2019-2020 Report of the CAMWS Steering Committee on Awards
(Lorenzo F. Garcia Jr.)
The members of the 2019-2020 Steering Committee
Lorenzo F. Garcia Jr. (chair)
Cynthia White, Subcommittee on the CAMWS Ladislaus J. Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award
Benjamin M. Wolkow, Subcommittee on the College Greek Exam
Victor M. Martinez, Subcommittee on the CAMWS Excavation and Field School Awards
Jennifer L. Larson, Subcommittee on the CAMWS First Book Award
Kristen A. Ehrhardt, Subcommittee on the CAMWS Undergraduate Awards
Nick L. Fletcher and Margaret Musgrove, Subcommittee on the CAMWS School Awards
Ruth Caston, Subcommittee on the CAMWS Stewart Teacher Training and Travel Awards
Arianna Traill, Subcommittee on the CAMWS Semple, Grant, and Benario Travel Awards
Laury Ward, Subcommittee on the CAMWS and Kraft Teaching Awards
I thank the chairs of the eight subcommittees for their leadership and careful stewardship of their award funds this year, especially given the exceptional difficulties of this year due to the global health crisis. In spite of the difficulties of shifting to distanced learning modalities at their own institutions and many instances of allowing flexibility of awards for programs that have been canceled for the summer, the various committee chairs carried out their duties and submitted reports in a timely fashion. I also wish to express my thanks for assistance received from our president, Anne Groton, and especially from our secretary-treasurer, Tom Sienkewicz, and from his able assistant Jevanie Gillen.
Subcommittee News, Comments, and Recommendations
(1) The CAMWS Ladislaus J. Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award subcommittee along with the CAMWS Secretary-Treasurer amended the description of the award on the CAMWS website in 2019 to read: “The subcommittee may, at its sole discretion, retain an unsuccessful nomination for consideration in the following year.” Following that change, the Subcommittee considered five nominations for the award this year, including three submissions reconsidered from last year’s pool of applicants. The works considered included three textbooks pitched at the college level, one aimed at both the secondary and college levels, and one pitched at the elementary and secondary levels. The committee, impressed with the consistent good quality of all the texts, selected a clear winner:
Christine Loren Albright (University of Georgia) for Ovid’s Metamorphoses: A Reader for Students in Elementary College Latin (London and New York: Routledge, 2018).
The committee observes that one continuing challenge involves getting copies of each of the nominated books to each of the subcommittee members, and opines that going forward it may be desirable to centralize the mailing of books so that distribution and timing are more uniform — perhaps the Secretary-Treasurer’s office can assist with the collection and distribution of books for committee members next year. Otherwise, the committee members were grateful to see submissions of such high quality, and hope that expanded advertisement of the award may lead to an increase in submissions in future years. I wish to register my thanks to the Subcommittee members for their outstanding service.
(2) The CAMWS College Greek Exam Subcommittee is a new committee to CAMWS this year, having drafted its charter and a document detailing the responsibilities of the Chair of the Subcommittee earlier this year, both of which were approved by the Executive Committee on January 13, 2020. Exams were offered both in the Fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020: 6 students from 2 institutions participated in the elementary Greek exam in the fall. Although 26 institutions signed up to participate in the spring, 6 withdrew due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, out of 289 students who signed up to take the Elementary Exam, 244 were able to do so (up from 220 in 2019) and out of 65 who were to take the Intermediate/Advanced Tragedy Exam, 50 were able to do so (up from 23 in 2019, and the highest number of exams since 2012). Unfortunately, due to the continuing difficulties stemming from the pandemic, the results have not yet been graded. CAMWS Secretary-Treasurer-Elect T. Davina McClain is conducting the grading — our thanks to her for her ongoing efforts in these difficult times.
Now that the College Greek Exam is now well-established within CAMWS and the Steering Committee, the Subcommittee is working on several issues: (1) revising the CAMWS webpages to include exam dates for both fall and spring semesters; (2) realigning the exam dates on annual instead of academic calendars; (3) considering options for electronic administration of the Greek exams; and (4) expanding promotion of the exams. I wish to thank the members of the Subcommittee for their excellent work in spite of the difficulties brought on by our current global pandemic, especially to Davina McClain as she continues to work on grading the exams.
(3) The CAMWS Excavation and Field School Awards subcommittee received a total of 18 applications this year, split equally between undergraduate and graduate applicants. The committee was pleased with the strength of this year’s pool of applicants, but was disappointed to see that none of the applications were from teachers, an issue the subcommittee hopes to address for the future. Three awardees were selected this year, one graduate award and two undergraduate awards:
The graduate award: Ms. Rachel Renaud (University of Iowa) for participation in the Tel Azekah 2020 summer excavation.
The first undergraduate award: Ms. Charlotte Houghton (Macalester College) for participation in the Cosa Excavations. She is also the winner of the Peter Knox Award.
A second undergraduate award: Ms. Graces Hermes (St. Olaf College) for participation in the American School of Classical Studies Excavations in the Athenian Agora.
The Subcommittee faced a novel difficulty this year insofar as the three award winners will be unable to use their award funds for the field work listed in their applications given the current COVID-19 pandemic, and awardees will be able to apply their award funds to programs they are accepted to next summer. The Subcommittee notes the importance of considering alternative archaeological opportunities to which future funds might be applied, including project activities that would not require travel (e.g., image processing for 3D modeling of sites and objects, museum or archival work, ceramic analysis such as petrographic analysis). The global crisis forced difficult decisions on the Subcommittee members as they worked to find flexible solutions for this year’s awardees — I thank them for their fortitude and grace.
(4) The CAMWS First Book Award subcommittee received 23 nominations for the award, of which 2 were ineligible; an additional nomination was withdrawn, leaving 20 eligible submissions — a considerably larger number than the eligible submissions the Subcommittee considered last year (13). After rigorous review, the committee came to clear consensus on three finalists, and selected two winners:
Nandini Pandey (University of Wisconsin-Madison) for The Poetics of Power in Augustan Rome: Latin Poetic Responses to Early Imperial Iconography (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Stephanie Roussou (University of Cyprus) for Pseudo-Arcadius’ Epitome of Herodian’s De Prosodia Catholica, edited with an introduction and commentary (Oxford University Press, 2018).
The Steering Committee offers hearty congratulations to Drs. Roussou and Pandey for their outstanding publications, and thanks to the members of the Subcommittee for their outstanding work once again this year.
(5) The CAMWS Undergraduate Awards subcommittee received 2 applications for the Faculty-Undergraduate Collaborative Research Grant and awarded grants to both projects:
Christina Franzen and John Ross (Marshall University, WV) for their project, “Agamben and his Interlocutors: Homo Sacer in Seneca, Lucan, and the New Testament.”
Svetla Slaveva-Griffin and Luis Sanchez (Florida State University), for their project, “The Political Medicine of Asclepius in Plato’s Republic.”
The Subcommittee received 19 nominations and, ultimately, 15 complete applications for the Manson A. Stewart Undergraduate Awards. The committee was impressed by the strength of the applications overall, and selected six awardees:
Brady Duke (University of Alabama)
Bellina Gaskey (University of Michigan)
Arjun Guidroz (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
David Sullivan (University of Georgia)
Sophia Warnement (College of William and Mary, VA)
Abigail Watroba (University of Michigan)
The Subcommittee has taken on the task for next year’s award cycle to develop a clear rubric for assessing applications. The Steering Committee offers hearty congratulations to all award winners and gives thanks to the Subcommittee members for their continued outstanding service.
(6) The CAMWS Subcommittee on School Awards once again had large numbers of participants in this year’s Latin examinations, translating passages on the “Death of Hannibal” (adapted from Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal 12) at the intermediate level and Vergil Aeneid 7.5-28 at the advanced level. This year 59 schools in 21 states and 1 foreign country registered for the exam. At the high school level, 984 students participated in the competition (536 intermediate and 448 advanced). Exam participation at the high school level was down nearly 7% from 2018-19. At the college level, 37 schools in 15 states entered. A total of 344 college students participated (201 intermediate and 143 advanced), an 8% increase over last year. Exam grading is ongoing — a list of winners will be emailed to participating teachers and posted on the CAMWS website once details are available.
With such large numbers of participants, the Subcommittee continues to deal with administrative challenges, and hopes to continue to refine and improve for dealing with submissions, such as requesting that schools label their exam submissions more clearly (i.e., by full school year rather than by year of CAMWS meeting: e.g., 2019-2020 Latin Translation Exam). The Subcommittee requests that Subcommittee its name be changed from the Subcommittee on School Awards to the Subcommittee on Latin Translation Contests, for the sake of clarity; committee members will revise their charter and other materials on the CAMWS website. The Subcommittee also emphasizes the continued need for high numbers of committee members to help with the mountain of exam grading. I wish to thank the committee members for their continued service during challenging time.
(7) The CAMWS Teacher Training and Travel Awards subcommittee was busy this year reviewing applications for Stewart Teacher Training and Travel awards, Ruebel Undergraduate travel awards, and New Teacher Loan Assistance and Start-up Funds awards this year. The committee received 1 application for a Teacher Training award (down from 6 last year) and 20 applications for travel awards from K-12 teachers, Adjunct faculty, and graduate students. The committee awarded 1 Teacher Training Award to
Jonathan Wheeler (Villanova University), awarded $1750.00
The committee made 19 travel awards totaling $5,950.00 and 7 Ruebel Undergraduate Travel awards totaling $2,000.00 (I leave the names of the travel and Ruebel awardees to the Subcommittee’s report, included below). The committee received 1 application for the New Teacher Loan Assistance and 2 applications for the Start-up funds. The committee gave 3 awards for a total of $2000.
Emma Vanderpool (Trickum Middle School) received $1,000.00 of New Teacher Loan Assistance.
Evan Dutmer (Culver Academies) and Laura Briscoe (St. Pius X Catholic High School) each received $500.00 in Start-up funds.
Subcommittee members continue to face issues with advertising New Teacher awards. The committee contacted directors of MAT programs in Fall 2019 and will do so again in Fall 2020, but requests assistance from State VPs to get the word out about the CAMWS New Teacher awards to state Classical associations. Advertisement on the ACL website would also seem like a good idea. The committee also noted that undergraduate students applying for Ruebel awards consistently asked for more money than the committee could afford to give, and wonders if there is a way for students interested in sharing hotel rooms to meet up to cut down on expenses associated with the annual conference.
The Teacher Training and Travel subcommittee noted their disappointment that they were unable to announce the winners of this year’s various awards: “We were very disappointed that we could not announce the winners in person this year and want to convey how impressed we were by all the applicants, whose obvious devotion to their work and teaching made our job a pleasure.” The Steering Committee echoes those sentiments, and extends its thanks to the subcommittee members for their excellent service this year in spite of the pandemic that forced an end to all travel this year.
(8) The CAMWS Subcommittee on the Summer Travel Awards subcommittee received 9 applications for the Benario, 4 for the Grant, and 5 for the Semple. Applications for the Semple were down this year, and sufficient applications were received only by extending the application deadline by two weeks and sending targeted emails to Directors of Graduate Study throughout the US and Canada and to K-12 Teachers’ organizations in the US. This year’s winners include:
Alexandria Stephenson, PhD candidate, Florida State University (Semple)
Samantha Breecher, PhD candidate, University of Pennsylvania (Grant)
Grace Funsten, PhD candidate, University of Washington (Benario: awarded $1155.00 for the American Academy in Rome Latin Epigraphy Program)
Chris Mural, Latin Teacher, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire IL (Benario: $1845.00 for the Vergilian Society: Greeks and Romans on the Bay of Naples Tour)
The subcommittee notes two issues for future years: (1) Further efforts are needed to publicize these awards in Canada; (2) the committee requests additional funds. There is significant interest in the Benario, and applications are nearly always deserving of funding. If more funds can be raised, this award can have a high impact at lower cost than the other two. There are often requests for amounts below $1,000.00. Indeed, additional funds were requested and obtained for the committee last year — they (and I) were disappointed to learn that the additional funds were one-time and not an ongoing budget increase for the committee. I strongly second the request that the Executive Committee approve a permanent increase in funds for the Benario from $3,000.00 to $4,000.00 at the least (better still: permanently increase the subcommittee’s $12,500.00 budget to $15,000.00).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all summer travel award winners have been allowed to defer their award until 2021. I thank the members of the subcommittee for their excellent work this year and their efforts to make sure awarded funds could be used at a later date when travel is possible and summer programs are reinstituted.
(9) The CAMWS and Kraft Teaching Awards subcommittee considered a total of five nominations for the Enice E. Kraft Award for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching (an additional application was left incomplete, and an additional three applicants failed to renew their CAMWS memberships). The committee awarded:
Robert Patrick, Latin teacher and Department Chair, Parkview High School in Lilburn, Georgia.
For the CAMWS Award for Excellence in College Teaching, the committee reviewed four previous nominees and two new nominations (with an additional nominee who requested that his consideration be delayed until 2020-2021). The committee awarded:
Teresa Ramsby, Associate Professor of Classics, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Full commendations for both winners are attached within the subcommittee’s report (included below). The Steering Committee extends its hearty congratulations to Drs. Patrick and Ramsby, and its thanks to the members of the subcommittee for their outstanding service this year.
(10) The Steering Committee received 2 nominations for CAMWS Special Service Awards. Awards were approved by the Steering Committee and CAMWS Executive Committee for: Lynne B. McClendon and George Reveliotis. Both award winners requested that their awards be given in person at next year’s CAMWS banquet in Cleveland 2021. Their names will be read aloud during the CAMWS online conference, but citations will be prepared for publication and award at the 2021 meeting. My thanks go to Drs. Anne Groton and Antony Augoustakis for their recommendations for such worthy award winners. I know I speak for the entire CAMWS community by saying how much I am looking forward to seeing Ms. McClendon and Mr. Reveliotis receive their awards next year.
Respectfully submitted,
Lorenzo F. Garcia Jr., chairperson, CAMWS Steering Committee 2019-2020
(attachments: 2019-2020 award subcommittee reports)
Annual Report
CAMWS Subcommittee for the Ladislaus J. Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award, 2020
The members of the 2019-2020 CAMWS Subcommittee for the Pedagogy Book Award:
Cynthia White, University of Arizona, Chairperson
Sydnor Roy, Texas Tech University
Teresa R. Ramsby, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Timothy F. Winters, Austin Peay University, TN
Mary Hamil Gilbert, Birmingham Southern College, AL
Clifford A. Robinson, University of the Sciences, PA
The Subcommittee for the Bolchazy Award is happy to announce this year’s winner:
Christine Loren Albright (University of Georgia) for her textbook, Ovid’s Metamorphoses: A Reader for Students in Elementary College Latin (London and New York: Routledge, 2018)
This year, the subcommittee received five nominations for the award. Of these, three were “re-nominations”—that is, they had been nominated for the prize last year as well. (As a reminder, in 2019, the secretary-treasurer and the subcommittee added the following wording to the description of the award that appears on the CAMWS website: “The subcommittee may, at its sole discretion, retain an unsuccessful nomination for consideration in the following year.”)
Of the nominations, three were pitched at the college level; one was aimed at an audience at both the secondary and college levels; and one was pitched at both the elementary and secondary levels. This distribution resembles previous years but can make distinguishing between and among the nominated books a real challenge. Fortunately, one book stood out clearly from the others this year, and the subcommittee was relatively consistent in its evaluation of all five books.
All of the textbooks were of consistently good quality. We hope that as the award becomes better known the subcommittee will receive more nominations. One continuing challenge involves getting copies of each of the nominated books to each of the subcommittee members. Going forward it may be desirable to centralize the mailing of books so that distribution and timing are more uniform.
This year’s winner, as noted above, fits all the criteria for the award: it is appropriate for the target audience; material is presented clearly; the quality of both the selections and the commentary is strong; the pedagogical aims are clear, and clearly met; and the potential for broad impact is evident. Highlights of the praise offered by subcommittee members include the following:
- “Albright has provided a much-needed resource—Ovid simplified and adapted in prose form.”
- “In some ways the least attractive feature of this volume—its suppression of Ovid’s verse—is tied to its most attractive feature, its rendering Ovid accessible to the elementary-level college student.”
- “Because it is committed to no specific method and to no specific textbook series, it is quite adaptable to any instructor’s preferred pedagogy.”
I am grateful to this year’s subcommittee members for their careful readings of the nominated volumes, their detailed and nuanced evaluations, and their congenial contributions to the task at hand.
Cynthia White
Chair, CAMWS Subcommittee on the Ladislaus J. Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award
2019-2020 CAMWS College Greek Exam Report
The first order of business of the Subcommittee this academic year was to draft a charter and a document detailing the responsibilities of the Chair of the Subcommittee. Both were approved by the CAMWS Executive Committee on January 13, 2020. They are available on the CAMWS web page at the following URLs:
• https://camws.org/cgecharter • https://camws.org/cgechair
The Fall administration of the Elementary Exam had six students from two institutions participate. There were twenty-six institutions that had signed up to participate in the Spring. Unfortunately, six canceled face-to-face classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic before they could administer the Exams. The Subcommittee carefully weighed its options, and it was decided not to extend the deadline to administer the Exam, but to accept only the efforts of the twenty institutions that had been able to do so. An online administration was deemed not viable at this time. Out of the 289 students who had signed up to take the Elementary Exam, 244 were able to do so (up from 220 in 2019) and out of 65 who were to take the Intermediate/Advanced Tragedy Exam, 50 were able to do so (up from 23 in 2019, and the most since 2012). The results have not been graded yet due to the ongoing situation. T. Davina McClain, the Secretary-Treasurer-Elect is conducting the grading.
With the transference of the College Greek Exam to CAMWS now firmly established, the Subcommittee is planning to more formally regulate the process and seek improvements to the Exam. The following points are under discussion:
- Revising the CAMWS web pages for the Exam, including establishing firm dates for both the Fall and Spring administration.
- Realigning the Exams to occur in an academic year instead of a calendar year. The current arrangement has the Exams composed for the Spring administration and the same Exams reused for the Fall. As Tom Sienkewicz has pointed out, a problem arises in that awards are given in the Spring, and it is possible that someone in the Fall might end up with the highest score. Thus, the Phinney Prize awarded to the student(s) who earn the highest score might not have been properly bestowed. Moving to an academic year schedule, and having the Exams composed for the Fall and then reused in the Spring, would solve this issue.
- Administering a survey, either of all past participants or of all introductory Greek programs, to find out what material is covered roughly three-quarters through their program. This would be used to revise the syllabus in a more standardized way that would be as fair as possible to students in all programs.
- Investigating the possibility of online administration.
- Expanding the promotion of the Exams.
The Subcommittee is looking forward to reporting the results and distributing the prizes of the 2020 Exams as
soon as possible.
Respectively submitted on May 1, 2020,
Benjamin M. Wolkow
The University of Georgia
Chair, Subcommittee on the CAMWS College Greek Exam
30 April 2020
Committee Report: CAMWS Excavation and Field School Award for 2020
Submitted by Victor M. Martínez
The Excavation and Field School award committee received a total of 18 applications this year, split equally between undergraduate and graduate applicants. Once again there were no application from teachers, a problem that requires further thought.
The graduate award was extended to Ms. Rachel Renaud (University of Iowa) for participation in the Tel Azekah 2020 summer excavation.
The first undergraduate award was extended to Ms. Charlotte Houghton (Macalester College) for participation in the Cosa Excavations. She is also the winner of the Peter Knox Award.
A third award was extended to Ms. Graces Hermes (St. Olaf College) for participation in the American School of Classical Studies Excavations in the Athenian Agora.
While the committee was pleased with the caliber of the applicants; however, we need a more concerted effort to encourage applications from teachers. Unique (one hopes) to this year’s cohort of award winners will be the inability to use the award funds for the applicant’s field work given the current state of global paralysis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we hope that this does not become a continuing or even intermittent disruption, we may wish to consider alternative archaeological opportunities to which the funds might be applied. For example, it might be possible for a student to participate in project activities that would not require travel (e.g., image processing for 3D modeling of sites and objects, museum or archival work, ceramic analysis such as petrographic analysis). While this is not the same as actually excavating, it is worth considering by the board or exploring the nature of 21st century fieldwork in a session or workshop at a future CAMWS meeting.
CAMWS Subcommittee: First Book Award 2020 Summary Report
Membership:
Neil Bernstein, Ohio University
Meghan DiLuzio, Baylor University
Lisa Hughes, University of Calgary
Jennifer Larson, Kent State University (Chair)
Ruth Scodel, University of Michigan
Kathryn Simonsen, Memorial University of Newfoundland
This year, the committee received 23 nominations for the award, of which 2 were ineligible; an additional nomination was withdrawn, leaving 20 eligible submissions. This number of nominations is similar to last year (22) although the final number of eligible books was larger (13 last year to 20 this year). I thank the committee members for their valiant effort in completing the evaluation of all books by late January.
Among the eligible books this year, there were 5 books on Hellenist/Greek topics, 10 books on Romanist/Latin topics, and 5 books which bridged that divide in various ways.
Committee members received copies of the books in August and early September. The nominations closed on September 1 and the first round of evaluations began. Per our normal practice, each book was read by 2 committee members. (Given the number of nominations this time, each committee member read 4 or 5 books for the first round.) Committee members then provided a numerical score (1-4) and comments detailing the book’s strengths and weaknesses. After compilation of the first round evaluations, 6 books advanced to the second round. Committee members submitted their reports and scores on these books on January 24, 2020. These were compiled and distributed to the committee. The results revealed a clear consensus on the high merit of three finalists. When polled, the committee was nearly unanimous in its selection of the two winners.
We had a very strong field of contenders from which to choose this year, which made our task of reading both educational and enjoyable.
The two CAMWS First Book awards this year go to Nandini Pandey (University of Wisconsin-Madison) for her book The Poetics of Power in Augustan Rome: Latin Poetic Responses to Early Imperial Iconography (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and to Stephanie Roussou (University of Cyprus) for Pseudo-Arcadius’ Epitome of Herodian’s De Prosodia Catholica, edited with an introduction and commentary (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Committee members lauded Roussou’s book as “an impressive piece of scholarship” and “a highly meritorious publication.” This critical edition, translation and commentary of Ps.-Arcadius’ epitome is the first to consider all surviving sources for Herodian’s Peri katholikēs prosōidias. It uses two manuscripts which have not been previously employed, but which Roussou directly consulted and found to contain superior readings; additionally, she analyzes parallel passages from later grammarians which help to confirm her findings. The resulting attempt to reconstruct Herodian’s book is an impressive work of painstaking scholarship which advances our knowledge of the ancient study of Greek grammar. It is also an important reminder that all Classicists depend on fundamental work like this for our current understanding of the grammar and pronunciation of ancient Greek
Pandey’s book was commended as “stunningly smart” and “impressive in its depth, breadth and ambition.” Committee members especially praised the care and precision with which Pandey successfully integrates material culture, particularly numismatic evidence, into efficient and insightful readings. One member wrote, “Pandey clearly has control of a wide range of primary textual and material sources, as well as the massive secondary bibliography.” Another concluded, “The book's focus on the poets as creators of meaning in dialogue with Augustus allows it to offer important reassessments of the last twenty or so years of discussion of the connections between Augustan literature and imperial culture.”
Congratulations to Drs. Roussou and Pandey.
I am grateful to this year’s committee members (Neil Bernstein, Meghan DiLuzio, Lisa Hughes, Ruth Scodel and Kathryn Simonsen) for their careful readings of the nominated volumes, their detailed and nuanced evaluations, and their promptness in meeting a very challenging set of deadlines. As the outgoing Chair of this committee, I express my appreciation for the opportunity to have served with such congenial colleagues, on the most educational and enlightening of CAMWS assignments.
Jennifer Larson (Kent State University)
Chair, CAMWS Subcommittee on the First Book Award
Subcommittee on CAMWS Undergraduate Awards
2019-2020 Report
Subcommittee members in 2019-2020 (in alphabetical order): Hilary J. Bouxsein (St. Olaf College, MN), Kristen Ehrhardt (Chair, John Carroll University, OH), Stephen M. Kershner (Austin Peay State University, TN), Tadeusz Mazurek (University of Notre Dame, IN), Ashley A. Simone (Columbia University, NY), and Valerio Caldesi Valeri (University of Kentucky)
This year, the committee received two applications for the Faculty-Undergraduate Collaborative Research Grant and ultimately awarded grants to both projects:
- Christina Franzen and John Ross (Marshall University, WV) for their project, entitled “Agamben and his Interlocutors: Homo Sacer in Seneca, Lucan, and the New Testament.”
- Svetla Slaveva-Griffin and Luis Sanchez (Florida State University), for their project, entitled “The Political Medicine of Asclepius in Plato’s Republic.”
The Slaveva-Griffen and Sanchez project received the full award. While the committee approved of the Franzen-Ross project in general, the proposal asked for a portion of the funding to cover attendance at CAMWS 2021. The committee deemed this to be outside the scope of the award, which calls for projects to be completed “no later than a semester after the receipt of the award,” but did approve the portion of funding that was not related to conference attendance.
In January, the committee received nineteen nominations for the Manson A. Stewart Undergraduate Awards. Of these, fifteen students ultimately submitted complete applications. This completion rate, somewhat higher than seen in the previous two years, may be connected with the new, consistent application deadline of January 30th for CAMWS awards. While all of the applications were impressive, when the committee ranked the applications, we saw a clear distinction among the top six candidates and decided to award prizes to the following students:
- Brady Duke (University of Alabama)
- Bellina Gaskey (University of Michigan)
- Arjun Guidroz (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
- David Sullivan (University of Georgia)
- Sophia Warnement (College of William and Mary, VA)
- Abigail Watroba (University of Michigan)
A recurrent question that the committee has raised, but never yet figured out, is whether some sort of assessment rubric would be useful in ranking the MAS applications, and if so, what exactly such a rubric would entail. The committee will attempt to address this issue in the upcoming year.
Respectfully submitted,
Kristen Ehrhardt, 4/28/2020
Classical Association of the Middle West and South
Subcommittee on the School Awards
2019-2020 Annual Report
The CAMWS Latin Translation Contest once again featured both Intermediate and Advanced levels of competition, at both the high school and college levels. The contest offered these passages for translation:
Intermediate Exam: “Death of Hannibal” (adapted from Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal 12)
Advanced Exam: Vergil, Aeneid 7.5-28
At the high school level, 59 schools in 21 states and one foreign country registered; Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida were the states with the highest levels of participation. A total of 984 high school students participated in the competition (536 intermediate and 448 advanced) about a 7% decrease from 2018-19. At the college level, 37 schools in 15 states entered. Texas (6) and Virginia (5) had the most schools entered. A total of 344 college students participated (201 intermediate and 143 advanced), almost 8% more than last year. Although it is certainly wonderful to have so many schools and students participating every year, the massive scale of this contest continues to create significant administrative challenges.
Again, schools had the option of submitting their papers either by e-mail or by US mail. The e-mail option continues to be the overwhelming preference. The high-school co-chair, Nick Fletcher, developed a procedure last year for handling the pdf files of electronic submissions; this procedure continues to be refined and improved. A longer testing window was made available this year, with tests available the week before Thanksgiving week and the week after; the new schedule seemed to fit with various academic schedules better. This schedule may need to be further adjusted for Fall 2020, depending on schools’ needs.
For the sake of clarity, we recommend that the contest be labeled in the future by the full name of the school year (e.g., the 2019-2020 Latin Translation Contest), rather than the year of the CAMWS meeting. References to a test which is taken in the fall of one year, with awards presented in the spring of the next, have become confusing to some participants.
We also request that the current name of the subcommittee, the Subcommittee on the School Awards, be changed to the Subcommittee on Latin Translation Contests, for the sake of clarity. This name change may make it easier for the President to recruit committee members who will understand their mission. This year, the President recruited a larger number of people to serve on the committee than before; we recommend that this higher number be continued.
As always, top-performing students in the competition will be recognized with cash awards, book awards, and certificates of commendation. A full list of the winning students, along with comprehensive performance and participation statistics, will be e-mailed to participating teachers and posted on the CAMWS website.
The subcommittee members deserve the thanks of the CAMWS membership as a whole, and the thanks of the subcommittee co-chairs in particular, for their service: Scott Cochran (Siegel HS, TN), Sam Caldis (Brown Univ., RI), Kathleen M. Kirsch (St. Agnes School, MN), Caleb X. Dance (Washington & Lee Univ., VA), Evelyn W. Adkins (Case Western Reserve Univ., OH), Karl P. Frerichs (University School, OH), Andrew Burrow (Mountain View Jr. High, AL), Elizabeth Deacon (Univ. of Colorado, CO), Lindley Henson (Seton Catholic Prep Academy, AZ), David West (Ashland Univ., OH). The co-chairs are especially grateful to Karl Frerichs for his extra help on all aspects of the contest.
We would also like to thank the small army of CAMWS members who generously volunteered to grade exams. Their assistance makes the contest possible each year.
Respectfully submitted,
Margaret Musgrove, University of Central Oklahoma
Nick Fletcher, Hawken School (OH)
Co-Chairs, CAWMS Subcommittee on School Awards
Report from the CAMWS Manson Stewart Teacher Training and Travel Awards Subcommittee, 2019-20
Subcommittee Members:
Ruth R. Caston, Chair (University of Michigan) 2021
Salvador Bartera (Mississippi State University 2022
Jason J. Hansen (Tempe Preparatory Academy) 2020
Hilary Lehmann (Knox College) 2021
David Ligon (Ursuline Academy) 2022
Erin Moodie (Purdue University) 2021
The Manson Stewart Teacher Training and Travel Awards Subcommittee handled three types of funding request for the 2020 CAMWS meeting that was to be held in Birmingham, AL: Stewart Teacher Training and Travel awards, Ruebel Undergraduate travel awards, and New Teacher Loan Assistance and Start-up Funds awards. We were very disappointed that we could not announce the winners in person this year and want to convey how impressed we were by all the applicants, whose obvious devotion to their work and teaching made our job a pleasure.
Total budget for all awards in 2019-20 was $11,700.00
I. $7700 for Stewart Teacher Training and Travel
II. $2000 for Ruebel Travel Awards
III. $2000 for New Teacher Loan Assistance and Start-up Funds
I. Stewart Teaching Training and Travel Awards (Budget: $7700)
The committee received 1 application for a Teacher Training award (down from 6 last year) and 20 applications for travel awards from K-12 teachers, Adjunct faculty, and graduate students. We gave 1 Teacher Training Award and 19 Travel Awards, for a total amount of $7700.
Teacher Training Award
- Jonathan Wheeler (Villanova University)
2712 Miami Street
South Bend, IN 46614
jonathanwheeler2@gmail.com
award: $1750.00
Travel Awards
1. Timothy Brannelly (University of Virginia)
504 N. 1st Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
tsb6rz@virginia.edu
award: $150.00
2. Elizabeth Deacon (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder)
Department of Classics
Eaton Humanities Building, 248 UCB
Boulder CO 80309
elizabeth.deacon@colorado.edu
award: $300.00
3.Lisa Ellison (East Carolina University)
105 Gawain Road
Greenville, NC 27858
Ellisonl15@ecu.edu
award: $500.00
4.Olga Faccani (UCSB)
Department of Classics
University of California, Santa Barbara 93106
ofaccani@ucsb.edu
award: $350.00
5.Maurice Gonzales (Texas Tech University)
1819 Glenna Goodacre Blvd
Lubbock, TX, 79401
mauricegonzales25@gmail.com
award: $150.00
6.Luke Hagemann (Emory University0
Department of History
Emory University
221 Bowden Hall
561 South Kilgo Circle
Atlanta, GA 30322
luke.hagemann@emory.edu
award: $300.00
7. Katherine Johnson (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder)
3000 Colorado Avenue
Boulder, Colorado, 80303
kajo4537@colorado.edu
award: $300.00
8. Sinja Kuppers (Duke University)
Duke Box 90103
421 Chapel Drive 233 Allen Bldg.
Durham, NC 27708-0103
sinja.kuppers@duke.edu
award: $150.00
9. Jon Manley (Indiana University)
Department of History
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana 47405
jbmanley@indiana.edu
award: $300.00
10. Andres Matlock (UCLA)
7915 3/8 Norton Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90046
amatlock@humnet.ucla.edu
award: $300.00
11. Claire McGraw (Monmouth College)
cmcgraw@monmouthcollege.edu
award: $500.00
12. Kayla Olson (Univ. of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill)
303 Smith Level Rd, Apt A-11
Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
Kco21@live.unc.edu
award: $300.00
13. Aneira Pendragon (Villanova University)
aneirinpendragon@gmail.com
award: $350.00
14. Dominica Rollins (Case Western Reserve Univ.)
534 Miner Road
Highland Hts, OH 44143
dar143@case.edu
award: $150.00
15. Siera Schiano (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder)
sierra.schiano@colorado.edu
award: $300.00
16. Anastasia Temkina (Univ. of South Florida)
atemkina@mail.usf.edu
award: $300.00
17. Hannah VanSyckel (Univ. of Notre Dame)
1643 S. Turtle Creek Drive
South Bend, IN 46637
hvansyck@nd.edu
award: $350.00
18. Stephanie Wong (Brown University)
Brown University - Box N
79 Brown St
Providence, RI 02912
stephaniewong@brown.edu
award: $300.00
19.Athanasia Worley (Newburyport H.S., MA)
8926 Riley Street
Overland Park, Kansas 66212
aworleyclassics@yahoo.com
award: $600.00
- Ruebel Undergraduate Travel Awards (Budget: $2000)
The committee received 8 applications for the Ruebel Undergraduate Travel Award (an increase from the 5 applications received last year). One of the 8 applicants withdrew when she received funds from her own college. The committee approved funding for 7 awards for a total of $1995.
- Kelsey Myers (Univ. of Arkansas)
kelsey.myers97@gmail.com
award: $285
- Meghan O’Neill (Grand Valley State University)
32 Winter Ave, Apt. 366
Grand Rapids, MI 49504
oneillme@mail.gvsu.edu
award: $285
- Hannah Phelps (Houston Baptist University)
hannahnphelps.gmail.com
award: $285
- Helen Ruger (Columbia University)
615 W. 115th St.
New York, NY 10027
hwr2109@columbia.edu
award: $285
- Dalton Sala (Hillsdale College)
870 Circle Rd
Palmer Lake, CO 80133
dsala@hillsdale.edu
award: $285
- Maxwell Shiller (Valparaiso University)
7112 Aetna Court
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 53213
max.shiller@valpo.edu
award: $285
- Marie Skinner (Utah State University)
marie.skinner@aggiemail.usu.edu
award: $285
- New Teacher Loan Assistance and Start Up Funds (Budget: $2000)
The committee received 1 applications for the New Teacher Loan Assistance and 2 applications for the Start-up funds. The committee gave 3 awards for a total of $2000.
New Teacher Loan Assistance
1.Emma Vanderpool (Trickum Middle School)
902 Tree Corners Pkwy
Norcross, GA 30092
Emma_Vanderpool@gwinnett.k12.ga.us
Award: $1000
New Teacher Start Up Funds
1. Evan Dutmer (Culver Academies)
814 S. Bend Ave
South Bend, IN 46617
erwdutmer@gmail.com
Award: $500
2. Laura Briscoe (St. Pius X Catholic High School)
417 Calibre Woods Dr. NE
Atlanta, GA 30329
lbriscoe@spx.org
Award: $500
Recommendations for next year
New teacher and teacher training awards:
We need to continue to make an effort to spread the word about these awards. I wrote last Fall to the directors of MAT programs and will do this again in Fall 2020. Can we also spread the word through ACL and state Classical associations?
Undergraduate applications:
The budgets submitted by the Ruebel applicants were quite high, in part because many students estimated getting their own hotel rooms. I included information about sharing rooms when I notified them about their awards, but perhaps there could be information up front about this.
Respectfully submitted,
Ruth R. Caston
Chair, Subcommittee for the Stewart Teacher Training & Travel Awards
2020 Report of the CAMWS Subcommittee on the Summer Travel Awards
Tara J. Ligon, Walnut Hills High School (ligonta@cpsboe.k12.oh.us)
Elizabeth Manwell, Kalamazoo College (Elizabeth.Manwell@kzoo.edu)
Benjamin J. Smith, Vanguard College Preparatory School (ben_smith@vanguard.org)
Amy Sowder-Koch, Towson University (akoch@towson.edu)
Jennifer Starkey, San Diego State University (jstarkey@sdsu.edu)
(Chair) Ariana Traill, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (traill@illinois.edu)
Amy E. K. Vail, St. John Fisher College (avail@sjfc.edu)
Katherine Wasdin, University of Maryland (kwasdin@gwu.edu)
The subcommittee on the Summer Travel Awards, read and ranked all applications, conferred and decided on the recipients of the awards for 2020. The award amounts stand as follows: Semple, $4,500; Grant, $5,000; and the Benario, $3,000. This year’s recipients are:
Semple Winner: Alexandra Stephens, PhD candidate, Florida State University (aas16d@my.fsu.edu)
Grant Winner: Samantha Breecher, PhD candidate, University of Pennsylvania (sbreeche@sas.upenn.edu)
Runner up: Bryce Hammer, MA candidate, Indiana University (brycehammer95@gmail.com)
Benario Winner: Grace Funsten, PhD candidate, University of Washington (ghf2@uw.edu) ($1155.00) American Academy in Rome Latin Epigraphy Program
Winner: Chris Mural, Latin Teacher, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire IL (cmural@d125.org) ($1845.00) Vergilian Society: Greeks and Romans on the Bay of Naples Tour
Runner up: Christopher Londa, PhD candidate, Yale University (christopher.londa@yale.edu) American Academy in Rome Latin Epigraphy Program
All winners were admitted to their programs and confirmed the acceptance of their award. Due to COVID-19, however, all summer travel award winners have been allowed to defer their award until 2021.
Shortage of Semple Applications. The award deadline of Jan. 15 had to be extended by two weeks because there was only a single submission to the Semple at that time. Targeted emails to Directors of Graduate Study throughout the U.S. and Canada and to K-12 Teachers’ Organizations in the U.S. generated four more applications.
Advertising in Canada. Further efforts are needed to publicize these awards in Canada. There simply aren’t applications from Canadian teachers, and few come from Canadian graduate students. For 2021, the Committee Chair will use some personal contacts to get started on this, esp. for K-12 teachers.
Numbers. Total numbers of applicants this year were comparable to last:
|
Year |
Semple |
Grant |
Benario |
|
2020 |
5 |
4 |
9 |
|
2019 |
7 |
5 |
11 |
|
2018 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
|
2017 |
5 |
3 |
7 |
|
2016 |
6 |
9 |
5 |
|
2015 |
5 |
1 |
5 |
|
2014 |
9 |
5 |
7 |
Issues. One Semple and one Benario application were ineligible (both from undergraduates). The web site is clear enough on eligibility. Nothing further is needed. One Benario file was incomplete (missing two letters). Both writers were contacted. (It is typical for the chair to have to politely nudge a few writers each year, who miss the deadline.) There was a small bug in the application system that was fixed when found.
Ranking. The reading and ranking process went smoothly. Two committee members were unable to participate this year but, with the larger committee, files had the same number of readers as usual.
Request for additional funds. There is significant interest in the Benario, and applications are nearly always deserving of funding. If more funds can be raised, this award can have a high impact at lower cost than the other two. There are often requests for amounts below $1000.00
Respectfully submitted,
Ariana Traill, Chair
Report of the
CAMWS Teaching Awards Sub-Committee
2019-2020
Laury Ward
May 1, 2020
The members of the subcommittee follow; the date indicates the spring in which a member’s term expires.
Laury A. Ward Hillsdale College (MI) 2021
J. Matthew Harrington Tufts University (MA) 2020
Ian N. Hochberg St. Stephen's & St. Agnes' (VA) 2020
Adrienne Hagen Monmouth College (IL) 2020
Jeanne Neumann Davidson College (NC) 2021
Daniel Turkeltaub Santa Clara University (CA) 2021
Thomas Rose Randolph-Macon College (VA) 2022
Amy Leonard Grady High School (GA) 2022
The terms of three members expire after the upcoming meeting and those members will need to be replaced.
For the Kraft Award, six previous nominees were still eligible and three more was nominated for this year. Once one incomplete application was eliminated and three were set aside due to the nominees’ decisions not to renew their CAMWS memberships, there were a total of five nominations considered. The Sub-Committee made the award to Robert Patrick. Four nominees have one or more years of eligibility, although some of those nominees still have incomplete applications. This represents a relative decrease in the total number of applications.
For the College Award, there were four previous nominees and two new nominations. The Sub-Committee made the award to Teresa Ramsby. Two nominees remain eligible for one or more years, and there is an additional nominee who chose to delay his consideration until 2020-2021. As with the Kraft award, this represents a relative decrease in the total number of applications. Therefore, it will be essential that the committee do its best to publicize and promote both teaching awards in the 2020-2021 year.
Full commendations for both winners are attached to this report, and will be made available via the CAMWS website.
The Subcommittee once again used the published criteria to evaluate the applications. Our number of nominations was down this year, so we would like to consider improving advertisement of the awards. The Chair would like to thank her committee for their hard work, and would like to note especially the service of J. Matthew Harrington, Ian N. Hochberg, and Adrienne Hagen, whose terms expired this year. The Chair would also like to note that this will be her last year serving as chair of the Teaching Awards Sub-Committee.
Commendations
May 1, 2020
Robert Patrick Receives Eunice E. Kraft Award for
Excellence in Secondary School Teaching
Robert Patrick earned his B.A. in Biblical Literature at Oral Roberts University and his M.Div in Theology from Emory University. He earned his Ph.D. in Latin and Classical Studies from the University of Florida. Since 2005 he has taught Latin at Parkview High School in Lilburn, Georgia, and he currently serves as the chair of the foreign languages department. Under his leadership, Latin teaching has expanded throughout not only Parkview High School, but through his district more broadly. The program Dr. Patrick developed has become the largest Latin program in Georgia, and recently one of the middle schools that feeds into Parkview High School added Latin as an offering. Notably, Dr. Patrick is particularly devoted to the success of every student, and as a result his Latin program has a significant number of students with disabilities enrolled, who succeed in Latin more than any other language. Furthermore, Dr. Patrick has long endeavored to strengthen and improve Latin pedagogy beyond the walls of his own school system. He has published articles on pedagogy, and offers workshops for teachers both at both local and national conferences, with a particular focus on Comprehensible Input. He has even founded a Facebook page called “Latin Best Practices” which includes over a thousand participating Latin teachers.
Colleagues of Dr. Patrick comment on his exemplary abilities as a teacher generally, but particularly note his focus on forming connections and relationships with his students and fellow teachers: “He’s an excellent teacher who connects with his students and cares deeply about his content area. Watching Dr. Patrick interact with students is something quite amazing to observe, and I believe that it’s from this love of teaching and love of Latin that his many other accomplishments flow.” Another colleague commends, “Dr. Patrick is a role model for teachers at Parkview and impacts teachers in Georgia and across the nation … [He] is a SUPERSTAR!”
In his own words, Dr. Patrick describes his teaching as grounded in three core elements of curiosity, compassion, and courage. These elements compel him to examine himself as a teacher and his students, to “rethink what it means to have ‘standards’ if [they] interfere with learning”, and to ask difficult questions about his own teaching practices. In the words of his students, what stands out about Dr. Patrick above all else is not only his investment in the improvement of their Latin skills, but for his investment in them as human beings. In the words of one student, “Although he taught Latin classes, each lesson Dr. Patrick gave was a lesson on something much bigger than any student have anticipated: lessons on life. In each lesson, whether it was learning about Aesop’s fables or the Mostellaria, I learned about how to improve myself. He challenged us to think about our values, Roman society’s values, and how we choose to interact with the world around us.” Another student comments on Dr. Patrick’s dedication to every single student: “The most radical aspect of Dr. Patrick’s teaching was that he really, truly believed in and every one of us. His greatest gift to us was his high expectations.” Everyone knows, in the words of a third student, that Dr. Patrick “genuinely cares about all of his students, their individual needs, experiences, and hardships.”
For his tireless work to promote and improve Latin pedagogy in his community and beyond, for his dedication to his craft and to his students, and for the innumerable people who have benefited from his thoughtful, uplifting, and compassionate teaching, the Committee is honored to award Robert Patrick the 2020 Kraft Award for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching.
The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc., is a professional organization for classicists and non-classicists at all levels of instruction which promotes the Classics through the broad scope of its annual meeting, through the publication of both original research and pedagogical contributions and through its awards, scholarships, and outreach initiatives. CAMWS was founded at the University of Chicago in 1905 and incorporated in the State of Missouri on July 13, 1948. Its members (c.1500) are primarily college and university professors, K-12 teachers, and graduate students whose specialty is Classics: Classical languages (Greek and Latin) and the world of ancient Greece and Rome. An educational, not-for-profit organization, CAMWS is exempt from federal income tax as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The CAMWS region covers 32 midwestern, western, and southern states and three Canadian provinces. CAMWS publishes a quarterly, The Classical Journal (ISSN 0009-8353; circulation c. 2300), an online pedagogical journal, Teaching Classical Languages (twice a year), and a Newsletter (thrice a year). The Annual Meeting of CAMWS takes place in the spring, in late March or early April.
Teresa Ramsby Receives CAMWS Award for
Excellence in College Teaching
Teresa Ramsby earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature at Northwestern University, and her MA and PhD in Classics from Indiana University. Since 2001 she has taught in the Department of Classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is currently an Associate Professor of Classics, and since 2014 she has additionally served as the program director for the Masters of Teaching in Latin and Classical Humanities. She has published and presented across her areas of academic interest ranging from the works of Ovid to intersections of Roman social history, material culture, and literature to Latin pedagogy and teacher training, and has done so all while impressively and successfully overseeing the MAT program. Indeed, her colleagues express astonishment at how effortlessly Dr. Ramsby is able to juggle her many duties to her department, both as a professor and as a teacher of teachers.
Her MAT students describe her as their “den mother” and effuse about how she “navigates the maze of certification requirements, finds practicum placements for six graduate students every year, finds scholarships for summer study, writes conference proposals so that each year’s graduate students can present at a regional conference, and arranges for teachers and principals to visit her students and give practical advice.” Yet it is not simply that Dr. Ramsby does so much; it is that she does it all so well, and so thoughtfully. One colleague comments, “She is among the finest teachers I have encountered in 40+ years in the field and already one of the accepted experts in the field of Latin Pedagogy.” Not content to rest on her laurels, Dr. Ramsby eagerly seeks out other teachers and researchers to learn about new insights and pedagogical innovations. In addition to presenting at regional and national conferences, she has also organized panels and gatherings of educators to share the latest developments in Latin pedagogy.
At the core of her teaching is the idea that “students learn better in environments where they are assured that their ideas matter, that they matter,” and she crafts her courses with an eye towards ensuring that her teaching reaches all students. As one of her former students notes, Dr. Ramsby “encourages her students to set goals for the term and assess their progress, which not only promotes student accountability, but also validates individual learning styles.” In the words of a colleague, Dr. Ramsby’s “dedication, focus, kindness, and ability to really, truly listen are all truly exceptional. These traits, combined with a deep knowledge of and passion for her subject, have made her an outstanding teaching professional.”
For her commitment to her students, her teaching, and her field, and for her tireless work to provide thoughtful, capable, and inspired teachers for future generations, the Committee is honored to award Teresa Ramsby the 2020 CAMWS Award for Excellence in College Teaching.
The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc., is a professional organization for classicists and non-classicists at all levels of instruction which promotes the Classics through the broad scope of its annual meeting, through the publication of both original research and pedagogical contributions and through its awards, scholarships, and outreach initiatives. CAMWS was founded at the University of Chicago in 1905 and incorporated in the State of Missouri on July 13, 1948. Its members (c.1500) are primarily college and university professors, K-12 teachers, and graduate students whose specialty is Classics: Classical languages (Greek and Latin) and the world of ancient Greece and Rome. An educational, not-for-profit organization, CAMWS is exempt from federal income tax as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The CAMWS region covers 32 midwestern, western, and southern states and three Canadian provinces. CAMWS publishes a quarterly, The Classical Journal (ISSN 0009-8353; circulation c. 2300), an online pedagogical journal, Teaching Classical Languages (twice a year), and a Newsletter (thrice a year). The Annual Meeting of CAMWS takes place in the spring, in late March or early April.