CFP: Failure and Flaws in Classical Antiquity
Submitted by Erik Shell on Tuesday, September 11, 2018 - 2:29pm
January 25-26, 2019, UCLA
In the poem "Failing and Flying", Jack Gilbert appeals to classical imagery to reconfigure the notion of failure: "Icarus was not failing as he fell," the poem concludes, "but only coming to the end of his triumph." Throughout antiquity, numerous forms of literary and material culture, as well as forms of reception, have grappled with real or imagined failure and flaws. The concept of failure is especially pressing because modern society persistently looks back to antiquity's failures in order to understand its own. By interrogating the use and meaning of failure both within classical works and in discussions about canon, genre, and reception, we aim to explore the interpretive value of failure for our understanding of the classical world.
The graduate students of the Department of Classics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) are pleased to announce the forthcoming graduate conference "Failure and Flaws in Classical Antiquity", which will take place January 25-26, 2019 at UCLA. The conference will feature a keynote address by Emily Greenwood (Professor of Classics, Yale University) on "Failure and Attribution: The Ethics and Politics of Reading Classical Failure." Graduate students in Classics and related fields are welcome to submit proposals for papers on topics including, but not limited to, the following themes:
Intentional failure: failure as a deliberate philosophical, rhetorical, or artistic strategy.
Consciousness of potential failure in antiquity: the anxiety of ancient authors and artists about living up to their predecessors.
Literary treatments of failure: thwarted love, flawed characters, fruitless wanderings.
Failures of language and perception.
Failures of genre: texts or objects considered flawed or "less than" examples of a genre.
Modern and ancient reinterpretations of canonical texts or material objects as failing in some way.
Misapplications or appropriations of antiquity throughout history.
Please submit abstracts of approximately 300 words as a .pdf to gradconference2019@gmail.com by no later than October 15th, 2018. Papers should be a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Please include your name and contact details in the submission email but do not include any identifying markers (name, affiliation) in the abstract itself. Applicants will be notified of their status approximately a month after the deadline. Further information will be available at gradconference2019.wordpress.com.
(Photo: "Handwritten" by A. Birkan, licensed under CC BY 2.0)
Follow SCS News for information about the SCS and all things classical.
Use this field to search SCS News
Select a category from this list to limit the content on this page.
Submissions for April Meeting of Program Committee
Instructions for submission of proposals to the APA Program Committee for review at its meeting in April will be posted here at the beginning of February. The deadline for receipt of these submissions will be no earlier than March 16, 2012. Until these instructions are posted, consult the information provided last year, especially the program policies, the descriptions of materials required for the different types of submissions, and the information on eligibility. (Note: Persons submitting proposals to the Program Committee this year must be members in good standing for 2012.) While the method of submission may be different this year, general policies and the materials required will be very similar and probably identical.
At its April meeting the Program Committee will consider the following types of submissions
Proposals of Sessions for the 2013 Annual Meeting
View full article. | Posted in SCS Announcements on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 3:00pm by Adam Blistein.
Message from APA President Jeffrey Henderson
The message below was sent to all APA members for whom we have a valid e-mail address on January 20, 2012.
Our joint annual meeting just completed in Philadelphia attracted over 3,000 registrants—one of our largest meetings ever. Daniel Mendelsohn got us off to a wonderful start by movingly reminding us why we devote our lives to the study of classical antiquity. Kathleen Coleman's Presidential Panel entitled "Images for Classicists" showed us new ways to carry out our work, and new initiatives from the Program Committee improved both the presentations at sessions and the discussions they stimulated. And to judge from the number of institutions conducting interviews through the Placement Service, even the job market (knock on wood) was improved over the last two years. All these efforts produced an energy that carried over to the book display, the CAMP performance, and, of course, the receptions. I look forward to working with you to maintain that energy during my Presidency.
View full article. | Posted in SCS Announcements on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 6:47pm by Adam Blistein.
Search for Editor of TAPA
Search for Editor of Transactions of the American Philological Association
Professor Katharina Volk has indicated her intention to complete her term as Editor at the 2014 Annual Meeting. The Editor, who must be a member in good standing of the Association, is initially appointed for four years, with the possibility of extension for a maximum of two additional years. The new editor's term officially begins in January 2014 and will cover volumes 144-147 and the years 2014-2017. As Editor Designate, however, the new editor will begin to receive submissions in early 2013 and spend the summer and fall of that year preparing the 2014 issues for the press. Professor Volk will complete the two issues for the year 2013.
The editor of TAPA has sole responsibility for editorial content, and must acknowledge submissions, select referees, and inform authors whether submissions have been accepted. In addition, the editor must work closely with the journals division of Johns Hopkins University Press, which typesets, produces and distributes each issue. A lively interest in the future of scholarly publishing in the digital age will be a welcome qualification.
In the News: Botanists Agree to Loosen Latin's Grip
"Latin is a bit like a zombie: dead but still clamoring to get into our brains. In one discipline, however, Latin just got a bit deader. For at least 400 years, botanists across the globe have relied on Latin as their lingua franca, but the ardor has cooled. Scientists say plants will keep their double-barreled Latin names, but they have decided to drop the requirement that new species be described in the classical language. Instead, they have agreed to allow botanists to use English (other languages need not apply). In their scientific papers, they can still describe a newly found species of plant — or algae or fungi — in Latin if they wish, but most probably won't."
Read more online at The Washington Post.
View full article. | Posted in Classics in the News on Sat, 01/21/2012 - 6:23pm by Information Architect.
In the News: Glasgow University Revives Greek Post After £2.4m Bequest
"A university professorship which has been dormant for more than a decade is to be revived after a £2.4m bequest from the last person to hold the post. Professor Douglas Maurice MacDowell held Glasgow University's Chair of Greek between 1971 and 2001. After his death in 2010, aged 78, Prof MacDowell's will stated his portfolio of stocks and shares be used to re-establish the position. The new Chair of Greek is expected to be in place for September this year." Read more at the BBC online.
View full article. | Posted in Classics in the News on Thu, 01/19/2012 - 9:54pm by Information Architect.
In the News: Classics Department Survives Despite Size
From the Truman State University Index:
"Despite its small numbers, the classics department remains alive even though their languages are ancient. There are 19 declared classics majors, five of whom will graduate this year, 27 minors and four full-time staff members, said Clifton Kreps, classical and modern language department chair. The Missouri Department of Higher Education reviewed all programs with fewer than 10 graduates a year during Fall 2010. Truman State thus was required to provide a written justification and answer a questionnaire regarding enrollment data for the small number of graduates in classics, along with art history, Russian, German, interdisciplinary studies and bachelors of music. The explanation satisfied the MDHE for the time being, but another review is scheduled for 2014. No further information regarding the format or consequences of the next review has been provided to the University."
View full article. | Posted in Classics in the News on Mon, 01/16/2012 - 2:48am by Information Architect.
In the News: Review of Books on Rome in The New Yorker
Adam Kirsch reviews Rome: Day One, Rome and Rhetoric, The Romans and Their World, Caligula, Invisible Romans, and Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History in the January 9th issue of The New Yorker. An abstract of the review is available online for free; subscribers have full access.
In the News: Could Ancient Pottery Improve Spacecraft Tiles?
"You might not think that a collaboration to study the chemical and physical properties of ancient Attic pottery would have anything to do with space missions, but, well, you'd be mistaken. Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded nearly $500,000 to scientists from the Getty Conservation Institute, Stanford's National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) and the Aerospace Corporation to do just that."
Read more at discovery.com.
View full article. | Posted in Classics in the News on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 7:31pm by Information Architect.
Emmett L. Bennett Jr., Ancient Script Expert, Dies at 93
"Emmett L. Bennett Jr., a classicist who played a vital role in deciphering Linear B, the Bronze Age Aegean script that defied solution for more than 50 years after it was unearthed on clay tablets in 1900, died on Dec. 15 in Madison, Wis. He was 93. His daughter Cynthia Bennett confirmed the death. Professor Bennett was considered the father of Mycenaean epigraphy — that is, the intricate art of reading inscriptions from the Mycenaean period, as the slice of the Greek Bronze Age from about 1600 to 1200 B.C. is known. His work, which entailed analysis so minute that he could eventually distinguish the handwritings of many different Bronze Age scribes, helped open a window onto the Mycenaean world."
Read the entire obituary online at The New York Times.
View full article. | Posted in In Memoriam on Sun, 01/01/2012 - 4:28pm by .
Papers for Apollo Augustus and the Poets
APA Annual Meeting Session 35 (Saturday, January 7, 11:15 a.m.-1:15 p.m., Marriott Grand Ballroom I), is a discussion of the literary, historical, art historical, religious, and political possibilities raised by John Miller's Goodwin Prize-Winning book. Incoming President-Elect Denis Feeney will be the moderator. Panelists will briefly summarize their papers but will not read them in their entirety so as to leave more time for discussion. The papers are therefore posted here.
View full article. | Posted in SCS Announcements on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 4:01pm by Adam Blistein.
In Memoriam: Keely Lake https://t.co/1nWqvGbtvZ — 2 days 8 hours ago