Department of
Classics Newsletter 2015-2016 Inside this Issue News from the Department
Events
Student News
Alumni Notes
Image Gallery
Message from the Head of Department The Department continues to flourish and the last academic year was both a busy and productive one for staff and students. First of all we are delighted to welcome three Postdoctoral Fellows who will be joining us for 2015-16. Two will hold full year Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowships: Dr Andreas Serafim and Dr Yvona Trnka-Amrhein. Dr Jacopo Tabolli has been awarded a Long Room Hub Visiting Fellowship for the first semester. We are very much looking forward to learning more about their work. We are always pleased to see former students and members of the Department, and this year we were delighted to welcome back as the 15th W. B. Stanford Lecturer, Dr Myles Lavan, who graduated in Single Honors Classics in 1999. A number of alumni and friends of the Department were in the audience, as well as Myles’ family. In January 2015 alumni and friends also joined us for an event to mark the 75th birthday of Emeritus Professor John Dillon. A third highlight for us was an international workshop in May, organised by Christine Morris and Giorgos Papantoniou entitled ‘Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult in the Mediterranean’. The Department continues to participate in the GradLink Mentoring Programme and we warmly thank our 2014-15 mentors, Jason Bolton, Lewis Purser, Erica Devine, Sarah Grimson, David Walsh, Patrick McCullough, Stephen Browne, Camille Rocca and Helen Petrini for their involvement. It is always a great pleasure to renew contacts with former students. If you are interested in becoming involved in the programme in the future, do please contact us. Regular news and event updates on Departmental activities can be found on our website, and don’t forget that we are also on Facebook (with over 1500 likes now!); as well as keeping up-to-date with the Department, you can also keep abreast of new and exciting developments in the world of Classics. We hope you enjoy this year’s Newsletter. We look forward to keeping in contact with you by letter, email, or through Facebook. We are keen to hear from you!
Hazel Dodge Head of the Department of Classics
Department of Classics. School of Histories and Humanities
Newsletter 2015 – 2016
News from the Department Monica Gale gave conference papers in Edinburgh (Celtic Conference in Classics), Bristol (Classical Association Conference) and London (on the little-known Augustan poet Grattius). She also appeared on Patrick Geoghegan’s radio show Talking History on Newstalk FM in October, as part of a panel discussion of the life and work of Virgil. Work continues slowly but surely on her commentary on the Complete Poems of Catullus for the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series. Brian McGing has served this year as Senior Dean in College and will continue in 2015-16. His new translation and edition of Appian of Alexandria for the Loeb Classical Library is nearing completion. Exciting first century AD Greek papyri from the Chester Beatty Library comprise the other main element of Brian’s main research. He also gave papers in Yale, Berlin and Vienna.
Members of the Department join John Dillon at his 75th birthday event
Ashley Clements continued to research the fascinating ways in which the discipline of philology and the study of Classical texts influenced the approaches to culture pioneered by the first professional anthropologists in the nineteenth century; this was particularly helped over the year by an excellent cohort of final year students taking his modules Anthropology and the Greeks. Anna Chahoud championed the new Trinity Research Theme on ‘Manuscript, Book and Print Cultures’ (see www.tcd. ie/trinitylongroomhub/themes/manuscriptbook-print-cultures/). Last year’s conferences have led to publication of three book chapters, and she continues to make progress on her commentary on Lucilius and on her Loeb volume on ‘Satire, Political Invective and Popular Verse’. Martine Cuypers has produced a number of further entries for Brill’s New Jacoby. With playwright Andy Hinds she worked on a version of Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, due to appear with Oberon Books in late 2015. With Jim Clauss and Ahuvia Kahane she progressed a collective volume on the gods in Greek hexameter poetry, to be published in 2016.
Hugh Denard continued his work on his EC-funded project on the ‘Lost Theatres of Dublin’, with Research Fellow & TCD alumna Freya Clare Smith (www.losttheatres.net). Highlights of the year’s work include the completion of a 3D digital capture of a triptych of large statues by Laurence Campbell RHA that survived the demolition of the Theatre Royal (the statues now in private hands), and the creation by TCD M.Phil students of a preliminary digital model of the Queen’s Theatre, Pearse Street (which, as many readers will recall, was the home of the Abbey Company, 1951-1966). Hazel Dodge has continued as Head of Department. She was invited to give a keynote address, entitled ‘Roman Colours of Power: Egyptian stones for the imperial metropolis, and beyond’, to the Cultures of Stone Conference held at UCD, the proceedings of which will be published in 2016. She also gave a paper on Pompeii at the Royal Irish Academy Colloquium in November. Her research on Roman spectacle and entertainment is ongoing. She also secured further funding to support research on the Classics Department Coin Collection.
For Christine Morris the major focus this year was the organisation (with Giorgos Papantoniou) of the international workshop, ‘Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult in the Mediterranean’ in May. She also delivered papers in London, TCD and at the UCD Experimental Archaeology conference. During research leave in Hilary term she participated in an international conference on terracotta figurines in Haifa. She was delighted to attend, with Brian McGing, an event in London in February to celebrate the benefactions of the A.G. Leventis Foundation. Shane Wallace was on leave in the first semester for which he relocated to sunny Athens with his family. Progress continued on his forthcoming book, The Politics of Freedom: Kings and Cities in the Hellenistic Period, which should be completed by next summer. While in Athens, he gave a talk at the Irish Institute for Hellenic Studies. He returned to Athens this last summer to research for another couple of months. John Dillon continues to be active in research and publication. His latest book, an edition of Plotinus Enneads IV 3-4, was published this year with Parmenides Press. Details can be found at http://www. parmenides.com/publications/publications. html
Department of Classics School of Histories and Humanities
Research News Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellows
The kafeneion of Lapitho (photograph taken by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition (1927-28): Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm
Dr Stella Diakou was awarded a oneyear Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014-15) to work on a project entitled ‘Cultural and Political Landscapes: the View from the North Coast of Cyprus’. This project is based on the study and publication of a cemetery excavated 80 years ago, at Lapithos, on the north coast of Cyprus. Christine Morris was the mentor for the project. In addition to preparing a monograph on the archaeology of Lapithos for publication, Dr Diakou curated a digital photographic exhibition on Lapithos, presented at Trinity College Dublin, and gave papers at conferences at the Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm and the annual ASOR meeting in San Diego and invited lectures at the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus and the Department of Classics at Trinity College Dublin. From September 2015, Stella holds a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship at the University of Cyprus. “Lapithos: Landscapes and People of a Lost Past”: A Digital Photographic Exhibition The digital photographic exhibition “Lapithos: Landscapes and People of a Lost Past” is devoted to the village of Lapithos, on the north coast of Cyprus. The purpose of this exhibition is to show the landscapes and people of Lapithos from the past, as they have been captured
through the photographic lens of different people at various periods. The exhibition is hosting photographs taken by the members of the two archaeological expeditions to Lapithos, the Swedish Cyprus Expedition (1927–28) and the Pennsylvania Cyprus Expedition (1931–32), photographs from the personal collection of Professor Petros Florides (a native from Lapithos) during visits to his village in 1961 and in 1974 (pre-invasion), and from the archives of the exiled municipality of Lapithos, which were collected after 1974 with the purpose of preserving the memories of the village. Dating back to the late 1920s the photographs portray unique views of a landscape that has been dramatically, and often irrevocably altered, through the passage of time. At the same time, this is a landscape that has been lost in the invasion of 1974 and now lives only in the memories of its people. This past, which has been lost both literally and metaphorically, survives in these photographs. Dr Giorgos Papantoniou (Government of Ireland/Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow) was awarded a 10-month extension of his current Fellowship. He continued his research and publication on Cypriot sacred landscapes and participated in international conferences in Greece, the USA, Israel, Sweden, Cyprus and Ireland. With Dr Christine Morris, he organised a workshop in Dublin on ‘Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult in the Mediterranean’.
Giorgos Papantoniou, with a monumental terracotta sculpture from Ayia Irini, Cyprus at Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm
Finally, in collaboration with Dr Athanasios Vionis (University of Cyprus) and Dr Doria Nicolaou (Pontificio Instituto di Archeologia Cristiana), he initiated a field project in the region of Kofinou in Cyprus. This multiperiod, interdisciplinary project is entitled Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus (SeSaLaC: http://www.ucy.ac.cy/artlands/ en/research/sesalac). Through Giorgos’ initiative, an agreement to promote co-operation in research and teaching has been signed between Trinity College Dublin, the University of Cyprus, and the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Foundation for Research & Technology Hellas. From September 2015, Giorgos holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Institut für Archäologie und Kulturanthropologie.
Archaeological surface survey at Kofinou, Cyprus, and the team consisting of students from the University of Cyprus...and Ramses, Giorgos’ dog, in action!
Newsletter 2015 – 2016
Events In Honour of John Dillon For a number of years the Department of Classics has been in possession of a portrait of John Dillon, Regius Professor of Greek from 1980 to 2006. This has been stowed away, awaiting the great moment when it would see the light of day. For no apparent reason, this day arrived on 28th January 2015, when we gathered in a most congenial assembly of family, friends and alumni in the Long Room Hub to ‘launch’ the portrait, as well as to celebrate his 75th birthday, and to attend a public lecture given by John entitled ‘The Necessity of Philosophy’. It was a particular pleasure to welcome John’s wife, Jean, and his brother, Peter, as well a host of our
former students who remember John with fondness. John’s lecture reminded us, if we needed reminding, that he remains at the peak of his scholarly powers as one of the leading classical philosophers in the world, and rounded off a splendid evening.
John Dillon with his wife Jean and brother Peter
The 15th W. B. Stanford Lectures 25-27 March 2015
Myles Lavan with Brian McGing
W. B. Stanford’s daughter, Dr Melissa Webb, with John Dillon
In March we were very pleased to welcome Dr Myles Lavan (of St Andrews University in Scotland) to give the 15th set of Stanford Lectures entitled ‘Enfranchisement and empire: Roman citizenship from Augustus to Caracalla’. Myles is a Foundation Scholar of Trinity College and a graduate in Classics. We were delighted to welcome to the first lecture Myles’ wife Joke, his mother, two sisters, his brother-in-law and his aunt as well as many alumni and friends. We are also delighted to report that the 2013 publication of the excellent lecture series given by our 2008 lecturer, Dr Johannes Haubolt, Greece and Mesopotamia: Dialogues in Literature (CUP), won the American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence for a publication in Classics in 2013. Many congratulations, Johannes! And in June 2015, the 2009 lectures given by Dr Victoria Rimell were published by CUP; this volume is entitled The Closure of Space in Roman Poetics. Empire’s Inward Turn.
Department of Classics School of Histories and Humanities
Events Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult in the Mediterranean
Workshop participants at Glendalough, an Irish ‘sacred landscape’
An international workshop ‘Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult in the Mediterranean’ took place from 15-17 May; it was co-organised by Dr Christine Morris and Dr Giorgos Papantoniou, and took place in the Long Room Hub. This was the first workshop of the ‘Unlocking Sacred Landscapes’ network, which is concerned with the inter-disciplinary and diachronic study of the temporality, spatiality and materiality of Mediterranean sacred landscapes in general (for more information see http://www.ucy.ac.cy/unsala/). The presentations from twenty-two international speakers and discussants focused on inter- and intra-site spatial analysis of ritual and cult across the Mediterranean to Spain to Cyprus, and ranging over a broad timespan from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period. The papers from the workshop will be published in a peer-reviewed, edited volume in the Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology series. On the Friday evening participants were treated to a recital of traditional Irish music by TCD Classics student Caolán Mac An Aircinn, and a reception courtesy of Jason O’Brien and Odaios Foods. As part of the workshop, a digital photographic exhibition, ‘Lapithos: Landscapes and People of a Lost Past’, curated by Dr Stella Diakou, was launched by Dr Michalis Stavrinos, the Ambassador of Cyprus. On the Sunday we moved from talking and thinking about sacred landscapes to experiencing the sacred space of Glendalough with skilled guiding from Mary Kelly and Conor McDermott. The organisers are very grateful for funding and support from the Irish Research Council, A.G. Leventis Foundation, Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute, and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. Caolán Mac An Aircinn, one of our final year AHA students, provided musical entertainment with a traditional Irish theme at the reception
Newsletter 2015 – 2016
Image Gallery
Athanasios Vionis of the University of Cyprus, Stella Diakou and Jacopo Tabolli at the Sacred Landscapes Workshop
TCD Classics students acted as judges for the Schools’ Speech competition. (John Francis Martin, Richard Sanders, Daniel McDevitt, Ross Fitzpatrick, Frank Bradley, Julie Farrell, Zoë Boland and Alexandra Madela)
Congratulations to our Classics graduates of 2014. Left: Fiona Donnelly, Elizabeth Foley, Ryan Duffy, James Downey, Elizabeth Di Vincenzo, Ellen Finn, Elsa Almond. Right: Antonia McAlister, Séamus O Súilleabháin, Alex Coldrick, Lucy Withrington
Trinity Monday: new Scholars William von Behr and John Francis Martin, with Brian McGing, Dr Melissa Webb and Anna Chahoud
Trinity Monday New Fellows and Scholars Dinner: John Francis Martin and William von Behr with Professor Tom Mitchell, former Provost, Mr Robert Bradley Gamble (Scholar 1965) and Mr Paddy Salmon (Scholar 1975)
Anna Chahoud, Public Orator, wearing the Luce medal
Department of Classics School of Histories and Humanities
Student News We congratulate all of our students on their achievements and awards over the past year! Undergraduate Awards and Successes Trinity College Dublin Scholarship was awarded to John Francis Martin and William von Behr (SF SH Classics). Alexandra Madela (JS SH Classics) was awarded the Vice-Chancellor Prize in Latin Verse composition. Graduating student Jamie Chandler (AMHC) won a Gold Medal in his final examinations. Congratulations to Grace O’Sullivan (AHA) who has been identified as a Highly Commended Entrant in The Undergraduate Awards for 2015. Her paper entitled ‘Hadrian and Philhellenism – enamoured Emperor or canny political operator?’ was ranked in the top 10% of all submissions in the Classical Studies & Archaeology category.
Postgraduate Awards and Successes A Government of Ireland Postgraduate Studentship was awarded to incoming Ph.D. student and 2014 TCD graduate Ellen Finn. Congratulations to our Classics M.Phil. student, Karena Walsh, who was awarded the George Huxley Prize for the best thesis. Congratulations to M.Phil. students Elise Poppen and Venina Svetli Kalistratova, both awarded travel bursaries by the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies to enable them to carry out site and museum research for their theses. Ph.D. student Liz Bourke was nominated in 2014 for a Hugo Award in the Best Fan Writer category and by British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) for non-fiction for ‘Sleeps with Monsters’ (http://www.tor.com/features/series/sleeps-with-monsters/) Congratulations to Cosetta Cadau (Ph.D. 2014) on the publication of her monograph, Studies in Colluthus’ Abduction of Helen (Brill 2015)
Alumni Notes Geraldine McGuckian Award for Mature Students We are very grateful to the family of Geraldine McGuckian, a mature student who studied Classical Civilisation and Biblical Studies and graduated in 1996, who have provided funds to establish an award for mature students in her memory. The purpose of this award is to assist one or more deserving and merited mature student(s) at either undergraduate or postgraduate level. The award was made for the first time in 2015 and was shared by Paul Tobin (JS Classical Civilisation) and Glenn Gibney (SF Ancient History and Archaeology).
John V. Luce Medal In 2013 Mrs Lyndall Luce donated one of J.V. Luce’s Gold medals to become medal of office for the Public Orator (see Newsletter 2013 for this event). The medal was mounted in gold and ‘Trinity blue’ silk and worn for the first time at Winter Commencements in December 2014.
Alumni News Sarah Powell (Classics 2002) is currently working as a paleographer at the Folger Library in Washington DC, transcribing English and Latin manuscripts for their Early Modern Manuscripts Online project. Emma Devereux (AHA 2011) is working as an archaeobotanist on the Amara West Project at the British Museum. Katherine Sheane (AHA 2007) is working as a Sales Manager at 501 Auctions in New York. Caitlyn Valiulis (CC 2009; M.Phil. Classics 2010) has passed the bar and is looking forward to working as a criminal attorney in Chicago. Emmett Tracy, (Ph.D. 2014) (with Kevin Koidl) launched KaffeeHouse Digital (http://kaffeehouse.com) which ‘aims at creating innovative platforms for global literature - helping students, publishers, translators and casual readers’.
Upcoming Events The Stanford Lectures 2016-17 will be given by Dr Will Wootton of King’s College London The provision title for his lecture series will be ‘Apelles faciebat aut Polyclitus: Unfinish in Classical Art’. This lecture series was established, by public subscription, to honour the memory of William Bedell Stanford, Regius Professor of Greek in Trinity College, Dublin, from 1940 to 1980, and Chancellor of the University of Dublin from 1982 to 1984. The lectures are published by Cambridge University Press.
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