CANE Summer Institute

Cancelled: African American Literature and Classics / Nadine M. Knight, Department of English, College of the Holy Cross

This course will examine 20th- and 21st-century African American literary engagement with classical traditions. Beginning with African American claims to the legacy of Antiquity in the works of Pauline Hopkins and W.E.B. Du Bois, we will then discuss the rewritings of The Odyssey in contemporary works by the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and the novelist Tayari Jones. We will also consider how African American poets from Jean Toomer to Ross Gay have invoked the Georgics. We will discuss the ways in which reading African American literature and classical literature together can be mutually revelatory, and how incorporating African American literature in Classics courses can become an important part of inclusive pedagogical practice.

Global and Local Fashion in Ancient Egypt / Irene Soto Marín, Department of Classics, Harvard University
This mini-course will explore the history of fashion in Ancient Egypt, from the Pharaonic to the Graeco-Roman period. We will explore Mediterranean-wide and global influences in style as well as the role that objects like cosmetics, wigs, jewelry, and even shoes played in demonstrating power, gender dynamics, and cultural identity. The types of objects we will encounter in the course are archaeological (such as linen, wigs and beauty implements) as well as sculptural. Papyrological and literary texts will further illuminate our discussion of daily use, manufacture, and purchase of textiles in antiquity.

Shakespeare’s Sonnets in their Elizabethan Context / William Morse, Department of English, The College of the Holy Cross Emeritus
Though Shakespeare was the most Ovidian of Elizabethan poets, how do his sonnets recast the classical tradition in what will henceforth be an unmistakably English poetic? What has already changed between Christopher Marlowe’s translation of Ovid’s “Amores” in 1593 and the form, themes, and language of Shakespeare’s sonnets written over the next fifteen years? To explore this question, we will read a broad selection of the sonnets.

Girls Writing Latin in Ancient & Early Modern Italy / Skye Alta Shirley, Department of Greek & Latin, University College London

What does it mean to be a child author? How is girlhood distinct from both boyhood and womanhood? Do children write differently from adults? We will ask these key questions of juvenilia studies as we explore Latin texts (with English translations) written by girls in and around the Italian peninsula in late Republican Rome and during the early modern period. Using these texts, we will explore how a writer’s social class, ethnicity, and religion can intersect with gender and age to either highlight or marginalize their literary contributions. We will begin with the writer Sulpicia, whose poetry prompts conversation not only about her age but also what it meant to be a girl and woman in ancient Rome. Next, we will read texts written by girls from the 15th-18th centuries to discuss recurring themes like ambition, credibility, and agency. Among our selections are a 13-year-old’s epigram from Baroque Rome, a 14-year-old’s public oration to a Renaissance pope, and a 15-year-old Sicilian princess’ preface to her book of poetry.

Apuleius Africanus: A “Roman” Author in His Numidian Context / Susan A. Curry, Department of Classics, Humanities, and Italian Studies, University of New Hampshire

By the time Apuleius (c. 124 –170 CE) of the Roman-Berber city of Madauros in Numidia was born, the Romans had been involved in and staking claims on North African territory for almost five hundred years. So, what could have possibly survived of the indigenous and non-Roman cultural influences on Rome’s African colony by the second-century CE? Should we attribute the “happening” intellectual life of Carthage and other North African hotspots to a kind of total “Romanization” of the region, or does the region’s cultural thriving owe as much to the area’s myriad other cultural influences? Using Apuleius and his works, the Golden Ass and the Apology, as a focal point and major source for exploring North African identities, this course will examine the cultural “scene” of so-called “Roman” North Africa at the height of the Roman empire. We will trace Rome’s presence in North Africa in general and then hone in on the bustling cities of Rome’s African colonies which produced the likes of men such as Apuleius and Augustine. Investigating (and enjoying!) Apuleius’ entertaining writing, we will endeavor to understand his varied identities and to determine to what extent we might consider him “Apuleius Africanus.” 

Roman Love Elegy in Renaissance Italy and Romantic Germany / Jeri DeBrohun, Department of Classics, Brown University

We will begin by reading together certain of the best known or most influential poems of the Augustan elegists Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, which emphasize the unrequited love of the poet-lover through themes and tropes especially relevant to the period in which they were written, including the exclusus amator (“locked-out lover”), militia amoris (“the warfare of love”) and servitium amoris (“the slavery of love”). Then, we will read selections from On Married Love (De Amore Conjugali) by Giovanni Pontano (1429-1503), in which the Renaissance poet employs the language and themes of ancient elegy for a new, unexpected purpose: to celebrate the joys and lament the troubles (e.g. separation due to war, or work) of married lovers. Finally, we will turn to the German poet Goethe, who in his Roman Elegies (Römische Elegien; 1788-1790) adopted both the elegiac meter and the subject matter of Roman elegy. We will consider which aspects of Roman love elegy remain constant through time, in what ways the later poets imitate or allude to their ancient predecessors, and to what extent each poet has employed the language, meter, and themes for their own purposes and in a manner reflective of their own times. All readings will be in English, with Latin (or German, for Goethe) texts available (and reading encouraged) for those with knowledge of the language.

After Homer, Before Joyce: A Medieval Irish Odyssey / John Higgins, Department of Classical Studies, Trinity College (Hartford, CT) & Smith College 

We will study in English translation one of the earliest vernacular receptions of classical literature in Europe, the “Wanderings of Uilix mac Laertis (Ulysses, son of Laertes).” Composed in the Irish language in the 12th century, it tells of Ulysses’ homecoming, but in very different terms from the Homeric original. The story brings the native Irish literary milieu into dialogue with the Greek source text. Ireland was (and arguably remains) a culturally liminal area: it was never Roman, but it was solidly Christian from Late Antiquity. The native Irish tradition of literature and learning was/is never quite comfortable with imperial culture from whatever source, but nevertheless accepts and transforms it. We will think about why a culture acquires translations, what the differences are between the Irish text and its sources, and what translated classical literature brought to the intellectual table in a rapidly changing culture.

Cancelled: Was there a Greek visual legacy in the Buddhist Art of Gandhara? / William Mierse, Richard and Pamela Ader Green and Gold Professor, Art History, Program in Art and Art History, School of the Arts, University of Vermont

The artists who produced the wealth of early Buddhist sculpture in Gandhara, modern Pakistan, have long been regarded by many scholars to be the heirs of the Greek artistic tradition introduced to the region by Alexander’s conquest and the subsequent Greek settlement. The course will consider how we can best understand what was happening as Gandharan sculptors of the 1st – 5th C. CE confronted the need to create art forms for the recently introduced religion of Buddhism; what Greek sources they might have drawn upon, and why.

From Practice to Publication: A Writing Workshop for Graduate Students in Classics and Related Fields / Kelly P. Dugan, Department of Classical Studies, Trinity College (Hartford, CT)

Due to the intensive nature of the workshop format, enrollment is limited to 8 participants, by application. Apply here; applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

From Practice to Publication: A Writing Workshop for Graduate Students in Classics and Related Fields is a week-long intensive seminar intended to help graduate students get their work published. Participants will come with a 20-minute presentation they have already composed, such as you would deliver at a conference. The goal of the workshop is to help each participant transform their talk into an article-length publication. In the morning sessions, participants will learn and discuss theories and methodologies for writing and publishing. Topics addressed will include composition theories, academic voice, facing fears, and publication practices. In the afternoon sessions, participants will workshop their current projects and receive feedback from others. At the end of the course, each workshop participant will deliver a public 5-minute talk to fellow CANE Summer Institute participants, sharing their work with a wider audience and receiving further feedback. Preference given to graduate students in New England working on topics relevant to this year’s CSI theme “Classical Antiquity”: A Global Phenomenon in Local Contexts.  Link to daily schedule

Apuleius Africanus: A “Roman” Author in His Numidian Context / Susan A. Curry, Department of Classics, Humanities, and Italian Studies, University of New Hampshire

By the time Apuleius (c. 124 –170 CE) of the Roman-Berber city of Madauros in Numidia was born, the Romans had been involved in and staking claims on North African territory for almost five hundred years. So, what could have possibly survived of the indigenous and non-Roman cultural influences on Rome’s African colony by the second-century CE? Should we attribute the “happening” intellectual life of Carthage and other North African hotspots to a kind of total “Romanization” of the region, or does the region’s cultural thriving owe as much to the area’s myriad other cultural influences? Using Apuleius and his works, the Golden Ass and the Apology, as a focal point and major source for exploring North African identities, this course will examine the cultural “scene” of so-called “Roman” North Africa at the height of the Roman empire. We will trace Rome’s presence in North Africa in general and then hone in on the bustling cities of Rome’s African colonies which produced the likes of men such as Apuleius and Augustine. Investigating (and enjoying!) Apuleius’ entertaining writing, we will endeavor to understand his varied identities and to determine to what extent we might consider him “Apuleius Africanus.” 

Roman Love Elegy in Renaissance Italy and Romantic Germany / Jeri DeBrohun, Department of Classics, Brown University

We will begin by reading together certain of the best known or most influential poems of the Augustan elegists Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, which emphasize the unrequited love of the poet-lover through themes and tropes especially relevant to the period in which they were written, including the exclusus amator (“locked-out lover”), militia amoris (“the warfare of love”) and servitium amoris (“the slavery of love”). Then, we will read selections from On Married Love (De Amore Conjugali) by Giovanni Pontano (1429-1503), in which the Renaissance poet employs the language and themes of ancient elegy for a new, unexpected purpose: to celebrate the joys and lament the troubles (e.g. separation due to war, or work) of married lovers. Finally, we will turn to the German poet Goethe, who in his Roman Elegies (Römische Elegien; 1788-1790) adopted both the elegiac meter and the subject matter of Roman elegy. We will consider which aspects of Roman love elegy remain constant through time, in what ways the later poets imitate or allude to their ancient predecessors, and to what extent each poet has employed the language, meter, and themes for their own purposes and in a manner reflective of their own times. All readings will be in English, with Latin (or German, for Goethe) texts available (and reading encouraged) for those with knowledge of the language.

Was there a Greek visual legacy in the Buddhist Art of Gandhara? / William Mierse, Richard and Pamela Ader Green and Gold Professor, Art History, Program in Art and Art History, School of the Arts, University of Vermont

The artists who produced the wealth of early Buddhist sculpture in Gandhara, modern Pakistan, have long been regarded by many scholars to be the heirs of the Greek artistic tradition introduced to the region by Alexander’s conquest and the subsequent Greek settlement. The course will consider how we can best understand what was happening as Gandharan sculptors of the 1st – 5th C. CE confronted the need to create art forms for the recently introduced religion of Buddhism; what Greek sources they might have drawn upon, and why.

Cancelled: African American Literature and Classics / Nadine M. Knight, Department of English, College of the Holy Cross

This course will examine 20th- and 21st-century African American literary engagement with classical traditions. Beginning with African American claims to the legacy of Antiquity in the works of Pauline Hopkins and W.E.B. Du Bois, we will then discuss the rewritings of The Odyssey in contemporary works by the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and the novelist Tayari Jones. We will also consider how African American poets from Jean Toomer to Ross Gay have invoked the Georgics. We will discuss the ways in which reading African American literature and classical literature together can be mutually revelatory, and how incorporating African American literature in Classics courses can become an important part of inclusive pedagogical practice.

Global and Local Fashion in Ancient Egypt / Irene Soto Marín, Department of Classics, Harvard University
This mini-course will explore the history of fashion in Ancient Egypt, from the Pharaonic to the Graeco-Roman period. We will explore Mediterranean-wide and global influences in style as well as the role that objects like cosmetics, wigs, jewelry, and even shoes played in demonstrating power, gender dynamics, and cultural identity. The types of objects we will encounter in the course are archaeological (such as linen, wigs and beauty implements) as well as sculptural. Papyrological and literary texts will further illuminate our discussion of daily use, manufacture, and purchase of textiles in antiquity.

Girls Writing Latin in Ancient & Early Modern Italy / Skye Alta Shirley, Department of Greek & Latin, University College London

What does it mean to be a child author? How is girlhood distinct from both boyhood and womanhood? Do children write differently from adults? We will ask these key questions of juvenilia studies as we explore Latin texts (with English translations) written by girls in and around the Italian peninsula in late Republican Rome and during the early modern period. Using these texts, we will explore how a writer’s social class, ethnicity, and religion can intersect with gender and age to either highlight or marginalize their literary contributions. We will begin with the writer Sulpicia, whose poetry prompts conversation not only about her age but also what it meant to be a girl and woman in ancient Rome. Next, we will read texts written by girls from the 15th-18th centuries to discuss recurring themes like ambition, credibility, and agency. Among our selections are a 13-year-old’s epigram from Baroque Rome, a 14-year-old’s public oration to a Renaissance pope, and a 15-year-old Sicilian princess’ preface to her book of poetry.

Dramatis Personae: The Women Who Staged Plautus in Post-Civil War Missouri / Roberta Stewart, Department of Classics, Dartmouth College

In this course we study the membership of the Ladies Literary Society of Washington University, as an example of the reception of classical culture in nineteenth-century post-Civil War America. The Ladies Literary Society staged the first Latin performance of Plautus’ Rudens (the subject of my public lecture on Thursday morning) with a cast entirely of women and drew national attention. At a time when the field of Classics was organizing professionally by founding the American Philological Association (1869) and promoting the study of classical languages nation-wide, the St. Louis cast allows us a window into the populations interested in literary cultural production of classical antiquity. Using publicly sourced documents we track their lives, the effects of the performance on their lives, and the reception of their performance by their communities (family and friends, university, city and country).