London Summer School in Classics 2013
Director’s Report
Students numbers and groups
The Summer School was held at University College London from 9 th -18 th July 2013.
There was a record number of applicants (295 in total, 120 for Greek, 152 for Latin, 7 for
Coptic, 8 for Biblical Hebrew, 8 for the Mosaic Workshop). 256 enrolled, 107 for Greek,
129 for Latin and 252 completed the course. Nearly 30% of the students were aged below
18 and ages ranged from 12 to 85. For the first time, there was a Beginners’ Biblical
Hebrew class (6 students) and a Mosaics workshop (7 students).
The students were divided into 26 groups: 10 Greek (4 Beginners, 4 Intermediate, 2
Advanced), 13 Latin (4 Beginners, 7 Intermediate, 2 Advanced), 1 Coptic, 1 Biblical
Hebrew and 1 Mosaics workshop. The tutors for Greek were: Caroline Latham, Russell
Shone, Maria Michalolia, Danae Bafa, Bobby Xinyue, Jeremy Antrich, Natalia Gourova,
Kleanthis Mantzouranis, Ian Goh and Henri Linscott. The tutors for Latin were Doreen
Corbett, Anastasia Lazani, David Carter, Sam Thompson, Vicky Dixon, Emily Lord-
Kambitsch, Monica Tobon, Antonio Cartolano, Dimitra Kokkini, Michail Konstantinou-
Rizos, Beatrice Da Vela and Christine Spillane. I am very grateful to Antony Smith for accepting to replace at very short notice Monica Matthews who only taught for the first day.
Carol Downer taught the Coptic class, Lily Kahn taught the Biblical Hebrew class and
Viv Sendall taught the Mosaics workshop.
Organisation
The Summer School Secretary was Val Schofield, and I am grateful to her for the superb quality of her administrative work before, during and after the School. Two graduate students (Beatrice Da Vela and Luke Richardson) were hired to help with administration.
Three student helpers (Natalie Shaw, Cecilia Voss, Isabella Hendrie) were hired for the whole duration of the Summer School to provide help with administrative tasks and five students (Tiffany Pang, Jeanne Thomason, Bridget Wright, Adam Lecznar, Emma Cole) were hired to provide help during the first and the last day of the school and during the visits. Everyone was impressed by their efficiency particularly in copying with large amounts of photocopying and other practical tasks. Mary Moloney also provided much help especially in preparing rooms, helping with AV and catering, showing students and tutors to rooms and with other administrative tasks.
Rooms
University College London again provided the rooms free of charge and the Summer
School is grateful for this waiver. The high number of students led to some compromises in the room booking. However, only one class had to use different rooms on different days. I am pleased to report that no complaints were received by the students in this respect, as it was understood that such compromises are necessary to keep costs down.

Lectures and other events
Lectures were given by Bettany Hughes ( Helen of Troy ), Professor William Fitzgerald
( Slavery in Roman Literature ), Professor Gesine Manuwald ( Jupiter’s plans in
Virgil’s Aeneid and other Roman epics
) and Dr Stephen Colvin ( Mycenaean Greek ).
Greek epigraphy workshop was run by Dr Peter Haarer. The participants were also able to admire the collections of the British Library, the British Museum, the Petrie Museum and the Wellcome Library in a series of visits organised by the Director of the Summer
School. During these visits the participants have followed guided tours of the Museums and the Libraries and they had the opportunity to discuss with the curators and with experts from the Greek and Latin Department (special thanks go to Dr Peter Agocs for his presentation of the Parthenon Marbles). The debate on “ Who was the greatest villain of the ancient world” was won by Sam Thompson arguing for Dionysus. A book voucher of £30 was awarded to the winner, and a special gift was offered to Dr Jenny Bryan for organising the summer school debate.
Bursaries and grants
Five full-fee bursaries supported by the Classical Association were awarded to Alice
Brown, Caderyn Owen Jones, Hannah Clayton, John Parham and Susan Bourton. A number of travel grants were awarded to many students under 18 who applied.
The Summer School was supported by grants from the Roman Society, the Leventis
Foundation and the Classical Association. An application to the JACT Greek Project and for the Gilbert-Murray Trust and the British Academy’s Cromer Fund (Cromer-Murray awards) has been submitted and is pending. Travel grants between £28 and £116 were awarded to nineteen students, totalling £1239.40.
Changes and points for future years
Feedback
The evaluation forms from both students and tutors were very positive. There were one or two complaints about mixed abilities and ages in the groups but overall there was good understanding for the allocation of students to appropriate groups. With the exception of the inconvenience of the registration process on the first day, 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 visits to the museums and the libraries (which had impressively high attendance) and, as always, its excellent value for money aspect. With the exception of some problems with photocopying, the tutors also found it a very enjoyable and rewarding experience. The huge amount of administrative work is something that should be carefully considered in the organisation of future Summer Schools especially after the increase of the number of applications during the last few years.
Dr Antony Makrinos
Director
LSSC 2013