Classics Collaboration
across Campuses:
Weaving Penelope's Tapestry
Suzanne Bonefas
Director, Technology Center
Associated Colleges of the South
Hal Haskell
Southwestern University
Susan Frost
Emory University
Penelope Painter
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
The Curricular Need
Infrastructure
Attic red figure skyphos, Chiusi, Penelope Painter:
Penelope and Telemachos, ca. 430 BCE
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
Small Liberal Arts Institutions:
The Curricular Need
breadth, depth, visibility
>small liberal arts learning environment
>opportunities of large research university
students
faculty
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
Small Liberal Arts Institutions:
The Curricular Need / Infrastructure
Mellon Pilot Program, beginning in 1996.
Rhodes College
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
Small Liberal Arts Institutions:
The Curricular Need / Infrastructure
Sunoikisis
Thucydides: alliance of individual city-states for a
common purpose
Sunoikisis seeks to develop a set of common
goals and achieve a degree of depth, breadth,
and prominence that goes beyond the capacity
of a single program.
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
/
Rebecca Frost Davis, “Collaborative Classics: Technology and the Small Liberal
Arts College,” C. Blackwell, R. Scafe, edd., Classics@ vol. 2 (The Center for
Hellenic Studies ay Harvard University)
Infrastructure
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
Teaching and learning across campuses?
Infrastructure
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
Teaching and learning across campuses
Asynchronous
exchanges
Synchronous classes
•faculty lecturing
within expertise
•discussion
during class, with
faculty modelling
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
COURSE CYCLE
2000 Literature of the Early Empire
2001 Literature of the Roman Empire, 70-180 C.E.
Greek Lyric Poetry
2002 Late Antique and Medieval Literature
Hellenistic Literature
2003 Literature of the Early Republic
Homeric Poetry
2004 Literature of the Late Republic
Greek Comedy
2005 Literature of the Early Empire
Greek Literature of the Fourth Century
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
Attic red figure, after the Siren Painter,
ca. 450 BCE
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
•Sunoikisis Department Meetings
National professional meetings
Course Preparation Seminars (summer)
Program Committee (fall)
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
•Sunoikisis Department Meetings
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
•Sunoikisis Department Meetings
•Undergraduate Research Symposium
Alicia Wilson, Furman University
“Pandora and Eve: The legacy of two women”
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
•Sunoikisis Department Meetings
•Undergraduate Research Symposium
•Study Abroad
Athens
College Year at Athens
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
•Sunoikisis Department Meetings
•Undergraduate Research Symposium
•Study Abroad
Athens
Rome
Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
•Sunoikisis Department Meetings
•Undergraduate Research Symposium
•Study Abroad
•Sabbatical Replacements
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
•Archaeological Field School Program in Turkey
•Upper level Latin and Greek literature courses
•Sunoikisis Department Meetings
•Undergraduate Research Symposium
•Study Abroad
•Sabbatical Replacements
•Speakers Bureau
Weaving Penelope’s Tapestry
Results. A faculty perspective:
»Startup
Funding
(Mellon)
•“Virtual” department offering breadth, depth, and
visibility
to Classics
curriculum
»Training
(not
top down)
•Faculty / Student collaborative learning and research
Classroom
Field
•Interdisciplinary studies
•Faculty development
•Faculty recruitment
Our questions…
Sunoikisis aims to promote liberal arts
learning, new technologies, and
collaborative teaching and learning. Is it
meeting its goal?
If so, how can institutions sustain the
program beyond the grant period?
How can the value of similar programs be
judged?
“The workshops contribute to my
professional development…much
more than I could learn on my own.
It’s a magnificent way to get up to
speed in areas we lack in our tiny
departments…. I am better prepared
as a classicist.”
A summer workshop participant
“In short, I learned more
about Homer in the last
three days than in the last
twenty years.”
A faculty member describing the
summer workshop
“The interaction among lecturers
makes me feel more connected, which
is positive for students to see.”
“You teach less from an authoritative
model when there is live interaction
among faculty. It’s a model of
communal struggle, communal
endeavor.”
Comments about team teaching
“Classicists are cave dwellers-collegial but proprietary about what
should be in our courses.
Collaboration is a whole lot easier
when the person is not right next
door.”
- A scholar describing an
unexpected gain
A preliminary finding
Sunoikisis succeeds because it is
innovative, collaborative, and
evolutionary. Combined with
constantly improving technology,
those traits will lead to new ways
for intuitions to interact.
“It’s not just that you don’t have to do
all the lectures. You spend more time
on the lectures you deliver. You have
bright colleagues out there and it
raises the bar. The lectures are getting
toward publishable papers.”
A scholar who collaborates across
colleges
Questions we are considering:
Is technology integral to liberal arts
learning? It is a “paramount issue
of the day.”
Is the program sustainable beyond
the funding period? Can other
studies of sustainability help
address this question?