UPPER SOUTH REGION ANNUAL REPORT 2001

UPPER SOUTH REGION
ANNUAL REPORT
2001-2002

The Upper-South Region continues to support Classics in a variety of ways, many of them directed toward public outreach. Programs such as the Parthenon Symposia in Nashville, and John Svarlien's presentation in Lexington do a great deal to let people know that Classics is still very much alive and kicking. The more we can do in that direction the stronger we will become. I note with encouragement the growth in Classics in our region during this past year. New programs have appeared at University of Kentucky, andGeorgetown College, as well as a re-organized minor at Transylvania and a new major at Austin Peay. Such developments supply the evidence that hard work pays off, and they remind us that we cannot let up in our efforts to promote the value of Classics.

Professor John Svarlien, (Transylvania University) State V.P. for Kentucky, submits the following report on activities in Kentucky. Kentucky teachers are busy getting ready to host the national meeting of the Junior Classical League which will meet in Lexington this summer. Latin enrollments in Kentucky schools are holding steady and teachers are designing projects to attach more students, e.g. Lexington Catholic is one of 15 schools in the nation to tak e part in an ancient coin project: students will be given ancient coins to clean and study.

The Kentucky Classical Association met last September. Teachers attended paper sessions; the main order of business was the rewriting of Latin tests for the regional and state foreign language festivals.

A major development at the University of Kentucky was the establishment of an Institute for Latin Studies under the direction of Terence Tunberg. This new program offers a unique sequence of graduate courses for students in Classics, in other fields, and for teachers of Latin in the schools. The courses, covering the whole history of Latin as a flourishing literary/scientific language from Roman comedy to Newton and beyond, are taught exclusively in Latin. The annual Conventiculum Latinum at UK last summer was attended by 48 participants from the US, Japan, Australia and Italy. The Living Latin initiatives at UK received national attention in the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. The Humanities and Computer Resources initiative under the direction of Ross Scaife continues to be successful. The Stoa Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities (www.stoa.org) has received major grant support and the Diotima project (Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World) grew substantially this year with a new series of peer reviewed scholarly articles made available on the Stoa servers via the Perseus text management system.

Frank Russell and John Svarlien reorganized the Classics minor at Transylvania; the number of students in the program has grown dramatically. Svarlien addressed local business people and government officials at the annual Hellenic Awards ceremony in Lexington on the topic of the role of Classics outside the classroom.

Kudos to Diane Arnson Svarlien who has successfully worked to establish a new minor program at Georgetown College in Classics.

Jim Butler is completing his first year as the new classicist at Berea College.

The local committee is now busy preparing for the meeting of CAMWS in Lexington in April of 2003.

Alice Sanford, (Hume-Fogg High School) State V. P. for Tennessee, submits the following report on activities in that state.

I. The Tennessee Classicists’ Association remains a vital and necessary part of Tennessee’ s community of classicists, publishing a newsletter and providing sessions appropriate for classicists at the annual meeting of Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association. Our own Susan Martin planned and implemented this year’s program. Alice Sanford’s session at Tennessee Foreign Language Teachers Assoc. (TFLTA), Rome of the Flavians and Didius Falco, acknowledged its debt to CAMWS and Ginny Lindzey’s generous donation of a signed copy of Lindsey Davis’ Course of Honour (a life of Caenis, mistress of Vespasian). In addition to the usual (and surely well known) advantages and joys of CAMWS membership, Sanford pointed out that those who became members by the end of November would have the opportunity to win this delightful collector’s item. She is pleased to report that Nancy Howell is now the proud possessor of the book. . .and that Tennessee’s membership has risen. Our annual TCA gathering continues in early November, concurrent with TFLTA. This year, thanks to CPL, Sharon Fischbach, TCA’s president, obtained a special guest speaker for TCA’s annual luncheon meeting, Dr. Nicolle Hirschfeld, who gave the group a delightful illustrated talk on Roman ships. Again, benefits of CAMWS membership and the availability of CPL funds for special projects was emphasized.

II.. State Activities which Promote Latin

A) Parthenon Symposia/AIA continue to open their programs to the community at large, although we had fewer programs than usual because of September 11. Several CAMWS members have provided a mini-course this February, open to the general public and more than reasonably priced, at the Parthenon on Classical Mythology.

B) Area colleges continue to promote excitement about Latin among high school students. UT Knoxville’s Latin Day, November, 2001, provided seminars, lunch, and campus tours for over 500 Tennessee high school Latin students, who came from the Nashville and Chattanooga areas, as well as from the vicinity of Knoxville. In October, Vanderbilt hosted high school students from Tennessee and Alabama at their biennial Latin Day, providing seminars, lunch, and tours of the campus and the Parthenon. The University of Memphis plans to host foreign language students, including students of Latin, this spring.

D) The Junior Classical League continues as a strong force in Tennessee. Our classicists of the future represented the state well at the National JCL Convention in New Orleans last summer. The twenty-second annual MidState JCL Tournament, held at Hillsboro High School on February 22, 2002, hosted approximately 600 students from 5 counties and 17 different schools for Latin competition. Sweepstakes trophies went to Hume-Fogg (1st), to Martin Luther King, Jr., Magnet (2nd), and to Rossview High School (3rd). On April 19-20, 2002, in Smyrna, Tennessee, Smyrna High School hosts the Tennessee Junior Classical League Convention.

E) The National Latin Exam will be administered in high schools throughout Tennessee in March. Many Tennessee schools, especially those with separate mythology courses, take the National Mythology Exam, also. I have no data on the CAMWS translation test, but I would like to set increased participation in Tennessee as a goal for next year.

III.) CAMWS Efforts at Promotion and Results:

A) Membership

1) Brochures and CAMWS information were made available at high school in-services, at the Annual Meeting of the Tennessee Classicists Association, and in a TFLTA session.

2) A follow-up letter is being sent to members who have not renewed

3) TN VP has taken posters and CAMWS materials to Belmont University (Nashville), the University of TN at Chattanooga, and Vanderbilt.

4) While some former members have not yet renewed, we have added eleven members, giving us a positive percentage gain for this year and for our 10 year total.

B) Use of CPL moneys, interest in CAMWS scholarships, etc.

1) Support from CAMWS CPL allowed Tennessee classicists to have a wonderful guest speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Tennessee Foreign Language Teaching Association, November, 2001.

2) A drawing for a signed copy Course of Honour (a life of Caenis, mistress of Vespasian) by Lindsey Davis was held from the list of those who were CAMWS members by the end of November.

3) High School teachers have been contacted and urged to develop CPL and Southern Section proposals.

IV.) Losses, Activities, and Honors of Tennessee Classicists:

Tennessee has an aging population of Latin teachers and programs where a suitable replacement cannot be found are vulnerable. So far, we have been fortunate in finding excellent replacements, but we would like to encourage prospective Latin teachers to consider our state. Montgomery County has added a program. Williamson has lost and has added a program. The U.T.Classics Department, by making long-distance, independent study a certification possibility, has saved a Rutherford County program.

Philip Angevine, who taught Latin and German at Cheatham County High School and was an active participant in classical organizations in our state, died on July 19, 2001, following a long and devastating illness. Ellen Jones, who had taught at Cheatham County Middle School following her retirement from Davidson County Schools, now teaches in the high school. To the best of my knowledge the middle school position has ceased to exist.

Dr. Anthony Lombardy, who was on leave from Belmont University last year to consult on development of CAIS and Web sites as an instructional tool, has been seduced by the sirens of technology and, much to our regret, has not returned to Belmont. Dr. Anderson, a Vanderbilt classicist, is teaching philosophy this semester and Mrs. Helen Williams is providing instruction in Latin. They would be delighted to receive resumes from prospective college professors in the classics. These should be directed to:

Maggie Monteverde, Associate Dean for Humanities
Wheeler Humanities Building 200
Belmont University
1900 Belmont Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37212

Belmont offers a major in classical studies and opportunities for high school teaching certification.

We are particularly pleased that Austin Peay State University, thanks to Tim Winters’ fine work, is adding a major.

. Barbara Hardin went to Ireland this fall. Alice Sanford and Nancy Howell went to Chicago for the Cleopatra Exhibit at the Field Museum and for the performance of Charles Mee’s musical, Big Love, loosely inspired by Aeschylus’ Danaid trilogy.

Dawn LaFon gave a workshop at the University of Maryland in October on teaching Latin to Latin majors and area teachers and was part of a panel at CAAS on The Double Day Classicist. From that talk, she was asked to write an article on teaching Latin in high school and in college for The Classical World Journal.

JoAnn Haughton, Dawn LaFon, and Linda Brown are writing the curriculum guide for Memphis City Schools for Latin I, II, III, Etymology, and Mythology.

At the 2001 NJCL Convention, Dr. Kaye Warren was presented the Sterling Award for years of distinguished service promoting classical studies.

These high school Latin teachers were named Outstanding Teachers of the Humanities in Tennessee for 2001: Glenda Sullivan, Kaye Warren, Sandra Hughes, and G. Edward Gaffney.

V) These teachers are not unwilling to speak to college students about Latin as a career:

West TN

JoAnn Haughton (magistrahaughton@hotmail.com)
Dawn LaFon (DLafon740@aol.com)

Middle TN

Ed Long (EdLongInTN@aol.com)
Nancy Howell (howelln1@ten-nash.ten.k12.tn.us)

There is no report from Arkansas for this year.

This material was posted on the web by CPL Chair, Tom Sienkewicz, at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois. If you have any questions, you can contact him at toms@monm.edu.

Return to CPL Webpage
Return to CAMWS Homepage