Those who study and teach the Classics think that our field—the texts, images, history, ideas and culture of ancient Greece and Rome—is fascinating. Many in the past have agreed—Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Goethe, Shelley, Douglass, Brecht, Woolf, and others. So do many contemporary thinkers, artists and practitioners of popular culture.
At this exciting moment, the multitude of new technologies and modes of communication can make it easier than ever before to connect with the great achievements of the past and their meanings for us now. These technologies also for various groups to communicate with each other.
As Wells Hansen, assistant editor of the SCS Outreach journal Amphora, writes eloquently in the summer 2012 issue,
[M]any readers want to interact not as members of an audience, quietly absorbing ideas others share, but as citizens of a virtual town in which many individuals debate, advise, amuse, and amaze each other. This, of course, is the stuff of which friendships and fruitful collaborations are born. . . The socialization of the web is constantly creating new opportunities for readers and learners to meet, discuss, and engage at their various levels of interest, thus fostering greater cohesion within the group. Right now, the members of the next generation of world citizens are forming the friendships and interest groups that will define and expand their pursuits in the future.
The Outreach Division of the SCS works to help create such a virtual town of citizens engaged in Classics. We use the word “outreach” not to suggest a one-way communication in which scholars inform others, but a complex interaction in which all involved contribute to a discussion of what Classics is and what it might be.
We invite SCS members, students and teachers at all levels and in all fields, administrators (K-12, college, university), journalists, public policy makers, and all people interested in any aspect of Classics to join in this discussion. Please email Mary-Kay Gamel (mkgamel@ucsc.edu), SCS Vice President for Outreach, with questions and/or ideas.
Current Programs
The Division currently sponsors a number of programs that link professional classicists with others interested in the ancient Greco-Roman world and its later legacy. Here are some of our Division’s current activities:
- Amphora®, a publication aimed at a broad audience. The 2012 issue includes traditional philological and historical studies, two accounts of teaching via web-based role-playing games, poetry, translations, descriptions of entertaining or enlightening summer beach reading, and book reviews. Editor Ellen Bauerle (bauerle97@gmail.com) welcomes comments on the journal and ideas for future articles.
- SCS Committees. Three groups of SCS members are actively working on Outreach issues: the Committee on Outreach, the Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance, and the Committee on the Classical Tradition and Reception. The members of these committees are listed in the SCS's list of Officers, Directors, and Committees
- Speakers’ Bureau. The Division has put together a list of lively, enthusiastic scholars working in different areas of Classical Studies who are ready, willing, and able to speak to interested groups. Scholars and topics are listed here.
-
Performance, Anyone? The Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance has created two new rosters: a roster of classicists with backgrounds in musical performance and the history of music, the other a roster of classicists with backgrounds in theatrical performance and classical performance reception. The colleagues on these lists are willing to share their expertise with individuals working on or interested in music or performances involving Greek or Roman scripts, classical figures or themes.
- Roman Comedy Available on YouTube: In summer 2012, Professor Sharon James (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Professor Tim Moore (Washington University in St. Louis), co-directed an NEH Summer Institute entitled "Roman Comedy in Performance." This Institute experimented with offering different versions of selected scenes from Roman comedy (Pseudolus, Bacchides, Casina, Eunuchus, Mercator, Persa, Truculentus). Participants produced twenty performed scenes from Roman Comedy, six of them in Latin.
For Reference
A bibliography of books about classics — including ancient history, literature, and other major subfields of classical studies — recommended for public libraries is available here. Prepared by The Forum for Classics, Libraries, and Scholarly Communication, an affiliated group of the SCS (web site: http://library.nyu.edu/fclsc/), the bibliography is an attempt to reach out to public librarians, especially to those with responsibilities for materials selection.