CANE Summer Institute 2022


Monday, July 11 through Saturday, July 16, 2022

PUBLIC & FREE LECTURES are available daily.

For more information and to register for these lectures, see this document.

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This year, the CANE Summer Institute will run simultaneously in two modes: in person at Brown University and virtually via CANE Zoom

  • Mini-courses will be offered separately for in-person and virtual participants
  • Professional development workshops and Greek & Latin reading groups will be shared by all participants
  • Lectures will be free and open to the public, both in person and via livestream on Zoom

Sponsored by: Classical Association of New England, Brown University Department of Classics, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

Regular registration runs through June 1
Late registrations accepted through June 15

Maiores a(n)d Posteriores: imagining “classical antiquity” into the future

  • How did a regard for ancestors shape ancient Mediterranean cultures and societies? What roles did ideas about descendants and the future play in their worldviews?
  • How have participants in the classical tradition, from various positions, conceptualized this antiquity as ancestral, etiological, causal—and to what ends?
  • What have been the consequences of people viewing themselves or others as heirs to “classical antiquity”?
  • What do you foresee “classical antiquity” meaning to people in the future, as we look forward? How might we shape this concept, for our posteriores?

CSI 2022 mini-courses

  • Enroll in one morning course, 9:30-10:45 am EDT, and one afternoon course, 1:30-2:45 pm EDT
  • Both courses must be in the same format: in-person or virtual
  • Courses enroll up to 15 students each: first come, first served
  • Note: on Monday July 11, in-person CSI will follow past practice in treating the morning as an arrival/check-in period and holding “morning” courses at 1:30-2:45 pm and “afternoon” courses at 3:00-4:15 pm. Tuesday through Friday, courses will revert to their regular scheduled morning and afternoon times.

In-person morning courses (AM)
AM1: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to CSI
Angeline Chiu, University of Vermont
AM2: Experiencing Classical Myth in Modern and Contemporary Art
Patricia Eunji Kim, New York University
[cancelled] AM3: Queer and Feminist Receptions of Homer’s Iliad
Daniel Libatique, College of the Holy Cross
AM4: Tradition and Transformation in John Milton’s “Lycidas”
Bill Morse, College of the Holy Cross
AM5: Cicero and the Roman Criminal Courts: What Did Roman Justice Look Like? Whose Justice?
Roberta Stewart, Dartmouth College

In-person afternoon courses (PM)
PM1: Fatherland Fantasies/Fantasy Fatherlands: Constructing “Classical Antiquity” in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy
Susan Curry, University of New Hampshire
PM2: Augustan poets and their “neo-Latin” heirs
Jeri DeBrohun, Brown University
PM3: Entering and Exploring the Worlds of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica
Kelly Dugan, Trinity College
PM4: Back to the Future: Encountering Antiquity via Analog Games
Polly Hoover, Wright College/City Colleges of Chicago
PM5: Roman Exemplarity: Ancient and Modern
Mark Wright, Sturgis Charter Public School

Virtual morning courses (VAM)
VAM1: The Metamorphoses of “Classics”: From British-American White Supremacy to Modern Multiracial Community
Serena S. Witzke, Wesleyan University
VAM2: Fatherland Fantasies/Fantasy Fatherlands: Constructing “Classical Antiquity” in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy
Susan Curry, University of New Hampshire
VAM3: Augustan poets and their “neo-Latin” heirs
Jeri DeBrohun, Brown University
VAM4: Entering and Exploring the Worlds of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica
Kelly Dugan, Trinity College
VAM5: Roman Exemplarity: Ancient and Modern
Mark Wright, Sturgis Charter Public School

Virtual afternoon courses (VPM)
VPM1: Experiencing Classical Myth in Modern and Contemporary Art
Patricia Eunji Kim, New York University
[cancelled] VPM2: Queer and Feminist Receptions of Homer’s Iliad
Daniel Libatique, College of the Holy Cross
VPM3: Cicero and the Roman Criminal Courts: What Did Roman Justice Look Like? Whose Justice?
Roberta Stewart, Dartmouth College
VPM4: Discourses of Dissent: Ancient and Modern
Dominic Machado, College of the Holy Cross
VPM5: Back to the Future: Encountering Antiquity via Analog Games
Hamish Cameron, Victoria University of Wellington

CSI 2022 Mini-course descriptions

Back to the Future: Encountering Antiquity through Analog Games
Hamish Cameron, Victoria University of Wellington (virtual PM) and Polly Hoover, City Colleges of Chicago (in-person PM)
Games have become popular in recent years as a pedagogical element in Classics classrooms. They offer an exciting range of possibilities as sites of reception of antiquity in the modern day. Games enable us to grapple meaningfully with questions of history and culture, to empathize with people in radically different historical contexts, and to foster connections between students, instructors, and class material. The kinds of games that are created and the types of arguments they make about the past reflect our contemporary relationship to antiquity, offering opportunities to discuss issues of appropriation and representation, including ancient imperialism, modern colonialism, white supremacy, racial representation, and to whom Classics (and gaming) “belongs”. Navigating among your many choices of games can be challenging: which games offer what kind of experiences? How do you evaluate which games might be suitable for your classroom? How do you integrate games into your learning environment? This pair of parallel seminars (one conducted in person, and one conducted remotely) will focus on the role of analog games in the learning experience, including role-playing games such as Agon, live action games such as the Reacting to the Past game The Crisis of Cataline, and board games such as Pandemic: Fall of Rome. We will introduce participants to a variety of game types and playing mechanics; to “hacking” existing games for your own purposes; to creating games; and to integrating them into your classroom. Parts of some sessions will be conducted in a hybrid format to draw on the expertise of each instructor.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to CSI
Angeline Chiu, University of Vermont (in-person AM)
Double trouble on stage is the theme as we first consider two of Plautus’ plays about twins (Menaechmi and Amphitruo) and then turn to two of their post-classical reimaginings (Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” and the Broadway musical “The Boys From Syracuse”). The seminar concludes with a workshop as we turn theory into practice and script into performance.

Fatherland Fantasies/Fantasy Fatherlands: Constructing ‘Classical Antiquity’ in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy
Susan Curry, University of New Hampshire (in-person PM, virtual AM)
Whereas Mussolini’s desire to connect his rule to that of Augustus and to concretize these fantasies within Rome is unsurprising, Nazi leadership’s to model public buildings in Berlin on the monumental architecture of imperial Rome is something of a puzzle. What fantasies about ancient Rome did Nazi leaders wish to perpetuate through buildings which were, after all, modelled on those of an ancient enemy? The mystery deepens when one considers that propagandists for the Nazi regime preferred to look to Greece for an idealized ancestral past. This course will focus on Nazi Germany’s creation of a “Classical Antiquity” that could support its own ideologies. We will begin by considering how German scholarship paved the way for Nazi annexation of the Greco-Roman past. Then, with side-trips into, for example, the role Latin teachers played in the propagation of a Nazi fantasy of antiquity, we will focus on the Greco-Roman influence on the art and architecture of the Nazi regime. How deep did this aesthetic engagement with the ancient past go? What aspects of Nazi ideology did classicizing art and architecture help to promote? Mussolini’s transformation of Rome will serve as a counterpoint to these discussions. We will end with a brief foray into how artists opposed to the Nazi regime also used fantasies of “Classical Antiquity” for a very different purpose: to create artistic spaces of resistance to fascism.

Augustan poets and their ‘neo-Latin’ heirs
Jeri DeBrohun, Brown University (in-person PM, virtual AM)
While we are inclined to associate Latin poetry primarily with ancient Rome, there is in fact a long continuum of Latin verse, and of translations from vernacular poetry into Latin, extending even into the 21st century. We will begin by reading together certain of the best known or most influential poems or passages from Vergil, Horace, and the Augustan elegists. Then, we will read selections from a number of neo-Latin epic, lyric, and elegiac poets (e.g. Petrarch, Milton, Swift, Marvell). We will consider how the Latin language is used as a means of expression in different periods and places, which aspects of Latin poetry remain constant and “universal” from antiquity to modernity, in what ways the later poets imitate or allude to their predecessors, and to what extent they have remade the language, meter, and themes of previous poets for their own purposes. All readings will be in English, with Latin texts available (and reading encouraged) for those with knowledge of the language.

Entering and Exploring the Worlds of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica
Kelly Dugan, Trinity College (in-person PM, virtual AM)
The Aethiopica by Heliodorus of Emesa (ca. 3rd-4th c. CE) is an adventure-romance novel set in Ethiopia, Egypt, and Greece. This course will introduce the novel as an ancient text and consider how it reads in modernity, through the lens of multiculturalism. No prior experience with the Aethiopica is necessary. We will begin with an introduction and summary of Heliodorus’ Aethiopica (3rd-4th century CE) followed by a discussion of major events, topics, and themes in the novel including star-crossed lovers, piracy, omens, enslavement, and identity. Then we will analyze select passages in the Aethiopica that address identity, multiculturalism, race, and ethnicity. On the last day of the seminar, you will be invited to engage with the Aethiopica in whatever way you wish including through scholarship, art, and curriculum design. We will end with a summary of what we have covered in the class and discuss new directions for future inquiries.

Experiencing Classical Myth in Modern and Contemporary Art
Patricia Eunji Kim, New York University (in-person AM, virtual PM)
Greco-Roman mythologies have transhistorical resonance, inspiring patrons, artists, and viewers in their own experiences of the visual arts. Meaningful evocations and appropriations of classical myth provide rich avenues for exploring visual expressions of (and confrontations with) political, social, and cultural life. This course examines the critical receptions of ancient myth in the visual arts, through the study of select case studies from modern and contemporary contexts primarily throughout the United States. From Augusta Savage’s sculptural works of Amazons and fauns to Yayoi Kusama’s re-envision of the Narcissus myth, artists of the twentieth century have engaged with mythologies from the classical past to create visibilities for themselves and their communities in the arts. To that end, we’ll also analyze how visual and performance artists have engaged with ancient mythologies to problematize and critique ideas of supremacy along lines of gender, sexuality, and race. Nuanced narratives emerge from transhistorical approaches to classical studies, offering new ways to reflect on the nature of inheritance, reception, and translation in the visual arts.

[cancelled] Queer and Feminist Receptions of Homer’s Iliad
Daniel Libatique, College of the Holy Cross (in-person AM, virtual PM)
The characters and relationships of Homer’s Iliad have provided fruitful material for millennia of subsequent authors and artists who have developed unique and contemporary takes on these ancient figures. In particular, the past decade has seen a rise in popularity of novels that treat characters like Patroclus, Chryseis, and Briseis through explicitly queer or feminist lenses that examine the psychological effects of violence and gender politics on those who are typically marginalized or ignored in epic narratives about war. This course invites us to grapple with questions engendered by these modern acts of reception: how do these new contexts invite us to reconsider our analyses or understandings of the ancient material? How do they elucidate the way that we consider issues like gender or sexuality in our own daily lives? Our readings will include selections from Homer’s Iliad, Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles, Emily Hauser’s For the Most Beautiful, and Pat Barker’s Silence of the Girls, with supplementary materials that will help frame our discussions of broader issues of reception, gender politics, and sexuality.

Discourses of Dissent: Ancient and Modern
Dominic Machado, College of the Holy Cross (virtual PM)
Harmodius and Aristogeiton’s attempted tyrannicide against the Peisistratids. The secession of the plebs during the conflict with the patricians at Rome. Spartacus’ rebellion against his Roman enslavers. The narrative traditions of the ancient Mediterranean world provide numerous examples of figures engaged in acts of dissent under various circumstances, and from various positions. This course will examine what we can recover about the thoughts and motivations of people engaged in dissent and acts of resistance, and how aspects of their identity–social status, gender, ethnicity–conditioned the nature of their resistance, and how ancient states responded to it. We will further consider how ancient ideas about, and acts of, resistance have shaped the way we think of these concepts in the modern world. To what extent do ancient conceptions of resistance, and who should be allowed to take part in such acts, continue to shape how we see this phenomenon today? What ancient events of resistance remain firmly ensconced in modern memory and how are they being used for different purposes?

Tradition and Transformation in John Milton’s “Lycidas”
Bill Morse, College of the Holy Cross (in-person AM)
John Milton wrote his pastoral elegy “Lycidas” in 1637, at the age of 27, to mark the sudden death of a fellow young ministry student at Cambridge University. One of the greatest lyric poems of the English language, “Lycidas” embraces a genre as old as Theocritus, Bion, and Virgil, while simultaneously embodying an emerging early modern individuality that still defines our culture today: the poem’s unique power grows from this clash of form and emergent individuality. Thus, even as classic conventions give the poem a firm and recognizable architecture, the speaker’s crises of faith amid his first real encounter with human mortality threaten to overwhelm this formal structure. How the poet wins through this passionate agon to the poem’s remarkable coda continues to challenge readers to this day—and will challenge us as we share our shifting reactions to it. And setting the poem at this early modern fault line will certainly raise many questions raised by our Institute’s theme.

Cicero and the Roman Criminal Courts: What Did Roman Justice Look Like? Whose Justice?
Roberta Stewart, Dartmouth College (in-person AM, virtual PM)
This course focuses on two defense speeches delivered by M. Tullius Cicero in 66 and 52 BCE, to consider systemic violence in the late Republic and the capacity of state institutions to mediate uncivil strife. In 66 BCE Cicero defended Aulus Cluentius, an inhabitant of the town of Larinum, on a charge of murder. In 52 BCE Cicero defended T. Annius Milo on the charge of having murdered his political enemy P. Clodius Pulcher. Both cases ended up in the public criminal courts (quaestiones perpetuae). We analyze the legal arguments in terms of established procedure and public law, and then explore the historical contexts: the incorporation of recently enfranchised Italians within the Roman social and political community; the erosion of political norms destabilizing Roman political process and community in the last century of the Roman Republic. Looking at the cases and Cicero’s legal arguments offers important insight into the social circumstances of Roman subalterns (women, Italians, enslaved persons, urban plebs). In a moment of epistemic crisis (Rauch 2021) the course charts an academic, intellectual practice to think with and use the Roman past for considering contemporary problems and discourse.

The Metamorphoses of “Classics”: From British-American White Supremacy to Modern Multiracial Community
Serena S. Witzke, Wesleyan University (virtual AM)
In honor of the Institute’s theme, “Maiores and Posteriores,” participants will examine the construction of “Classics” from past “tradition” to problematic present and inclusive future. To appreciate the current cultural standing of the discipline, we must acknowledge and understand our roots. We will examine how the British “Classical tradition” established the dominant “Classical” pedagogy and what it meant for British racecraft to claim Greece and Rome for Northern Europe. We will then observe why intervention is necessary by looking at receptions of ancient Greece and Rome in modern American culture, particularly racist and extremist appropriations. Finally, we will view a variety of ways in which marginalized persons and cultures have received the “Classical tradition” and deployed it in both celebration and protest. Following the seminar there will be an optional workshop in which participants will discuss classes or activities designed to move away from this legacy of harm and open the discipline to students of all identities and backgrounds.

Roman Exemplarity: Ancient and Modern
Mark Wright, Ph.D., Sturgis Charter Public Schools (in-person PM, virtual AM)
What kind of exemplum was Augustus?  One of pristine Roman virtue?  Or, as Tacitus writes, a more ambivalent one of the will to power? An exemplum is the use of a particular instance to illustrate a general point in order to persuade or instruct, and exemplarity is a habit of thought that the Roman used to organize and understand their world.  Yet, as the exemplum of Augustus shows, there are thorny questions around exemplarity–the tension between universal and particular, exception and general rule; what counts as an exemplum; the slippages of comparing one situation to another; the potential to be endlessly redescribed; the interplay between past, present, and future.  These aren’t just questions about the Romans, they concern the very discourse we call “classics.”  In this course, we will explore these questions and the uses and abuses of this figure in Roman literature via historiography, satire and philosophy.  We will also consider how we might think of Roman art culture in terms of exemplarity.  We will conclude by exploring what Roman exempla have meant in the past for Americans, as well as what they might mean for us today, especially as we rethink what “classics” can be.

CSI 2022 Professional Development Workshops

Monday, 4:30-5:30 pm
Teaching Roman Slavery: a DEI-Centered Approach for Grades 6-12
Hannah Liu, The Pingree School
In this workshop, we will look at successful examples of equity and inclusion in a middle and upper grade Latin curriculum. As a case study, we will examine a 7th grade lesson that combines a study of Roman slavery and American slavery through key words, Latin language, and history. This will be a collaborative workshop in which idea exchanges are welcome and new partnerships will be formed.  All are welcome!  You will walk away with practical skills and resources to use in a classroom, and new ways to consider how study of the ancient world might be a vehicle for advancing equity and inclusion beyond the classroom.

Tuesday, 3:00-4:00 pm
Teaching Mythology with Educational Linguistics
Kelly Dugan, Trinity College
Teaching mythology is often exciting and rewarding as students are energized by the stories of monsters, danger, adventure, and love. In addition to the thrill of the story, mythologies offer infinite avenues into exploring life, meaning, and the human experience. As educators, we know that teaching and examining such stories builds critical thinking skills. One effective way to access these abstract concepts in the classroom at any level of education is through educational linguistics. In this workshop, participants will learn about the broad field of educational linguistics and how it can help with curriculum design and teaching practices in mythology education. We will focus on designing mythology activities for students using language awareness pedagogy, multicultural education, and antiracist teaching through educational linguistics. Participants will be invited to join in as we read passages together, make observations, and discuss issues. Through this workshop, educators will explore curriculum design and gain access to free student activities on mythology that have proven fun and successful in the classroom.

Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 pm
Classics in our Communities: Best Practices for Engagement
Maia Lee-Chin, Boston Public Schools
Among the various outreach programs that aim to get the public involved in Classics, how do we know what kinds of programs are desired by or beneficial to the community they would serve? We will learn about, then reflect upon, community engagement best practices during this workshop. You’ll have the opportunity to communicate with other educators trying to implement these best practices in their own programming, as well as share your own experiences and struggles with this work.

Thursday, 3:00-4:00 pm
Supporting Neurodiversity in Learning Through Inclusive Technology
Maureen Lamb, Kingswood Oxford School
This workshop will review different ways to create structures designed to support neurodiverse students in our classrooms. While some students come to us with an Individualized Education Program (IEP), others may benefit from less formal strategies for accommodating the range of learning styles represented in our classrooms. The strategies that are especially beneficial for neurodiverse students can also be helpful for all students, such as organization, effective time management strategies, shared notes and resources, and strong, collaborative connections with their peers and with the teachers. We will discuss how to support students through organization strategies, how to create an effective feedback loop between students and teachers, how to discover the value of student choice as a relevant pedagogy for engagement in authentic learning and assessment, and how to apply a framework for student engagement and personalized learning to individual practice. Participants will come away with ideas, strategies, and activities that they can use right away in their classes.

Friday, 3:00-4:00 pm
De-Centering: Teaching Outside the Elite Citizen Masculine Perspective
Serena S. Witzke, Wesleyan University
In this workshop, participants will discuss strategies for de-centering the elite, citizen, masculine narratives of the ancient world. Because these perspectives are the ones in most surviving literature, we can’t avoid them, but we can rethink how we present them. We will brainstorm how to include more women, freedpersons, enslaved persons, non-citizens, and non-wealthy citizens in a variety of courses and lessons. This may include subject flipping, inclusion of non-canonical material, examinations of contemporary cultures, or receptions from other time periods. The goal is to collect a variety of strategies and ideas for enriching existing lesson plans and creating new materials without over-burdening instructors.

CSI 2022 Greek & Latin Reading Groups

Monday-Friday, 4:30-5:30 pm

Odyssey Book 14
John Higgins, Smith College & Trinity College

Wild and Crazy Stories from the Gesta Romanorum
Ruth Breindel, Moses Brown School emerita

CSI 2022 Public Lectures

Monday at 7 pm
David Walker, the Abolitionist Movement, and the Reframing of the Classics
Timothy Joseph, College of the Holy Cross
The black abolitionist David Walker’s (1796/7?–1830) four-article Appeal (1829) is a landmark work of American political writing about the cruelty of the institution of slavery in the United States and the need for immediate abolition. In the work, which was immediately condemned and banned in much of the U.S., Walker draws on models from across the ancient Mediterranean world to underscore his points. For example, he brings into relief the extraordinary sufferings of enslaved persons in the U.S. through a comparison with conditions of the Israelites in Egypt, the helots in Sparta, and the enslaved under Roman rule – a direct response to Thomas Jefferson’s argument about the superior conditions of enslaved persons in the U.S. Elsewhere Walker discusses Egypt as the wellspring of learning for the entire Mediterranean world, and he figures the Carthaginian general Hannibal as a representative of all people of African origins, at all times, in their fight against European oppressors – and he anticipates the arrival of another Hannibal to unite African-Americans in the fight against oppression in the U.S. The Appeal thus stands as an important example of reframing and redirecting ancient models, long used by prominent American figures such as Jefferson for the defense of slavery, towards the causes of freedom and justice.

Tuesday at 11 am
The Matthew Wiencke Lecture
Beautiful Bodies and Royal Femininities in the Hellenistic World
Patricia Eunji Kim, New York University
If “male nudity” was a costume of military heroism in Greek art, how did royal women wear the “female body” throughout the Hellenistic world? In this talk, Dr. Patricia Eunji Kim discusses select examples of visual, material, and aesthetic strategies that artists and dynasts mobilized to represent and embody royal women. From monuments and sculpture, to paintings, gems, and even ephemeral performances, dynastic women were made present in a variety of settings through a range of visual and material evidence. Indeed, representations of royal women were eclectic and widespread, offering a rich avenue for exploring conceptualizations of feminine beauty alongside relevant textual and literary evidence. With a focus on examples from Egypt and western Asia, this talk explores the similarities and cultural differences in representing royal femininity. Such an approach to Hellenistic period dynastic women will offer a nuanced picture of the complex relationship between beauty and power. In particular, the talk will provide insight on the stakes of royal women’s bodies in dynastic politics—for instance, in ensuring dynastic continuity and reaffirming imperial claims over territories.

Tuesday at 7 pm
The Phyllis Katz Lecture
Exploring Non-Elite Life Through Greek and Roman New Comedy
Serena S. Witzke, Wesleyan University
Ancient authorship has a representation problem: nearly all the surviving texts were written by elite, citizen men. Writing and publishing required leisure, education, financial stability, and social support, which largely shut out women, noncitizens, and lower classes, making it very difficult for scholars and students today to access the experiences of these groups in their own words. One genre which did incorporate non-dominant narratives was New Comedy. In Rome, the works of Plautus and Terence–the former likely a noncitizen and perhaps a freedperson, the latter a formerly enslaved North African–staged the experiences of women, freedpersons, enslaved persons, and poor citizens. In Greece, though the New Comic playwrights were elite citizen men, they addressed issues of class and status through their work. In this lecture I will highlight several plays that make room for classroom conversations about violence, sexual assault, enslavement, poverty, elite citizen privilege, and the lives of the working poor. I will also provide a primer package on the theatrical conventions of New Comedy and play summaries for attendees interested in incorporating New Comedy into their lessons.

Wednesday at 11 am
Classical Antiquity and the Law Today
Jennifer A. Morris, J.D., Ph.D., Lawyers Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation
The Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (“LCCHP”) supports the protection of cultural resources and the lawful collection and display of cultural objects. In this lecture, Dr. Jennifer A. Morris of LCCHP’s Advocacy Committee will provide an overview of state, federal, and international laws, including bilateral agreements, that frequently impact cultural heritage issues both at home and abroad. Morris will discuss recent litigation relevant to the preservation of classical antiquity and the ability of museums and collectors in the U.S. to acquire and display ancient objects, including lawsuits involving Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

Wednesday at 7 pm
The Edward Bradley Lecture
Money Talks: Roman Coinage in Global, Historical Context
Roberta Stewart, Dartmouth College
A current exhibit (“The Meanings of Money”) uses objects from the collection of the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College to explore how different societies/cultures have conceived of and used money. Taking a global, historical view and de-centering Roman coinage, the exhibit develops deeper insights into the forms and functions of money, as well as the particular aesthetics and functions of Roman coinage across time.  The talk reviews the objects contained in the exhibit and considers the power of monetary objects across time and cultural systems to create for the users (and reveal for the historian) shared narratives within and between communities, about leadership and traditions of leadership, about participation and belonging, about cultural traditions and values. The exhibit invites reflection on the value of coins, with their symbols and legends, as evidence for the quotidian narratives (of marginalized identity, of imperialism, of colonialism or response to colonialism).

Thursday at 11 am
Caesar from the Tabletop: A Case for Games as a Path to Scholarship
Michael Nerdahl, Bowdoin College
The recent proliferation of games that offer the general public an accessible means of engagement with the ancient Mediterranean world has proceeded in tandem with a growing acceptance of gaming into pedagogy more broadly. But what is the relationship between these trends in gaming and pedagogy, and scholarly research? Board games have evolved in the 21st century–mechanically as well as socially and culturally–and such changes in gaming are mirrored in games about the career of Julius Caesar. In a recent Latin class on Caesar’s Gallic Wars, I incorporated the board game Falling Sky: The Gallic Revolt Against Caesar by GMT Games. This rich, sophisticated presentation of the last years of the war as a counter-insurgency offered my intermediate and advanced students a more visual and immersive way of seeing how Caesar and the people of Gaul–specifically, the Arverni, Aedui, and Belgae–interacted. This reframing of a familiar narrative in a novel medium not only offered a new modality for learning standard course content but also spurred us to discuss what sort of arguments the game was making: about Caesar’s approach to suppressing Gallic insurgency, and the strategies and responses deployed by the Gauls themselves in dealing with this imperialistic aggressor. The mechanics of game play and the reflections it spurred led the students to raise sophisticated questions about the events of the Gallic War and caused me to investigate aspects of Roman constitutional and military history that I had taken for granted or had never considered. In making arguments about historical events through the decisions required to create a playable game about the Gallic Wars, the game offered new paths into scholarship, along trails currently being blazed by fellow Classicists who treat gaming as a new frontier in research.

Thursday at 7 pm
Seeking Uxellodunum: Caesar’s Gallic Wars and Restoration France
Diane Josefowicz, Ph.D., author of Riddle of the Rosetta (Princeton University Press, 2020)
Tucked into Caesar’s account of the Gallic Wars is an account of the Roman siege of  Uxellodunum, a hilltop fortification in ancient Cadurci territory located in the present-day Dordogne region of France. The siege, which ended in disaster for the Cadurci, became a component of early modern French national identity. In 1816, Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832), eventual decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs, and his brother, Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac (1878-1867), a scholar of ancient Greek, were exiled to their hometown in the Dordorgne as punishment for their anti-Bourbon activities. During their exile, the brothers, assisted by local antiquarians and grandees with archaeological interests, attempted to locate the ancient site of Uxellodunum. Their quest engaged them with the local politics of antiquity, heritage, and memory, as various towns in the area vied for the distinction of being recognized as the true site of Uxellodunum. In this talk, I’ll tell the story of their search for Uxellodunum in terms of the ancient battle’s regional and national significance at this time.

Friday at 11 am
To Gaze from Elsewhere: ‘Looking’ at Pasts and Futures in Mexican and Puerto Rican Classical Reception
Joshua Hartman, Bowdoin College
This talk introduces major figures within the history of Puerto Rican and Mexican receptions of Greek and (especially) Latin literature.  Two case studies will focus on Neo-Latin poetry in Mexico and vernacular poetry in Puerto Rico.  The first will comprise a longer investigation of a Neo-Latin epic from colonial Mexico, the Guadalupe of Jose Antonio Villerías (1695-1728), focused especially on how the poem’s principal actors “look” at the past, what the politics of such looking may be, and how they are informed by engagement with the Latin epic tradition.  As a kind of epilogue, I will also preview a new project in Puerto Rican reception: an analysis of Luis Muñoz Rivera’s Mens Divinior (c. 1900), a Spanish poem that examines the vitality of the classical tradition in Latin America, including perspectives on “looking” at the past and future, in dialogue with ancient and modern literary traditions.

Friday at 5:30 pm
Salvete Omnes Means Howdy, Y’All: Reflections of a Taiwanese-American Texan Classicist
Angeline Chiu, University of Vermont

Saturday at 11 am
The Gloria Duclos Lecture
Ancient Worlds in Our Community: Building Connections with Local Educational Partnerships
Kelly Dugan, Trinity College
Now, more than ever, as educators we are conscious of the importance of engaging with the community beyond our institutions and helping others to enjoy learning about antiquity. This talk offers strategies for mindfully building and improving local community learning partnerships where all parties feel included, encouraged, and respected. I will share my experiences with co-creating and co-directing the local middle school educational partnership “Ancient Worlds in Our Community” (AWOC) with Mrs. Carrie Keena, 6th grade World Languages Teacher in the Hartford Public School System. Mrs. Keena and I created AWOC in 2020 by brainstorming new approaches for teaching mythology and ancient languages to young students. Since then, the program has grown substantially and now fulfills requirements and academic credit for Hartford middle schoolers and Trinity College students alike. By the end of this 2021-2022 school year, AWOC will have trained 30 undergraduate students in teaching ancient mythologies to 140 middle schoolers. Thanks to educational grants and external support, including from CANE, AWOC has been able to give each middle schooler that participates free books, an Award of Excellence in Ancient Studies, and the unending value of learning ancient mythology.

CSI 2022 Registration information

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

Register online by clicking here

  1. Registration periods.  The regular registration period runs until June 1. Late registration runs until June 15, for an additional $25 fee.
  2. What tuition covers: one morning and one afternoon mini-course, plus optional participation in professional development workshops, and Greek & Latin reading groups. In-person tuition is $300; virtual tuition is $200. Lectures are free, open to the public, and will be available both in person and virtually via livestream.
  3. Both mini-courses must be in the same instructional mode: either in-person or virtual. Workshops and reading groups will accommodate both in-person and virtual participants. CANE welcomes people under 18 years old in the virtual format only.
  4. Workshops and reading groups: professional development workshops and Greek and Latin reading groups are offered to CSI students, Monday through Friday afternoons. Sessions will be either hybrid or fully online, to accommodate participants in both the in-person and virtual formats
  5. Enrollment in CSI requires membership in CANE. Your registration for CSI 2022 is not complete until your membership status has been verified. The CANE membership year runs from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023. As you register for CSI, please join or renew your membership for 2022-23. The link brings you to the membership page of caneweb.org, which also outlines all the benefits of membership. Choose regular membership ($50) or student membership ($15). Thank you for your support of CANE!
  6. In-person participants may choose to board at Brown University or to participate as day students. Registrants who wish to participate in the in-person program must be at least 18 years old by July 11, 2022. In-person participants must abide by Brown policies.
  7. Lodging (optional): at Brown University dormitories in air-conditioned single- or double-occupancy rooms, 5 nights’ accommodation and linen service ($290)
  8. Meals (optional): at the Brown University dining halls, 4 lunches ($70), 4 dinners ($80), the Friday night convivium ($40
  9. Parking (optional): 6 days at Brown University ($90). Local street parking is available to day students.
  10. Early arrival is available: Sunday night lodging ($55), parking ($15)
  11. Deposit. A non-refundable $100 deposit is due at registration. The balance is due by June 1. For late registrants, the balance is due by June 15.
  12. Professional Development and Continuing Education Credits. Teachers will receive certificates and letters of participation & documentation of received instruction hours. UMass Boston MAT students may be able to earn graduate credit: contact Professor Peter Barrios-Lech.

    Accommodation requests All CSI facilities are handicapped accessible. Please indicate your need for special accommodations for mobility, auxiliary communication aids, dietary needs, or other forms of assistance in a note with the registration form, or in an e-mail to the CSI Director Meredith Safran (summerinst@caneweb.org).

    COVID 19 precautions As guests on campus, CSI participants will abide by the policy that Brown University establishes regarding COVID 19. We are currently awaiting news from Brown about what their summer policy will be. Updates will be posted on “Healthy Brown” : https://healthy.brown.edu/ . In the meantime, CANE may set our own policy for CSI, so long as it is not less stringent than Brown’s policy during that week. The CSI policy will be that all participants wear N95 or comparable-efficacy masks (covering the nose and mouth) while indoors at CSI courses, workshops, reading groups, public lectures, and in common areas (e.g., dorm hallways, classroom building elevators). CSI will purchase such masks to share with participants.