THE PRINCETON CLASSICS DEPARTMENT investigates the history, language, literature, and thought of ancient Greece and Rome. We use the perspectives of multiple disciplines to understand and imagine the diversity of these civilizations over almost two thousand years and to reflect on what the classical past has meant to later ages, and to our own.
Zoulis, a classics major from Athens, says his experience of the events in Greece’s recent history has had a powerful impact on his intellectual and personal growth. “The most important element from this period was growing up during the financial crisis and the migration movements,” he said, giving him a particular interest in “transnational political and administrative units as well as a celebration of diversity.” Zoulis brings this current-day awareness to his studies of the past.
Sommers is a physics major from Bridgewater, New Jersey, and is also pursuing a certificate in Roman language and culture among others. She has been awarded a Goldwater Scholarship, an annual award for outstanding undergraduates interested in careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering. See also a longer article in the Prince.
The AAACC is a professional organization that fosters the interests of students and scholars of classical antiquity who identify as Asian and Asian American by promoting scholarship that explores issues of classical reception in Asian and Asian American culture, and striving to bring together the vibrant community of Asian and Asian American classicists. Founding member Caroline Cheung serves as a faculty liaison.
On the evening of Tuesday, April 16th, Page duBois, Distinguished Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at UC San Diego, spoke on Princeton’s campus, delivering a thought-provoking Faber Lecture entitled “The Politics of the Swarm.”
Ancient Rome met 21st-century game show at the second annual Princeton Certamen on March 2, organized for middle and high school students by undergraduates interested in classics. The word certamen means “contest” in Latin — an appropriate name for this quiz bowl focusing on the language, literature, culture and history of Ancient Rome. About 200 students from 13 schools traveled to Princeton’s campus to compete, some coming from as far away as Wisconsin.
The department’s annual newsletter is now available online and paper copies have been mailed. Inside you can find updates from faculty and students, an article by alumnus Kevin Moch ’10, and stories of last summer’s “Plato’s Republic” study program in Paris.
Our colleague Dan-el Padilla Peralta has once again been the target of an attack, this time disseminated by the National Association of Scholars, that repeats at greater length the substance of the one made against him in person at the Society for Classical Studies. The author’s basic premise seems to be that the simple elimination of any ‘race consciousness’ in academics can suffice to…
Assistant Professor Dan-el Padilla Peralta shares his thoughts about the AIA-SCS 2019 meeting in an article on Medium and in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Earlier this year, at the national meeting of our major scholarly society, a member of this department was subjected to a racist verbal attack in a public forum. I write as chair to deplore and refute the sentiments directed against him and to commit our department to working to eliminate the conditions that make such incidents possible in the professional lives of colleagues in our, or any other, academic discipline. For other responses, please see this roundup.
—Andrew Feldherr
