All events held at the Michigan League unless otherwise specified.
Arrivals
8:00 am – 8:40 am
- Please plan accordingly to arrive for the Welcome Ceremony.
- Check-in will be just outside the Ballroom.
- For those entering the Captioning Caesar contest, please bring your captions to the back of the Ballroom where they will be displayed throughout the day.
Welcome Ceremony
League Ballroom
8:50 am - 9:10 am
- Welcome by Chair of Classical Studies, Professor Celia Schultz
- Welcome by CLD Organizer, Gina Soter
- Presentation by Office of Student Recruitment
- Roll Call of Schools
Faculty Presentation
League Ballroom
9:10 am – 9:55 am
Netta Berlin (faculty): “Exit East: Roman Exile in Fact and Fiction”
Morning Activity Sessions
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Each school will be assigned an individual schedule for the day based on the preferences indicated on the registration form. Below is the general schedule of activities for the day, including lectures, workshops, a scavenger hunt, and tours. Each activity lasts 40 minutes. Many of the workshops relate to the theme of Egypt and the Eastern Empire. More information about these sessions can be found below.
Afternoon Activities
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Our afternoon activities will be as one large group again and will begin immediately at 1:00 pm.
N.B. Judging for the Captioning Contest will take place at 12:30. Students do not need to be with their captions at this time.
Recitations
1:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Closing Ceremony
1:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Prizes for recitations and for Captioning Caesars contest and oncluding remarks.Session 1: 10:00 am – 10:40 am
Session 1
10:00 am - 10:40 am
Lecture 1A: “In the Footsteps of a Boxer from Roman Egypt”
Arthur Verhoogt (faculty)
Boxing was one of the popular martial arts in the Roman Empire. With the help of a number of papyrus documents from Roman Egypt we are able to follow the career of one such Egyptian boxer, as he fought bouts in tournaments all over the Mediterranean world. In this presentation we will meet this boxer, and through his career look at the sport itself.
Workshop 1B: “Cleopatra and the Battle of Actium”
Ruth Caston (faculty)
Cleopatra is a familiar figure to us from images, plays and film. But how was she viewed by contemporary Roman authors? In this workshop, we'll look at poems by Horace, Virgil and Propertius that describe Cleopatra and the defeat at the Battle of Actium. We'll also consider how the Romans typically viewed powerful women and how that might have influenced these depictions.
Workshop 1C: “Egeria's Travel Guide: An Ancient Journey to Jerusalem and Beyond”
Brittany Joyce (graduate student)
In the 380s CE, a woman named Egeria made a long journey through the Eastern Mediterranean, visiting Christian sites as a pilgrim. She wrote of her travels in letters back to her home community. This presentation will follow along with Egeria on her travels, discussing some of her destinations and her experiences as an ancient religious woman and as a traveler.
Workshop 1D: “Explore Emblem Books through Women's Latin”
Laura Petersen (graduate student)
Emblem books were a common educational tool for students who learned Latin in the 1500s and 1600s. They involved illustrating and writing poems based on common Latin phrases and mottos. The presenter works with Project Nota, which promotes Latin written by women. In this workshop students will meet some of these authors and create their own emblem book using mottos written by women.
Tour 1E: Papyrology Tour
Brendan Haug (faculty)
See documents from UM’s vast papyrological collection, including unpublished pieces that could not be seen anywhere else. This workshop gives students a chance to examine items of material culture up close and gain insight into the life of everyday people from antiquity.
Tour 1F: Visit to Kelsey
This year formal tours of the Kelsey are not available, but for teachers who want themselves to show their students around, we are permitting two groups per session to tour the museum on their own. Each group will be strictly limited to 15 persons.
Session 2
10:45 am – 11:25 am
Lecture 2A: “Banksy in Pompeii: Latin graffiti”
Ben Fortson (faculty)
Latin wasn’t just something fancy used for writing “great literature”: it was also an ordinary language used by regular people to say whatever they wanted to say. Nowhere can you see this better than on the walls of Pompeii, which preserve thousands of Latin graffiti. We’ll take a look at some of them, including political slogans, advertisements, messages to friends (and enemies, and complete strangers), bad love poetry, and lots of random scribblings that bring the city alive again.
Workshop 2B: “National Treasure and Ancient Coins”
SN Yeager (graduate student)
When the Roman Emperor Hadrian came to Judaea on his tour of the East, he came with plans to build a Roman city in place of Jerusalem. Simon bar Kokhba and his forces opposed the Romans for two years, both militarily and through turning Roman coins into Judaean coins. In this workshop, we'll look at some of the slogans and symbols on coins from the bar Kokhba revolt to see why these people opposed Rome. Students will have an opportunity to make their own "coins" for the hypothetical war between the University of Michigan and Ohio State University in order to explore how they might convey political ideas through coins.
Workshop 2C: “The Roman Calendar”
Marshall Buchanan (graduate student)
Perhaps you have seen hotels or airport with multiple clocks showing the time in London, New York, and Tokyo. Of course, the Romans did not have sundials showing the time in Corduba, Rome, and Antioch. In fact, it could be not only a different time, but an entirely different month in different cities at the same moment! This lecture will introduce you to “standard” Roman time and explore some of the other systems in use in the eastern empire. Attendees will also get to determine the present date using the ancient system.
Workshop 2D: “Lingua Latina Non Est Mortua”
Sarah Keith and Sam Ross (graduate students)
In this workshop, we will be engaging in some activities to build our spoken Latin skills and become comfortable having fun with Latin in a new way. We will conclude by working together to craft a new story in Latin. This workshop is aimed at those who have never had the opportunity to speak Latin before, and no experience is required (although speakers of all abilities are welcome to participate).
Tour 2E: Papyrology Tour
Brendan Haug (faculty)
See documents from UM’s vast papyrological collection, including unpublished pieces that could not be seen anywhere else. This workshop gives students a chance to examine items of material culture up close and gain insight into the life of everyday people from antiquity.
Tour 2F: Visit to Kelsey
This year formal tours of the Kelsey are not available, but for teachers who want themselves to show their students around, we are permitting two groups per session to tour the museum on their own. Each group will be strictly limited to 15 persons.
Lunch 2G: bring your own, dine at Michigan League eateries (not advised for big groups), or order in advance from local eateries. Dining space is available in the League Ballroom.
Session 3
11:30 am – 12:10 am
Lecture 3A: UM Classical Studies Student Panel
(Moderator: TBA)
Current students discuss the rewards and challenges of the transition from high school to life in college, including workload, expectations of instructors, dorm realities, and the freedoms and responsibilities of life on one’s own. Students will have a chance to ask qustions they may have as they prepare to start this new chapter in their lives.
Workshop
3B: “The Fool’s Journey: Tarot and Western Spirituality”
Sarah Ahbel-Rappe (faculty)
In this workshop students will learn about the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, exploring the symbolism of these richly illustrated cards. We will connect the events depicted to the Psychomachia of the late antique Christian poet Prudentius and to Plato.
Students will choose a card to study in terms of its divinatory meanings. If there is time we will do some Tarot readings. The purpose of the workshop is to study how symbols work in conjunction with spiritual aspirations, tracing them all the way back to Ancient Greece.
Workshop 3C: “To the Crows!: Curses, Magic, and Witches in the Roman Empire"
Katelin Mikos and Catherine Schenck (graduate students):
The Romans were often anxious about being the victim of a curse tablet. In this session, we will present the social, cultural, and religious context of curse tablets. Then, we will introduce the formulaic Latin used to write a curse tablet. And finally, we will make our own (lighthearted) curse tablets using what we learned. After this session, students will understand the role of curse tablets in the Roman Empire and why the Romans were so spooked by them.
Workshop 3D: “Kelsey Museum: Provenance, Provenience, and Problems in Museum Collecting”
Mallory Genauer (museum educator)
Students are given the opportunity to examine up close a collection of real artifacts which are NOT part of the Kelsey Museum collections. They are then led through a discussion of provenance versus provenience and why these matter, of museum collecting standards and best practices, and on some of the ethical issues museums face. This virtual tour gets students gets thinking about the nature and ethics of collecting antiquities.
Workshop 3E: “Egypt, the Breadbasket of Imperial Rome”
Laura Motta (faculty)
Rome was the largest city in the whole ancient world, possibly ten times bigger than Ann Arbor. Can you imagine how difficult it was to feed its population and to ensure a continuous supply of staples? A huge proportion of the grain needed for making bread was shipped from Egypt. We will explore the extremely sophisticated system that was in place for provisioning the capital of the Empire and you will have a chance to see firsthand some of the ancient wheat cultivated in Egypt.
Tour 3F: Visit to Kelsey
This year formal tours of the Kelsey are not available, but for teachers who want themselves to show their students around, we are permitting two groups per session to tour the museum on their own. Each group will be strictly limited to 15 persons.
Lunch 3G: bring your own, dine at Michigan League eateries (not advised for big groups), or order in advance from local eateries. Dining space is available in the League Ballroom.
Session 4:
12:15pm – 12:55 pm
Lecture 4A: “The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor”
Christopher Ratté (faculty):
One of the most puzzling aspects of Roman civilization was the practice of emperor worship. Surely the Romans didn’t actually believe that their rulers were divine? But if not, were the elaborate rituals surrounding the so-called imperial cult just an empty charade? One way of making sense of this apparently bizarre practice is to look at it from the point of view of Rome’s Greek subjects. The evidence is especially rich from Asia Minor (modern Turkey), and it shows that emperor worship was neither as strange nor as cynical as it initially appears.
Workshop 4B: “Egyptian Magic in the Roman Empire”
Ian Moyer (faculty):
In this session, we will explore the amazing reputation that Egypt had in the Roman empire as a land of magic and magicians. But was this an illusion or a reality? We'll take a look at actual ancient beliefs and practices to find out. Using ancient magical lore, we'll even try our hand at making a magical amulet from papyrus.
Workshop 4C: “Dogs in the Ancient World”
Christine Ellis (graduate student)
Man's best friend seems to have always been the dog, even 2000+ years ago. In this presentation I will go about showing ancient examples of dogs and perhaps other animals as well, in their various roles: as pets, guardians, deities, etc. From this talk I hope students will walk away with a new understanding about how important animals were in the ancient Mediterranean.
Workshop 4D: “Kelsey Museum: Provenance, Provenience, and Problems in Museum Collecting”
Mallory Genauer (museum educator)
Students are given the opportunity to examine up close a collection of real artifacts which are NOT part of the Kelsey Museum collections. They are then led through a discussion of provenance versus provenience and why these matter, of museum collecting standards and best practices, and on some of the ethical issues museums face. This virtual tour gets students gets thinking about the nature and ethics of collecting antiquities.
Tour 4E: Visit to Kelsey
This year formal tours of the Kelsey are not available, but for teachers who want themselves to show their students around, we are permitting two groups per session to tour the museum on their own. Each group will be strictly limited to 15 persons.
Tour 4F: Scavenger Hunt
Find Roman and Greek influences on campus with the help of Copley Latin Day volunteers.
Lunch 4G: bring your own, dine at Michigan League eateries (not advised for big groups), or order in advance from local eateries. Dining space is available in the League Ballroom.
