Bryn Mawr Well Represented at Archaeological Institute of America and Society for Classical Studies Joint Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Bryn Mawr College was widely represented at the 2020 joint annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies. The meeting is one of the largest meetings for archaeology and classics in the world, and the only held as an interdisciplinary conference. Bryn Mawr has a strong historical connection with participation in the meeting. This year’s meeting was held from January 2 – 5 at the Marriott Marquis Washington, D.C.

A significant number of faculty members, graduate students, undergraduates, and alumni attended the meeting. Many also presented their most recent research in papers at the conference.

Associate Professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Annette Baertschi presented the paper “Exemplarity in Petrarch’s Africa” in Neo-Latin in the Old and New Worlds: Current Scholarship, in which Professor Baertschi explored the examples of exemplary behavior in Petrarch’s unfinished Latin epic Africa. From the same department Leslie Clark Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Greek, Latin and Classical Studies Catherine Conybeare presented “Sunt Mihi Multae Curae: Self-Writing and the Emotional Reader” in the panel Readers and Reading: Current Debates. In the talk, Professor Conybeare juxtaposed Augustine of Hippo’s Confessions with another, less well-known work of self-writing in Latin, the Liber Manualis of the Carolingian noblewoman Dhuoda, to explore the affective experience of the two texts on her own life as a scholar.

From the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Assistant Professor Jennie Bradbury gave the talk “The Kubba Coastal Survey, Lebanon: Archaeology, Heritage and Landscapes of Transformation,” presenting some results from the past four seasons of the Kubba Coastal Survey archaeological project, which she directs. In her talk, Professor Bradbury demonstrated the long-term human investment in coastal Lebanon. Professor Emeritus James Wright was the discussant for the panel Between the Mountains and the Sea: Exploring Sissi on Crete.

Also in attendance among Bryn Mawr faculty and staff were: Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow Catherine Baker (Archaeology and Classics), Mary Dabney (Research Associate in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology), Paul Shorey Professor and Chair of Greek and Professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Radcliffe Edmonds, Associate Professor and Chair of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Astrid Lindenlauf, Director of Library Research and Instructional Services, and Associate Professor of Greek, Latin and Classical Studies Asya Siegelman.

Among graduate students, Collin Hilton, who very recently defended his doctoral dissertation for Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies presented the paper “Roman Stoic Appropriation of the Middle Platonic ‘Imitation of God’” in the panel Plato and His Reception. Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies graduate student attendees were Stella Fritzel, Jenni Glaser, Collin Hilton, Olivia Hopewell, Molly Kuchler, Yusi Liu, Kristen Patterson, Danielle Perry, Mary Somerville, Thu Ta, Christina Villareal, and Audrey Wallace. Archaeology graduate students Kathryn Breyer, Shannon Dunn, Clare Rasmussen, Andrea Samz-Pustol, and Zach Silvia were in attendance for the meeting.

Undergraduates Leah Borquez and Wynter Douglas also attended the meeting, with Wynter Douglas joining as a panelist for the colloquium Classics and Civic Activism.

Many of Bryn Mawr’s distinguished alumni from Classics and Archaeology also gave papers at the event, too numerous to list here. Distinguished alumna Susan Rotroff (B.A. Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology and Greek, ’68) was received the Aristea award for distinguished alumni/ae from the American School for Classical Studies in Athens. Charlie Kuper (Ph.D. Classics ’18), won the Loeb Classical Library book raffle, winning one copy of all 530 books in the Loeb Classical Library collection of Greek and Latin texts published by Harvard University Press.

On January 5, just under one hundred distinguished alumni, faculty, and students from Archaeology and Classics convened to celebrate their coming together again Bryn Mawr College Luncheon Reception: Classics and Archaeology. The event was organized jointly by Chair of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Astrid Lindenlauf and Chair of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Radcliffe Edmonds.