In the News: Alumni and Faculty at the 2024 AIA/SCS Meeting

Alumni and faculty of UMD Classics delivered papers at the 2024 AIA and SCS Meeting in Chicago this January.

Pictured from left: Jonathan Clark (B.A. 2018), Emerita Prof. Lillian Doherty, Prof. Rob Santucci (M.A. 2016), and Will Austin (M.A. 2017)

The Classics Department was well represented once again—with an amazing diversity of topics!— on the program at the joint annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies and the American Institute of Archaeology, held this year in Chicago.

Prof. Chiara Graf gave a talk on “Archive, Hoard, Heap: The Exempla of Frontinus.” (She gave the talk on Zoom because she was in Vietnam for her honeymoon!)

The following alumni also participated in the meeting:

Will Austin, M.A. 2017, who is finishing his Ph.D. in the department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton, gave talks in both the AIA and SCS programs.  His AIA talk, co-presented with Phoebe Segal of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was entitled “Andromeda and the Representation of Foreigners at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.” Will’s SCS contribution was “Floral Ornament at the Grave: Acanthus Plants between Nature and Facture.”

Jonathan Clark, B.A. UMD 2018, spoke on “Pone or Pelle Hederam? Ecohorror in Propertius.” He is currently a Ph.D. student in Classics at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Prof. Rob Santucci, a 2016 M.A. alumnus of UMD Classics, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2022; his talk was entitled “One Fish, Two Fish: Seneca Outweighs Horace’s Mullets.”

Tara Wells, M.A. UMD 2020, now in the Classics Ph.D. program at Duke University, organized the sponsored panel of the Mountaintop Coalition on “Indigenous Perspectives, Ancient and Modern.” Like Prof. Graf, she participated on Zoom because she is abroad; in her case, participating in the year-long program of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Another alumna won an award:

Emily Mohr, M.A. UMD 2015, also a Ph.D. student at Duke, won the AIA prize for the best paper by a graduate student at the 2023 meeting!  Her presentation there was on “Nikandre Who Contents with Men: A Reconsideration of Nikandre’s Dedication on Delos.” Emily is a Ph.D. student in the department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke University. See more at https://www.archaeological.org/2023-graduate-student-paper-award-winners-announced/

Eva Stehle and Lillian Doherty, professors emeritae, also attended the meeting. Prof. Doherty also had a bit part in the CAMP (Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance) production of Lysistrata, newly translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien.

Prof. Doherty was able to meet up with Jonathan, Will, and Rob during the meeting, and sent the pic above.