chmelewsky wrote a great score
for the play; Tippi Wilson’s work as our stage manager was
flawless; Antonia Wood, head of the production team, ensured
our survival during those four months of preparation; Dr. Rosa
Andujar organized some amazing workshops around the play
and provided us with necessary academic assistance; Dr. Antony
Makrinos kept us sane. And, last but not least, our incredible cast,
without whom nothing of this would have been possible.
João
Francisco
Costa Ribeiro
(AWS)
(UG student,
Ancient World)
www.ucl.ac.uk/classics