Letter from the Chair

Dear Friends of the Department of Classical Studies,
I have now been Chair of the Department here at the University of Michigan for a whole year, and send you my greetings for a second time with this Newsletter. Everyone expects Chairs of Departments to feel burdened by their Olympian responsibilities, but in fact I’m enjoying the challenge of it all and the sense that together we are making good things happen for the study of Classics in all its different aspects. It has been a satisfying year personally, as well, when this summer I put together for the first time, and largely by accident, the papyrus fragments of the Presocratic philosopher Empedocles.

This September we welcomed to our Department three new faculty members. The first is Dirk Obbink, holder, like Anne Carson and Sue Alcock, of a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, who joins us as the Ludwig Koenen Collegiate Professor. This term he has been leading our graduate students through the complexities of Philodemus’ On Piety found among the ashes of Herculaneum, of which he is doing a completely new edition. In addition, Benjamin Fortson, an expert on the meter of Plautus and Indo-European linguistics, has joined us as Assistant Professor of Greek and Latin Language, Literature and Historical Linguistics. Our Visiting Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology is Emma Blake, who came to us from Stanford University. She is involved at the excavations at Monte Polizzo in Sicily. To look to the future, our new Assistant Professor of Latin Poetry, Farouk Grewing from the University of Cologne, will be joining us in 2004. We are also appointing another tenure-track Latinist, whose position will be shared with Comparative Literature and who should also start next September.

This term has seen a number of exciting developments. Thanks to a major gift to the College of LSA, the Kelsey Museum will be receiving a new wing, which will more than double its space for exhibitions and the study of its rich collections. Sharon Herbert, the Director, and everyone else who have worked for years towards this goal are to be warmly congratulated on achieving it.

The synergy between archaeology and papyrology that is particular to Michigan was dramatically illustrated by the discovery in Hatcher Library of several papyri that, according to records in the Kelsey, belonged to Roman soldier who lived at Karanis in Egypt. We have part of his copy of the Greek history of Thucydides; we also have his son’s toy sword. By a happy coincidence, Terry Wilfong, with help from our papyrologists, staged a fascinating exhibit at the Kelsey on childhood in Roman Egypt.

In addition, the Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology launched the elegant new version of its website. Our websites and newsletters are the ways we try to keep you in touch with the intellectual life of the Department, reaching out to adjacent high schools, colleges and communities, and making sure that the wider world knows what a remarkable place Ann Arbor is for classical studies. If there are events that sound interesting, you are always most welcome to come.

Over the past term, the Department was host to a number of lively lectures and talks. Our Gerald F. Else Lecturer was Danielle Allen of the University of Chicago, who gave us a very timely meditation on Plato’s Menexenus and the politics of commemorating those who die in foreign wars. The Menexenus has always seemed the most puzzling of Plato’s writings, but Professor Allen made it all make sense. Her lecture would have delighted Professor Else, who was greatly concerned to bridge the gap between classics and the broader intellectual community. We are very pleased to find that Professor Else’s family is still part of this community.

The Platsis Symposium featured three speakers on the topic of ‘Bio-ethics, Ancient and Modern’, showing the relevance of ancient thought about the beginnings and ends of life to present-day debates. Professor George Anagnostopoulos of San Diego gave us a rich account of the thought of Plato on this topic. The Platsis prizes were awarded by Provost Paul Courant.

We also hosted the Knudsvig Symposium on Latin pedagogy, a lecture by John Camp on recent excavations at the Athenian agora, and a quite unforgettable presentation by Dr. Mazarakis Ainian of his excavation this September of the intact adyton of a temple probably dedicated to Athena Polias on the Aegean island of Cythnos.

This year’s Roger A. Pack Lecture will be given by Dr. Dorothy Thompson of Girton College, Cambridge. Professor Pack catalogued all known Greek literary papyri, but this year’s lecture will focus on what we can learn from the archives of ancient documents in which Michigan’s collection is so rich.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we are bringing to campus an exhibit organized by Michele Ronnick on African-American classicists, and with it a half-day of events. Contexts for Classics is sponsoring a one-day colloquium on ‘Re-Imagining the Ancient World in 19th-Century Britain’ (but for ‘Classics in a Cold Climate’, as one book on this topic is entitled, Michigan is hard to beat). We will host the Midwestern Consortium on Ancient Religions, on ‘communication with the divine’ (March 20), and the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Ancient Historians (May 7-9). Please note, however, that the Jerome Lectures by John Pinto, scheduled for February 2-11, have had to be postponed until next year.

Last but not least, I would like to thank those of you who gave so generously to the Department following the issue of my first newsletter. My colleagues and I have been touched and gratified by the response, which will help us to help our students, both graduate and undergraduate, with their needs for travel and research. You have all heard from me individually, but thank you again.
Once more, ave atque vale.

Richard Janko, Chair

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