Dear Colleagues,
I’m commandeering the newsletter again this month to alert you to a few points of interest. First, we’re now just two months away from the SCS Annual Meeting in San Francisco. I hope to see many of you there.
As President, I enjoy the privilege of putting together a special panel on a topic of my choice. This year, I decided that my panel would need to address the trumpeting elephant in the room: how we, as members of our profession respond positively to the current political climate and the attacks of the federal government on academia in general and classics in particular. I’ve put together a panel of four scholars, intentionally diverse, all of whom I admire and each of whom brings different concerns, experiences, and approaches to the current situation: Denise McCoskey, Kelly Nguyen, SB Breitenfeld, and Naomi Campa. Our panel starts at 4:00 pm on Thursday, and will consist of short, provocative talks by the panelists with time for wide ranging discussion. The title of our panel, after much hemming, hawing, and back-and-forthing (mainly by me), is “Good Classics in Bad Times.” I hope you’ll come to hear what our panelists have to say, and to join in the conversation.
Second: As you start to make your plans, I want to encourage you to come to the Plenary Panel, which begins at 5:00 on Friday night. I’ll write more about this next month, but this is the panel where we honor our members with awards and recognize their outstanding work. In the hopes of restoring attendance to this important event, we’re bringing back the post-plenary Presidential Reception. Come, honor our colleagues, and enjoy a glass of wine on the SCS! We’ll be done in time for you to make your dinner dates. More details to follow.
Finally, the Nominating Committee is now beginning to identify candidates for elected positions in the SCS to begin in January of 2027. They’ll be working hard to develop strong slates, and I would like to encourage you, if contacted by the committee, to throw your hat in the ring. There are often reasons why people are hesitant to run, but the simple fact is that the organization needs you. We are dependent on volunteer labor, and we need our best people to stand for election.
In addition to elected positions, the organization has a wide range of committees that are staffed by appointment. Technically this is the responsibility of the sitting President, but in practice, many committees are staffed by the Vice-Presidents on the Board. You can find a list of SCS committees (and their members) here. Please note that committee members’ terms end in January of the year listed. I encourage you to look through the list of committees, and think about whether you’d be willing to serve on one of them. (You can find brief descriptions of the committees’ work here.) If you’re interested in a committee, you can either drop an email to me ([email protected]) or one of the Board Vice-Presidents, or, even simpler, fill out this Google form. (You can also use this form to inform the Nominating Committee of your interest for an elected position!) Thanks, as always, for your service to the SCS and to the field.
I look forward to seeing you in January!
Kirk Ormand
President, Society for Classical Studies
