The 32nd Annual Faculty and Staff Authors Reception, held in the Christoph M. Kimmich Reading Room, shone a spotlight on more than 30 individuals whose recent works鈥攊ncluding scholarly books, novels, monographs, poetry, and other creative artistic pieces鈥攐ffer fresh insight into our world and deepen our collective imagination.

The 32nd Annual Faculty and Staff Authors Reception shone a spotlight on scholarly books, novels, monographs, poetry, and other creative artistic pieces by faculty and staff.

The talent came from the schools of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts; Education; Humanities and Social Sciences; and Natural and Behavioral Sciences, the Department of Classics, as well as the Division of Institutional Advancement. The works ranged from CUNY Presidential Professor of Art Archie Rand鈥檚 artistic work in Popeye, Unchained and Archie Rand: Oz, to Associate Professor of Education Yoon-Joo Lee鈥檚 fascinating and personal book, Stories on Disability Through Our Voices: Born This Way.

President Michelle J. Anderson praised the honorees, acknowledging the dedication behind every publication鈥攖he late nights, countless revisions, and the unshakable passion for their craft鈥攁nd describing the event as a way for the college to say: We see your work, we value it, and we are incredibly proud.

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Bedford echoed that sentiment, expressing gratitude for the honorees鈥� scholarship and creativity. She reminded everyone of the privilege and responsibility of being part of a community of ideas鈥攁 place that champions lifelong learning and intellectual growth.

Lucas Rubin, the College鈥檚 Assistant Dean for 可乐视频 and director of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, had his book The Latin/Greek Institute at the City University of New York on display.

鈥淚 especially enjoyed seeing the depth and breadth of material, which spanned the scholarly to the creative, with works intended for audiences of all ages,鈥� Rubin said. 鈥淚 was particularly delighted to take part this year, as the first chapter of my book is a retrospective of 可乐视频鈥檚 Department of Classics, which has had a remarkable and storied history, especially in its outsized contributions to language pedagogy.鈥�

First held in 1993, the event was thoughtfully organized and hosted by Mary Mallery, chief librarian and director of Academic IT, with key support from Judith Wild, associate librarian for acquisitions, cataloging, serials, and interlibrary loans. Together, they welcomed the extended 可乐视频 family, including President Michelle J. Anderson, Provost April Bedford, Associate Dean for Faculty and Administration James T. Eaton, and many others.

The full list of authors and their contributions is available .

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Adding a dramatic outdoor flair on April 29 with help from dedicated faculty in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and students, the spotlight turned to the dynamic period between late antiquity and the Middle Ages鈥攕panning the third to 15th centuries鈥攐ffering visitors an immersive glimpse into a pivotal era of human history.

Far from a dusty history lesson, the series of events and presentations offered an immersive celebration of the premodern period, when the world鈥檚 modern institutions鈥攍ike universities, the nation-state, and the Catholic Church鈥攚ere being invented in Europe, and when indigenous communities populated North America. Undergraduates and graduate students alike collaborated across disciplines to breathe life into the past, showcasing everything from medieval drama to ancient spells to indigenous roads.

One of the Expo’s most ambitious endeavors came courtesy of History Professor Lauren Mancia, who, alongside nine students, unveiled a piece of what will be a dramatic restaging of the York Mystery Cycle鈥攁 sweeping series of 14th-century plays depicting stories from sacred history. With support from numerous grants and awards, including the New York Medieval Society Teaching Award and a Medieval Academy of America Centennial Grant, this performance-as-research project is headed to , where the team will join 17 other groups from across North America in a scholarly conference that blends performance with academic inquiry.

Mancia鈥檚 students spent the semester diving deep into medieval performance practices, staging early renditions of their pageants in open-air settings before offering a sneak peek at the Expo. Their final performance will take place on campus on June 2 at 1:30 p.m. (rain date: June 3), alongside the performance group from Fordham.

Donning T-shirts to celebrate the day they spent commemorating and educating the campus about premodernism the energy on the East Quad was palpable as students performed plays and engaged with other Medieval-related historical projects.

Adelaide Snow, a passionate History major, has spent the past year diving deep into the Medieval period under the guidance of Professor Mancia. She believes that exploring the premodern world offers powerful insights into our present and origins. On Day 2 of the HSS Expo, Snow helped bring history to life on the East Quad, working behind the scenes as a script assistant to support student-actors during the dynamic historical play performances.

鈥淗istory is not predetermined; this applies to all aspects of our lives,鈥� Snow said. 鈥淎ctually, the university is a premodern invention, and it鈥檚 important to study the premodern period so we know where we are and how we got here.鈥�

Student-actor Julia Krzysztalowicz is studying Spanish Translation and also taking the Medieval Ages course with Mancia. She said the best part of performing the plays “Adam and Eve” and “The Temptation of Jesus” was the reactions from the audiences.

鈥淢edieval plays are different. There is no etiquette for how this theater should be, so you can just go around and talk to the audience, and they can even talk back and throw something at you,鈥� Krzysztalowicz said. 鈥淭hrough these performances, you is how we discover a lot of this history of the Medieval Ages.鈥�

Mancia said the Expo showcases what the humanities and social sciences do best: investigate the world and its history from multiple angles and through student-led, experiential learning; collaborate in seminar classrooms where professors learn alongside students and ultimately engage with the wider Brooklyn and New York City communities; and use our study of the human creative and investigative spirit to infuse our contemporary world with a renewed commitment to discovery, knowledge-seeking, and community-building.

(Left to right) Students Jonathan Rakhamimov, History M.A. ’26, as Adam; Katryna Alexis, MHC Education/Theater ’27, as God the Father; and Lina Mazioui, MHC History ’27, perform the play 鈥淎dam and Eve.鈥�

But the York plays were just the beginning. Building on the strong community of premodern scholars at 可乐视频 through the Late Antique-Medieval-Early Modern Faculty Working Group and others, the Expo also featured a rich lineup of interactive, hands-on experiences. Highlights included:

鈥� Monastic Scribes: Students joined Mancia in re-creating a medieval scriptorium, complete with manuscript illumination and Byzantine icon-painting using historical techniques.

鈥� Scent of the Past: History Professor Karen B. Stern Gabbay and her students crafted a 鈥減remodern sensorium,鈥� letting visitors quite literally smell their way through the history of late antiquity.

鈥� Mapping the Premodern Campus: Anthropology Assistant Professor Kelly Britt and students offered a glimpse of 鈥渋ndigenous 可乐视频,鈥� revealing what the land and culture may have looked like before settler colonialism.

鈥� Curses and Charms: Classics Associate Professor Brian P. Sowers and his Tow student mentee led a workshop on ancient curse tablets and magical rituals, proving the supernatural was alive and well in the premodern imagination.

Classics Associate Professor Brian P. Sowers (right) talks about ancient curse tablets and magical rituals.

鈥� Medieval Debate Club: English professors Karl T. Steel and Nicola Masciandaro and Professor of Philosophy Andrew W. Arlig staged a spirited debate using rhetorical techniques from the earliest European universities.

Sirandrew Purcell, Education MA ’27, gives a class on how to be a medieval knight.

鈥� Traveling Troubadour: CUNY Graduate Center Ph.D. candidate, Lehman College Adjunct Professor, and founder of Christopher Preston Thompson serenaded the campus with medieval songs and harp music.

Christopher Preston Thompson, from Lehman College/CUNY Graduate Center and Ph.D. candidate and director of Concordian Dawn.

And the medieval festivities aren鈥檛 over yet. On May 10, Mancia will take students to the Met Cloisters for a special event titled The afternoon includes student-led museum tours and performances of 14th-century plays and processions on the Cloisters lawn, followed by a student-led discussion about the theme of temptation and how engaging with medieval art and performance has shaped their understanding of the past.

In total, this year鈥檚 HSS Expo featured an impressive 67 student presentations and 34 research posters supported by 24 dedicated faculty mentors. The campus buzzed with activity over the two days as students shared their work, while nine distinguished alumni delivered thought-provoking guest lectures鈥攂oth in person and via Zoom. A panel of 15 judges, including faculty, graduate students, and alumni, evaluated the presentations, adding a professional and celebratory dimension to the events. (See the full HSS Expo schedule here.)

Whether through scent, song, storytelling, or sacred drama, the 2025 HSS Expo proved one thing: the premodern world is anything but outdated.

Don’t miss the 2025 HSS Expo Awards Ceremony on May 6 at 5 p.m. in the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts.

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Founded in 1973, the LGI鈥攁dministered by 可乐视频鈥檚 Department of Classics in partnership with the CUNY Graduate Center鈥攃ompresses five to six terms of Latin or Ancient Greek instruction into a 50-day summer program. Completing the program demands extraordinary focus, commitment, and dedication, and offers an intensive academic experience unlike any other.

Now, to commemorate its legacy and share its story with a wider audience, LGI Director Lucas Rubin has published , released on April 15. With almost 200 images, this pictorial retrospective surveys the history, academics, traditions, and dramatis personae of this unique academic enterprise.

Rubin, who became director in 2020, credits the LGI as a defining force in his own academic path, leading to his doctorate in classical archaeology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

鈥淎s an alumnus, I know firsthand that the institute made both my academic and professional life possible鈥攁s it has for almost 3,000 others,鈥� Rubin reflects. 鈥淣o matter how much I work to support and advance the LGI, it鈥檚 a debt of gratitude I don鈥檛 think I鈥檒l ever fully repay.鈥�

Drawing from the 可乐视频 and Graduate Center archives and augmented by the contributions of faculty and alumni, Rubin鈥檚 book traces the institute鈥檚 journey from its prehistory鈥攖he establishment of the college鈥檚 first classics department鈥攖o its creation by now-retired Professor Floyd L. Moreland, through its subsequent evolution to becoming the powerhouse of language training it is today.

Curious to learn more about the LGI鈥檚 impact? Read our Q&A with Rubin, held during the institute鈥檚 milestone 50th anniversary.

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Tell us a bit about your childhood.

I had a terrific鈥攊f somewhat sheltered鈥攃hildhood. I grew up on East 38th Street between Avenues I and J. My parents were immigrants from Jamaica. We first lived in an apartment on Ocean Avenue. Then one Sunday after church, my parents showed us a house across from Amersfort Park between East 38th and East 39th off Avenue I. They told us that it would be our home. As a child, I played many baseball games and participated in countless foot races in that park. It鈥檚 about a mile from 可乐视频.

How did you decide to study at 可乐视频?

I was originally going to the School of Visual Arts (SVA). In high school, I was immersed in photography. It afforded me a certain proximity to my dad, who loved the craft. He left his own aspirations in the field when he departed from Jamaica, but he built a darkroom for me in our basement. Still, on some level, it didn鈥檛 feel practical for the son of immigrants to become a photographer instead of a doctor or lawyer or engineer. Unfortunately, I had already been admitted to SVA and was at a loss as to what to do next. 可乐视频 had rolling admission, so that summer I applied and enrolled that fall. The more aspirational reason I ended up at 可乐视频 is that it was highly regarded in my neighborhood. My aunt had taken some classes there, so there was something familiar and welcoming about it.

So, you made a sudden switch from art school to a liberal arts college. Did you know what you wanted to major in?

Once I decided on 可乐视频 and saw the language offerings, Ancient Greek was a no-brainer. Growing up in a religious household, I often heard our pastor reference the Greek New Testament. In our adolescent searches for meaning, we all still turn to the familiar, even when it extends a bit out of our comfort zone. I took Ancient Greek from my first semester. After taking Core 1, I ended up being a peer tutor for the class, which gave me an early taste of what it would be like to be a teacher.

Then you took Professor Gail T. Smith’s Core 1 class, Classical Origins of Western Civilization.

The arc of my professional career started with the late Professor Smith and Dean Kathleen Gover. Most of the professors in the Classics Department mentored me in some way or another. The late Howard Wolman, who taught my beginning Greek classes, had students over to his house frequently, and he invited us to the theater and other cultural events in the city. [Professor Emerita] Dee Clayman let me work on a major classics bibliography that she was digitizing at the time, the L鈥橝nn茅e philologique. And [Professor Emeritus] Edward Harris was an eminent scholar of Greek law who was my mentor for an honor鈥檚 program thesis.

At the time I did not realize how unique it was to have not only an African-American classicist in Professor Smith as a teacher, but also Mervyn Keizer, who was also Afro-descended, also on the faculty, and someone I greatly admired. By the time I entered graduate school at Yale, I began to feel isolated鈥擨 was the only Black person in the classics program.

How did you overcome that isolation?

The late Greek historian Donald Kagan, also a 可乐视频 alumnus and director of graduate studies at Yale, helped by showing me what a classicist could be.

I also addressed the isolation by reading the works of other African Americans who drew from the classics. I had always wanted to read Ralph Ellison鈥檚 Invisible Man in college. I finally delved into the novel early in my career, and it blew my mind. My first book, Ulysses in Black, explores how Ellison and other authors, like Toni Morrison, drew from classical myth and literature. Ulysses in Black set me on a path to seeing the classics as ubiquitous tools for understanding our world, even if these tools are hidden in plain sight.

Still, the classics carry a reputation of being an esoteric subject. How do you make them accessible and relevant to your students?

For many students, the classics are already relevant. A meme was going around recently on TikTok about how often men think about the Roman Empire. This was so much a part of popular culture that the actor Jason Momoa had a skit on Saturday Night Live drawing from the meme. The issue is that the classics do not feel relevant to certain students. Or, perhaps 鈥渨e鈥濃�� the majority culture, even some teachers鈥攄o not believe those students belong or will be drawn to the subject matter. Figures like Toni Morrison dispel the myth.

You are a Black classicist, but what is Black classicism?

鈥淏lack classicism鈥� is a term that the scholar Michele Valerie Ronnick coined to characterize the indelible role that education in Greek and Latin has always played in the lives of Black Americans from the very foundation of the country. African Americans studying the European classics is odd only in our contemporary context, where few people, even from the broader population, know the history, literature, or mythology of Greece and Rome. In the time of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the African poet Phillis Wheatley learned Latin and subtly instructed her enslavers in individual and collective freedom. Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass read Greek and Roman rhetoric in translation, and they certainly influenced his legendary oratorical style. By the mid-to 20th century, not all readers would have expected African-American authors like Richard Wright or Ralph Ellison to be steeped in the classics. Still, these authors left many traces of their classical learning鈥攚hether self-taught or otherwise鈥攐n the page. I believe Professor Ronnick was drawing on wider studies in the field, like Meyer Reinhold鈥檚 Classica Americana, to name a subset (鈥渂lack classicism鈥�) of the longstanding affinity for the classics within the United States.

Afro-futurism has come into its own as a field of study and as a literary genre. Do you see any connections between Afro-futurism and the classics?

There is absolutely a connection. I鈥檓 slowly making my way through John Szwed鈥檚 biography of Sun Ra (Herman Poole Blount), the jazz musician widely regarded as one of the founders of Afro-futurism. I have been struck by Sun Ra鈥檚 hearkening to the past, to ancient Egypt, in his futurism. Through the connection to Egypt and their Nubian predecessors, Sun Ra conceived of a once-and-soon-to-be great people. He moved Blackness from the real identity around him to a crafted one that drew from the past and was somehow out of time. I am extremely interested in this connection and the deeper and broader question of why people study the past in the first place. I am not a historian, but the past is also an imagined space where we rewrite the present.

We鈥檝e seen classics scholars like you go on to work in fields outside of academia. What are some of the other practical applications of the field?

Classicists are everywhere. I spent over a decade and a half as a higher education administrator, and some of the most successful administrators I have met have been classicists. The field comprises many disciplines, including the study of languages, material culture in art and archaeology, and increasingly, scientific study that includes understanding of DNA and ancient DNA. As such, it teaches complexity, problem-solving, and focus, to name only a few skills. Classicists make good lawyers, doctors, and most importantly, good citizens. I wish more of our elected officials had a foundation in civics and the study of democracy.

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You can read the piece听.

The post Professor Liv Mariah Yarrow on 鈥淔inding Graduate Funding to Study Antiquity鈥� appeared first on 可乐视频.

鈥淚 have always taught with coins,鈥� Yarrow said. 鈥淢any of my 可乐视频 students have gone on to do research internships on coinage of all eras at the American Numismatics Society, for which I serve as a fellow.听 Coins make the events of the past tangible to our students. This is particularly true of the end of the Roman republic where the fraught politics of the day appear again and again on the coinage. This book helps me bring some of that classroom experience to a wider audience, while simultaneously helping make the research of the last 40 years including my own much more widely accessible.鈥�

Yarrow鈥檚 book is part of the Guides to the Coinage of the Ancient World series co-published by Cambridge University Press and the American Numismatic Society to integrate numismatic evidence鈥攅specially high-definition photos鈥攊nto course materials communicating the history and archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean world.

Along with her previous book, 鈥�,鈥澨� Yarrow has also had the distinction of being Co-principal investigator for the Roman Republican Die Project, for the American Numismatic Society, as well as a Kraay Visiting Scholar at Oxford.

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Also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship was Kelly Copper 鈥�07, M.F.A. Playwriting. Copper and her husband, Pavol Liska, are the founders of the theater company Nature Theater of Oklahoma in New York and were selected from the drama and performing arts category.

鈥溈衫质悠� is proud of the current faculty members, Todd Chandler and Tanya Pollard, and our alumna, Kelly Copper, who join this prestigious cohort of scholars and artists making a positive impact on the world. We congratulate them on this great honor,鈥� said 可乐视频 President Michelle J. Anderson.

Pollard joined 可乐视频 in Fall 2007 and mainly teaches Shakespeare, early modern literature, and the history of the English language. Her research is focused on Shakespeare and early modern playwrights. She was trained in classics, English, and comparative literature, at the University of Oxford and Yale University.

Pollard is the author of Greek Tragic Women on Shakespearean Stages (Oxford, 2017) and Drugs and Theater in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2005) and has edited or co-edited an additional five books, including most recently Reader in Tragedy: An Anthology of Classical Criticism to Contemporary Theory (Bloomsbury, 2019), co-edited with Marcus Nevitt. Awards include a Rhodes Scholarship, a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship, and a Whiting Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching.

As for the Guggenheim Fellowship, Pollard plans to take some time off from teaching to work on a current book project,听which she calls 鈥渁 biography of a marriage between Shakespeare and his leading actor Richard Burbage.鈥�

鈥淚’m thrilled that, among other things, this award puts me in the wonderful company of other 可乐视频 English Department members who have had the same fellowship in recent years, including Ben Lerner [2013] and Helen Phillips [2020] and my CUNY Graduate Center English Department colleague Wayne Koestenbaum, who is also one of this year’s fellows. CUNY is an amazing place, and I am very grateful to be surrounded by so many creative, warm, and supportive colleagues and students,鈥� Pollard said.

Pollard has also earned a Whiting Fellowship (2010), an NEH Fellowship (2006-7), a Frances Yates Fellowship (at the Warburg Institute, 1997-8), a Mellon Fellowship (1993), and a Rhodes Scholarship (1990).

Chandler, a filmmaker and Adjunct Associate Professor from the Film Department directed the documentary Bulletproof, which screened at over two dozen festivals worldwide and was called 鈥渄reamlike and startling,鈥� by The New York Times and 鈥渁 quiet gut punch of a film,鈥� by The Guardian. He was one of Filmmaker Magazine鈥檚 鈥�25 New Faces of Independent Film鈥� in 2019, a fellow at the Sundance Non-Fiction Director鈥檚 Residency, and a Points North Fellow. In 2020 he received the Hot Docs International Emerging Filmmaker Award for Bulletproof.

Chandler’s work explores American rituals, landscapes, and systems of power, and his films and installations have been featured at True/False, IDFA, Doclisboa, the Hammer Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Mass MoCA.听听Chandler has been supported by Creative Capital, Field of Vision, Sundance Institute, International Documentary Association, Doc Society, and ITVS, among others.

Chandler is also an accomplished film editor who was the lead editor and a human rights video advocacy trainer at WITNESS. He edited the Academy Award-nominated documentary short film, In the Absence, directed by Seung-jun Yi, and Reid Davenport鈥檚 feature documentary I Didn鈥檛 See You There, which won Davenport the U.S. Documentary Directing Award at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and the Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award.

For 2023, the awards went to 48 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields and 72 different academic institutions. This year鈥檚 class of Fellows, who range in age from 31 to 85, represent 24 states and the District of Columbia, as well as two Canadian provinces. Close to 50 Fellows have no current full-time college or university affiliation. Many Fellows鈥� projects directly respond to issues like the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, democracy and policing, scientific innovation, climate change, and identity.

鈥淟ike Emerson, I believe that fullness in life comes from following our calling,鈥� said Edward Hirsch, President of the Guggenheim Foundation and 1985 Fellow in Poetry. 鈥淭he new class of Fellows has followed their calling to enhance all of our lives, to provide greater human knowledge and deeper understanding. We鈥檙e lucky to look to them to bring us into the future.鈥�

About the Guggenheim Foundation听

Created and initially funded in 1925 by Senator Simon and Olga Guggenheim in memory of their son John Simon Guggenheim, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has sought since its inception to 鈥渇urther the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions.鈥�

Since its establishment, the Foundation has granted nearly $400 million in fellowships to over 18,000 individuals, among whom are more than 125 Nobel Prize laureates, members of all the national academies, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Fields Medal, Turing Award, Bancroft Prize, National Book Award, and other internationally recognized honors. The great range of fields of study is a unique characteristic of the fellowship program.

The Foundation centers the talents and instincts of the Fellows, whose passions often have a broad and immediate impact. For example, Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1936 with the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship and dedicated it to the Foundation鈥檚 first president, Henry Allen Moe. Photographer Robert Frank鈥檚 seminal book, The Americans, was the product of a cross-country tour supported by two Guggenheim Fellowships. The accomplishments of other early Fellows like Jacob Lawrence, Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Martha Graham, and Linus Pauling also demonstrate the strength of the Foundation鈥檚 core values and the power and impact of its approach.

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Students are taught by experienced instructors, the majority of whom are alumni of the institute, and graduates prepared to excel in advanced or upper-division reading courses and to sit for graduate departmental translation exams. Simply put, if you need (or want) to learn to read Latin and/or Greek in a compressed amount, there is nothing else like a summer at the Institute.

We asked the LGI鈥檚 director, Lucas G. Rubin, who is also the College鈥檚 Assistant Dean for Academic Programs, more about its history and what makes it so special.

可乐视频: Tell us about your connection with the LGI. When did you become the director?

LR: Like many of our students, I came late to the study of the ancient world. A college class in Roman archaeology captured my attention. I had always been interested in history, architecture, and the built environment, but the ancient Roman world became my calling. From there, I took every course in the ancient world that I could. I was really interested in graduate study, but the language requirements for classical archaeology were (and remain) significant: Latin and Greek, plus German and (at least) one romance language. I鈥檇 had a good amount of French, but there was some significant catching up to do. It was then that the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute was suggested. I enrolled in Latin, and it was truly a transformative experience. A few weeks after the summer was over, I stepped right into fourth-year reading courses with ease. The following summer I completed the Greek program.

A decade or so later, I completed a Ph.D. in Classics and ended up falling into a career in academic administration. I was at Columbia University for a long stretch and came to 可乐视频 in Summer 2014 as Assistant Dean for Academic Programs, a position that predominates in the fall and spring.

In 2020, my predecessor at the institute, Kathrine Hsu, left, and President Anderson asked me to assume the directorship in the wake of her departure; she had recalled a conversation several years before where I had mentioned my connection to鈥攁nd extraordinary gratitude for鈥攖he Institute.

Needless to say, my first two years proved very challenging. With COVID-19, we were unable to run our basic Latin and Greek programs in 2020 or 2021 (we did, however, offer upper-level reading programs online). This last summer was my first 鈥渞eal鈥� experience as director; it was a baptism (of fire, one could say) almost two years after I stepped into the role!

可乐视频: Fifty years is something to be proud of. Can you tell us about the institute鈥檚 origins?

LR: The institute鈥檚 founder, Floyd Moreland, had started an intensive Latin program鈥攚hile still a graduate student鈥攁t UC Berkeley. At the time, its Comp Lit department required a Latin comprehension exam, which fewer and fewer otherwise qualified candidates were able to pass. The department was steadfast in the importance of the language, and, at the suggestion of Berkeley鈥檚 Classics Department, recruited Moreland to create an intensive summer program that would position comp lit students to sit for (and pass) their required Latin exam. The program was launched in Summer 1967 and achieved its aims, so much so that the program was retained and expanded. The Berkeley Latin Workshop (with a Greek program added later) remains and is very much our progenitor. In a few instances, some of the voluminous handouts LGI students receive connect back to their 1960s prototypes!

The Berkeley Workshop caught the attention of one of 可乐视频鈥檚 most impactful leaders, Ethyle Wolfe. As (then) chair of the Classics Department, and soon-to-become its humanities dean and later provost, she was keen on starting a similar program here. Moreland received his Ph.D. in 1971 and joined 可乐视频鈥檚 faculty that fall. Over the next two years, he made revisions to the program and recruited and trained a faculty in his techniques. Most significantly, in his first year on campus, he overheard a colleague, Rita Fleischer, drilling her students on Latin forms. It was an off day, but she had required her students to come in nonetheless. Moreland was impressed by her commitment to teaching and her emphasis on mastery of the basics. She became his partner in building the institute and its eventual assistant director. Fleischer continues to work (and occasionally teaches) in the institute. Every one of our almost 3,000 graduates knows her, and she stays in touch with many of them.

In 1978, a Greek program was added (something Moreland had always intended). The process was advantaged by the presence of classics (then assistant) professor Hardy Hansen who joined by Fordham鈥檚 Gerry Quinn, developed the program in alignment with the methodology of the institute. Hardy is a genuine legend, having been repeatedly recognized by disciplinary organizations for his importance to the teaching of Ancient Greek. He still teaches three weeks every summer.

In the early 1980s, more advanced programs were introduced. These were redesigned in the 2010s and are now known as the Upper Latin and Upper Greek programs. These rotate every summer, and Latin is sometimes taught online.

可乐视频: What do you think has been the secret to the institute鈥檚 longevity?

LR: It accomplishes exactly what it intends to do, and can point to a long track record of success in this regard. There鈥檚 nothing else quite like a summer at the institute: It is arguably one of the hardest experiences of its kind, but also one of the most rewarding. In the Basic Greek program, for instance, students start reading Plato鈥檚听Ion听on Day 31, which they go on to complete in nine days. Only a month before, they鈥檇 just learned the alphabet. That鈥檚 a remarkable feat.

Although we鈥檙e in the business of language and text, it鈥檚 challenging (and maybe impossible) to describe a summer at the institute; frankly, there鈥檇 be far too many superlative adjectives about 鈥渞igor,鈥� 鈥渋ntensity,鈥� and 鈥渃ommitment.鈥� It鈥檚 something that has to be experienced.

As an alumnus, I know the institute made my academic and subsequent career possible, as it has for many. No matter how much I work to support and advance the institute, it鈥檚 a debt of gratitude I don鈥檛 think I can ever actually repay.

可乐视频: Is there anything special planned for the anniversary?听

LR: Since January, I鈥檝e been听doing a 鈥�50 in 50鈥� every Friday, tweeting out and posting to our Facebook page various materials (letters, photographs, flyers, etc.) that tell and celebrate the institute鈥檚 history. Most have never been seen before鈥擨 spent a lot of time in the archives and collecting materials from alumni and current/former staff and faculty. In my spare time, I am working on an illustrated history of the institute, scheduled to be published in spring 2024.

The LGI also constitutes about a third of an upcoming exhibition on pre-modernist women scholars, opening May 2. The link here is Ethyle Wolfe. Although women have always been strongly represented in the faculty, it鈥檚 a logical connection and one worth highlighting. We鈥檒l also be holding a birthday party on August 18 in tandem with this summer鈥檚 graduation.

可乐视频: What听makes the LGI different from other intensive language programs?

LR: The curriculum and the faculty who deliver it. At its core, the program that Moreland developed for Berkeley, improved upon and revised/updated over the decades, is shaped around generating and ensuring learning momentum.

This manifests in several ways. Faculty are on call at all times outside of the classroom to assist students who might be struggling. There is also a range of built-in scaffolds, such as a daily grammar review. Almost every morning begins with small-section drills, at which students demonstrate their understanding of and facility with the material taught the previous afternoon鈥攊t鈥檚 not designed to reteach, so questions or challenges a student might have when working through new material are resolved ASAP. Another example: Although students are required to memorize a large amount of vocabulary, new vocabulary is glossed on the same page. In the latter half of the basic programs, when students are reading a large number of original texts in Latin or Greek, this saves significant time that would otherwise be spent thumbing through a dictionary.

At the same time, grammar is sequenced not by complexity but by its necessity to position students to read original Latin and Greek as soon as possible. 听Students in the Basic Latin Program, for instance, are introduced to the subjunctive mood (the mood of potentiality, intent, uncertainty, etc.: 鈥淚f only I were an astronaut!鈥� [but I鈥檓 not]) on Day 2 of their studies. It鈥檚 impossible to read original Latin of any length without knowing the subjunctive. By way of comparison,听Wheelock鈥檚 Latin鈥攐ne of the most popular textbooks in the language鈥攄oes so in Chapter 28.

To make it all work, every hour of every program is planned in meticulous detail.听Faculty start working in January and, regardless of how many years one has taught, walk through the entirety of the curriculum in advance to ensure complete synchronicity and alignment.

Almost all of our faculty are alumni and come from an array of backgrounds, many working outside of academia. They are all deeply invested in their teaching and are very good at what they do. The summer is as rigorous for them as it is for the students. It鈥檚 a labor of love more than anything else.

可乐视频: What kinds of people take advantage of the LGI, and why are they coming every summer?

LR: The LGI, at its most essential, is a training program鈥攚e teach Latin and Greek in an accelerated format. We do this well, and we stay focused on this as the LGI鈥檚 mission.

The audience is those who need or want to learn Latin or Greek rapidly. Our largest constituencies are advanced undergraduates, postbaccalaureate, and early-career graduate students who require facility with the language(s) for research and/or degree requirements. The majority of these folks are studying in fields outside the Classics. Historically, of those graduates who鈥檝e gone on to complete Ph.D.s, the highest represented fields are political science, philosophy, art history, English, and comp lit. Classics and especially classical archaeology come right after. In our upper classes, we get many more classics students, who are seeking to improve their skills by reading a large number of texts with grammatical and syntactical precision in a short amount of time.

That said, the demographics of our students have also changed. Since 1995 and again since 2011, the number of attendees from historically underrepresented groups has doubled. In addition, the number of international students has increased over the last two decades. Much of the expanded audience is due to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which established a million-dollar scholarship fund in 2016 to help support students, with a special focus on first-generation and/or BIPOC students. This, in turn, allows the LGI to help diversify the ranks of faculty and scholars in multiple disciplines by offering essential training in the requisite languages. It was a remarkable and transformative .

Going back to 1973, it鈥檚 always been an interesting audience鈥攁nd always a sprinkling of clergy and mathematicians. Last summer, students ranged in age from 17 to 72, so there鈥檚 a nice mix of motivations, experiences, and personalities.

可乐视频: How can people register for the LGI and get more information?

LR: This summer we鈥檙e offering basic Latin and Greek, both 10 weeks long, in person at the CUNY Graduate Center.听 We鈥檙e also offering a seven-week Upper Latin (minimum of two years of College Latin) online. One can apply through the website. 听Applications are closing soon, but we鈥檒l be happy to consider late submissions as well. In addition to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation scholarships, we have an array of opportunities to help support students.

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Smith鈥檚 lecture, 鈥淲hat I Believe,鈥� will be an intimate exploration into her life as a trailblazer who broke new ground as a Black feminist, lesbian, activist, author, publisher, and independent scholar who inspired generations. She was among the first to define an African American women鈥檚 literary tradition and to build Black women鈥檚 studies and Black feminism in the United States. She has been politically active in many movements for social justice since the 1960s.

鈥淚 am so honored to serve as the Hess Scholar-in-Residence during the 2022鈥�23 academic year,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淎t a time when some in our nation wish to limit the information and ideas that students can access, I look forward to expansive dialogues with members of 可乐视频鈥檚 wonderfully diverse community.鈥�

鈥淎s a writer, publisher, teacher, and organizer, Barbara Smith is a transformative force for justice. Her work has reshaped the American academy and society. We are honored to host her for a week of events culminating in the Hess Memorial Lecture,鈥� said Gaston Alonso, interim director for the Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities and associate professor of political science at 可乐视频.

This lecture event is free and open to the public and serves as the main highlight of the college鈥檚听听for 2022鈥�23.

The event will also feature President Michelle J. Anderson as well as听, distinguished professor of political science, and Professor of English听, interim dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

On November 29, Smith was part of a conversation on campus with Theoharis when they discussed selected clips from the documentary听, which features Smith and is based on Theoharis鈥� research and听听of the same name.

A prolific writer and publisher, Smith has edited three major collections about Black women:听Conditions: Five, The Black Women鈥檚 Issue听(with Lorraine Bethel, 1979);听All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women鈥檚 Studies听(with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia Bell-Scott, 1982); and听Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology听(1983). She is also the co-author, with Elly Bulkin and Minnie Bruce Pratt,听of Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism听(1984). Smith is the general editor of The Reader鈥檚 Companion to U.S. Women鈥檚 History听(with Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, and Gloria Steinem, 1998). A collection of her essays,听The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom, was published by Rutgers University Press in 1998.听Ain鈥檛 Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks with Barbara Smith, was published by SUNY Press in 2014.

The evening will also include mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford and the Conservatory Singers, 可乐视频’s select chamber ensemble, who will perform 鈥淎in’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.鈥� The group will be conducted by Associate Professor/Director of Choral Studies听, director of the New York Philharmonic Chorus.

This signature event will be held on Thursday, March 16, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Claire Tow Theater at 可乐视频. It will also be livestreamed on the听.

Highlights From the Hess Week Calendar, March 13鈥�20

Full calendar and speakers

Barbara Smith鈥擧ess Scholar-in-Residence Library Exhibit: An exhibit located in the main entrance of the 可乐视频 Library that will highlight the works and legacy of Barbara Smith. Archival material from the Robert L. Hess Collection will also be presented. Curated by Professor and Librarian Helen Georgas.

March 13, 11 a.m.鈥�12:15 p.m.: President Anderson Welcomes 2022鈥�23 Hess Scholar-in-Residence Barbara Smith听Woody Tanger Auditorium, 可乐视频 Library, and on听Zoom

March 13, 2:15鈥�3:30 p.m.: 鈥淚f Black women were free鈥︹��: The State of Black Feminism 2023听Woody Tanger Auditorium, 可乐视频 Library, and on听Zoom

March 14, 2:15鈥�3:45 p.m.: 鈥淭ransforming the U.S. Academy鈥�听Woody Tanger Auditorium, 可乐视频 Library, and livestreamed on the听.

March 15, 11 a.m.鈥�12:30 p.m.: 鈥淛ustice or Just Us?: Defining a Queer Agenda鈥�听Woody Tanger Auditorium, 可乐视频 Library, and livestreamed on the听.

March 15, 3:40鈥�4:55 p.m.: 鈥淭eaching as a Liberating Practice鈥�听Woody Tanger Auditorium, 可乐视频 Library, and livestreamed on the听.

March 16, 11 a.m.鈥�12:30 p.m.: 鈥淲orking for Liberation and Having a Damn Good Time鈥�听Woody Tanger Auditorium, 可乐视频 Library, and livestreamed on the听.

March 20, 6鈥�7:15 p.m.: 鈥淧utting Class Back Into Intersectionality鈥�听Online via听Zoom

About the Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program

The Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program, established by 可乐视频, is supported by the Robert L. Hess Fund. The program serves as a permanent tribute to the scholarly commitment of Robert L. Hess, exemplified during his tenure as president of 可乐视频. It represents the ideal of the educated individual鈥攌nowledgeable, thoughtful, inquiring, alive to the shared purposes and concerns linking all intellectual pursuits. More particularly, it evokes the scholarly and academic virtues embodied in the curriculum at 可乐视频.

The post Author and Activist Barbara Smith to Lecture at 可乐视频 on March 16 appeared first on 可乐视频.

Jeanne Theoharis

On November 29, from 2:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Smith will be part of a conversation on campus with 可乐视频鈥檚 Distinguished Professor of Political Science听Jeanne Theoharis. The pair will discuss selected clips from the documentary, 鈥�,鈥� which features Smith and is also based on Theoharis鈥� research and book of the same name. Smith and Theoharis will explore Rosa Parks’ life of freedom fighting, how the many myths of Parks and the movement cloud our understandings of social change, the roles and experiences of women in the movement, and the lessons this history provides for the work of organizing and social justice today. After their conversation, there will be a Q&A period for students, staff, and faculty.

The event will be held in the library鈥檚 Woody Tanger Auditorium and will also be livestreamed on the Wolfe Institute鈥檚 YouTube channel. At the speaker鈥檚 request, masks are required for the in-person event. Room 441 in the library will also be open for guests to watch the lecture online.

You can watch the livestream of the event

To stream the documentary for free before the event, 可乐视频 students, faculty, and staff can email:听wolfeinstitute@brooklyn.cuny.edu

More Hess Scholar-in-Residence lectures will be held in March 2023, and a complete schedule of events will be made available soon.

About the Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program

The Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program, established by 可乐视频, is supported by the Robert L. Hess Fund. The program serves as a permanent tribute to the scholarly commitment of Robert L. Hess, exemplified during his tenure as president of 可乐视频. It represents the ideal of the educated individual鈥攌nowledgeable, thoughtful, inquiring, alive to the shared purposes and concerns linking all intellectual pursuits. More particularly, it evokes the scholarly and academic virtues embodied in the curriculum at 可乐视频.

Sponsors

Africana Studies Department; American Studies Program; Anthropology Department; Caribbean Studies Program; Classics Department; the Shirley Chisholm Project; Communications Arts, Sciences, and Disorders Department; English Department; Film Department; History Department; the Honors Academy; Judaic Studies Department; the LGBTQ Resource Center; Modern Languages and Literatures Department; Philosophy Department; Political Science Department; Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Department; Sociology Department; Women鈥檚 and Gender Studies Program; and the Women鈥檚 Center at 可乐视频.

The post Author and Activist Barbara Smith Serving as 可乐视频鈥檚 Hess Scholar-in-Residence for 2022-23 appeared first on 可乐视频.