Department News

Ph.D. Student Massimo Betello Wins Graduate School Excellence in Teaching Award

Massimo Betello, Ph.D. student in the Classics Department, has won the 2008-9 Excellence in Teaching Award from the UB Graduate School. The award is a deserved tribute to his dilgent preparation, clarity of thought, and good humor, which are evident in and out of the classroom. Euge!

Catherine Nicastro Honored with SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence

Classics major Catherine Nicastro has achieved a notable distinction by winning the 2008-2009 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. The Award acknowledges exemplary students and is the highest honor bestowed upon a SUNY student.  Last year, 275 students from 62 SUNY campuses were recognized, including fifteen from UB.  In addition to an impressive array of co-curricular accomplishments, the recipients had an average GPA of 3.75. One of the achievements recognized by the award is Catherine’s leadership in the classics department, where she helped found the Classics Club and serves as its President. The department is delighted that she plans to continue with classics by training as a Latin teacher. Congratulations Catherine!

David Teegarden Welcomed as Assistant Professor of Classics

Dr. David Teegarden has joined the department as a historian of ancient Greece specializing in the political life of ancient Athens. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2008 with a dissertation examining how laws and social structures affected the possibilities for political and communal action at Athens and elsewhere in classical Greece. Dr. Teegarden will be teaching courses in Greek language, history, and literature.

New Graduate Students: James Artz, Laura Berger, Sarah Jacobson

The department welcomes three graduate students in fall 2008. James Artz holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in History and Latin, and an M.A. from Tufts University in Classical Archaeology. He is interested in ancient Greek archaeology, social and economic history, and historiography. Laura Berger holds a B.A. in Classics from the University of Puget Sound and an M.A. in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History from the University of Glasgow, and her interests lie in Roman archaeology. Sarah Jacobson holds a B.A. in Classics and Spanish from Hendrix College and an M.A. in Classics from the University of Arizona. She plans to concentrate on the study of Latin literature.

First Conventiculum Buffaloniense a Success

The UB Classics Department hosted the first ever Conventiclum Buffaloniense, a weekend workshop on spoken Latin, from June 27-29, 2008. Some thirty participants came from as far afield as Arizona and Virginia to practice communication in Latin, and explore how this practice can lead to a deeper understanding of the culture of Latinity and more dynamic Latin instruction. After this successful start, plans are developing to host the Conventiculum again in summer 2009.

Past Notices

2007-8

Undergraduate Awards Announced

The Department of Classics is pleased to announce its undergraduate award winners for the 2007-8 academic year.  Leslie Feldballe has been awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Outstanding Senior Award.  Gabriel Malone is the Classics Department Outstanding Graduating Senior, and Catherine Nicastro is our Outstanding Undergraduate. Congratulations to all three, and please join us to celebrate their achievements and a great end to the year at the Undergraduate Awards Presentation & Reception on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008, at 2:00 p.m., in the departmental seminar room (MFAC 343).  

International Conference in Honor of T. Peña’s Work on Roman Pottery

On June 20-22, 2008, a conference will be held at the Danish Institute in Athens devoted to discussion of the recently published book of Associate Professor and Chair T. Peña, Roman Pottery in the Archaeological Record (Cambridge, 2007) .  The conference, titled Pottery in the Archaeological Record: A View from the Greek World, is being organized by John Lund of the National Museum of Denmark and Mark Lawall of the University of Manitoba.  It will bring together several specialists in pottery analysis working in the eastern Mediterranean to discuss the book’s implications for their work.  Professor Peña will deliver the keynote address.

Graduate Students Win Prestigious Fellowships

UB Classics graduate students continue their record of winning prestigious fellowships with three outstanding awards for the 2008-2009 academic year.  Panagiota Pantou has won the Ione Mylonas Shear Fellowship in Mycenaean Archaeology for her continued study at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.  Scott Gallimore has been admitted as a Regular Member to the American School.  Matt Notarian was awarded a coveted Arthur Ross Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize for his project "Civic Transformation in Early Imperial Latium," giving him an 11-month fellowship at the American Academy in Rome beginning in September 2008.  And Theodora Kopestonsky has won a UB Humanities Institute Dissertation Fellowship for the 2008-2009 academic year.

Graduate Student Scott Gallimore Awarded UB Teaching Prize

Scott Gallimore, a Ph.D. student specializing in Roman archaeology, has won a Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching Award in the 2007-8 competition held by the UB Graduate School.  The prize acknowledges that Scott is among the very best graduate student instructors on campus.

2006-7

Graduate Students Have Banner Year

 

The Department’s graduate students had a banner year in 2006-2007, registering an unprecedented number of achievements in a variety of areas:

 

Employment

 

Four recent Ph.D.s and one A.B.D. student landed faculty positions at institutions in the U.S., Canada, and Turkey:

Jason Banta (Ph.D., 2006) obtained a position as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend Indiana.

Jeanette Cooper (ADB; Ph.D. expected 2007) obtained a position as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington.

Paul Kimball (Ph.D., 2004) obtained a position as Instructor in the Program in Cultures, Civilizations, and Ideas at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.

Myles McCallum (Ph.D., 2004) obtained a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Jon Strang (Ph.D., 2007) obtained a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario.

Pre-Doctoral Fellowships

 

Four graduate students won prestigious pre-doctoral fellowships to support their dissertation  research for the 2007-2008 academic year:

Benjamin Costello won a Fulbright Fellowship for the Republic of Cyprus.

Theodora Kopestonsky won the Spitzer Fellowship at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Panagiota Pantou won the Emily Vermeule Fellowship at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Rachel Van Dusen won the Rome Prize/Kress Fellowship for the American Academy in Rome.

 

Conference

 

The graduate students hosted a highly successful conference “Religious Authority in the Ancient Mediterranean” on Saturday, March 31, 2007 with Robert Garland, of Colgate University delivering the keynote address and papers by graduate student from the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Florida, Cornell University, New York University, McGill University, and the University at Buffalo.  The conference organizing committee was composed of Jennifer Kendall, Elizabeth Poyer, Scott Soboleski, and Rachel Van Dusen.

Summer programs

 

Five graduate students gained admission to prestigious summer programs for Summer, 2007:

 

Meagan Ayer and Joey Williams gained admission to the American Academy in Rome Summer Program in Roman Pottery.

Rebecca Cefaratti gained admission to the International Summer Course in Greek and Latin Epigraphy to be held at The Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies at Ohio State University.

Will Duffy and Katie Lamberto gained admission to the Center for Hellenic Studies Summer Program “The Iliad in the Second Millennium BC.”

  

Undergraduate Award Winners

 

The following are the Department’s three undergraduate award winners for the 2006-2007 academic year:

 

William Seychew: Dean’s Award for Outstanding Graduating Classics Major.

Anne Gullotti: Outstanding Graduating Scholar.

Elizabeth Hong: Outstanding Continuing Major.

  

Susan Cole Retiring

 

Susan Cole has announced her retirement effective the end of the Fall, 2007 semester.  Professor Cole, a major figure is the field of ancient Greek religion, joined the Department in 1992, serving as Director of Graduate Studies for the period 1992-1998 and Chair for the period 1998-2004. 

Roger Woodard Receives Book Award

 

Roger Woodard has received a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title award for his book The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages (Cambridge, 2004).

 

Faculty Publication

 

Over the past year members of the faculty have published three new books:

Dyson, Stephen.  2006.  In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts.  Yale University Press. 336 pp. (ISBN: 9780300110975; ISBN-10:  0300110979)

Peña, J. Theodore.  2007.    Roman Pottery in the Archaeological Record.  Cambridge University Press.  448 pp.  (ISBN-13: 9780521865418)

Woodard, Roger.  2006.  Indo-European Sacred Space.  University of Illinois Press.  312 pp. (ISBN 0-252-02988-7)