Ben Revkin

Announcements 8 March

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CANE

  • Our Annual Meeting begins Friday, March 13 (absit omen!), in Dedham, MA. You can still register – details here.
  • The next deadline for the quarterly CANE Discretionary Grants fund is April 1.
  • The CANE Classical Calendar for the 2014-2015 school year is currently on sale for $8 on Amazon.

BEYOND CANE

 Ongoing

Certamina et Dies Classici et Eventus!

  • The Brookline Certamen is happening April 11. Register by March 23. Visit here for more information.
  • Vermont Latin Day is happening Friday, April 10.
  • Registrations are now being accepted for this year’s summer programs organized by the Vergilian Society.  The details of these tours can be found here.

Conferences and Talks

  • The Ranieri Colloquium on Ancient Studies at NYU’s Center for Ancient Studies is organizing a conference March 26-27, 2015.  The conference is entitled, “Integrating Judaism and Christianity into the Study of the Ancient World.”  The event is presented by the Center for Ancient Studies in conjunction with the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, the Global Network for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies, the Religious Studies Program, the Department of Classics, the Department of History, the Dean of the College of Arts and Science, and the Dean for the Humanities.   It is free and open to the public.  The full program may be viewed here: http://ancientstudies.fas.nyu.edu/object/2015_Ranieri_Colloquium.html

Meetups

  • Live in western MA or northern CT and want to practice speaking in Latin? There is a large group that meets weekly in Amherst! For details, contact TJ Howell.
  • In the Boston area? Check out the Active Latin Meetup page for events.  CLIPEUS will be hosting a Cena on Thursday in Dedham at 7 pm in anticipation of the CANE spring meeting!

Jobs

  • See our new Jobs page for details.

Funding and Professional Development

  • Fellowships and grants are being offered through the ASCSA for graduate and postgraduate travel for the 2015-2016 school year. A few remain with spring deadlines.
  • SALVI is accepting applications for their new Amy High Scholarship, which funds all of its recipient’s expenses to either Rusticatio Tironum or Veteranorum this July.
  • The Oscar Broneer Traveling Fellowship is offering a grant of up to $30,000 to study at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.  Due date is March 15 and details are available here.

Questions Regarding Culture

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I’ll throw a few questions out there for you readers regarding a matter over which I’ve been ruminating for a while — how we incorporate ancient culture and history into our language courses.  I eagerly anticipate your feedback.
 
How much of your curriculum is specifically focused on ancient culture?  How much class-time do you spend on these topics in relation to what you spend on vocabulary and grammar?
 
Do you spend more time on “culture” than on “history”?  Do you, for instance, spend more time exploring Roman food and clothing and holidays than the reigns of the Julio-Claudian emperors?
 
In a lower-level course, how closely do your culture units connect to what your students are reading in Latin?  Could the reading itself serve as the lesson, or is it somewhat tangential to what will be presented later?  Most of the textbooks with which I am familiar seem to take the latter approach, providing, for example, a brief reading on Roman clothing after a story in which a character simply puts on a toga.  If the Latin stories in the textbook do not adequately illustrate a cultural or historical topic which you consider essential, do you provide any auxiliary texts which would help your students learn more about it in the language?
 
How do you organize your culture lessons?  Do you adhere to the textbook’s presentation of these topics?  Does one lesson segue neatly into the next — moving from early education to weddings to funerals to the Underworld?
 
Is any attention given to other ancient cultures beside those of the Greeks and Romans — the Persians, or the Celts, or the Egyptians?