Dickinson College Summer Greek Workshop July 14-18, 2025

on Zoom

Moderators:

Dr. Emily Kearns, Senior Research Fellow in Greek Literature and Language, St. Hilda’s College, University of Oxford

Dr. Scott Farrington, Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Dickinson College.

R. Geike as Iphigenia in the Cambridge Greek Play production of Iphigenia in Tauris, 1894.

Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris provides a variety of rewarding avenues into the study of Euripides and of Greek tragedy. Already in the fourth century, Aristotle noted the thrill and intrigue of the inexorable progress of the siblings’ recognition, and Euripides’ inventive employment of anagnorisis and other structural elements of tragedy has fascinated readers ever since. Throughout this play are intricately wrought themes exploring the nature of human sacrifice, sanctuary, and cult, the complications of familial obligation and legacy, and the shadowy, shifting line between Greek and barbarian identities. Perhaps most notably, like many of Euripides’ plays, Iphigenia in Tauris presents a catastrophe averted, thus sharpening our conception and understanding of what precisely makes a tragedy “tragic.”

Dr. Emily Kearns has published widely on Greek religion, Homer, and tragedy. She is the author of The Heroes of Attica (University of London, Institute of Classical Studies) and Ancient Greek Religion: A Sourcebook (Wiley Blackwell). Her commentary on Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris (Cambridge University) appeared in the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics Series in 2023. She is currently working on a book about blood in the ancient world.

The workshop is intended for intermediate and advanced readers of Greek who have an interest both in sharpening their language skills and exploring the themes and issues of the play in depth. Sessions will consist of translation and discussion.

The workshop will take place on Zoom July 14-18, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4). Each daily session will be comprised of two 1.5 hour periods of translation and discussion with a 15-minute break in between. We hope that the Zoom format will allow participants from around the world to join.

Please direct any questions to Prof. Scott Farrington, Department of Classical Studies, Dickinson College (farrings@dickinson.edu).

To register, a fee of $200.00 is due by June 13, 2025. It will not be possible to process refunds after that date. We prefer to collect the fee in the form of a check made out to Dickinson College and mailed to Stephanie Dyson, Department of Classical Studies, Dickinson College, Carlisle PA 17013. For international participants, and for others for whom paying by check is not feasible, other forms of payment are possible.

Dickinson College Commentaries (DCC) provides Latin and Greek texts for reading, with explanatory notes, essays, vocabulary, and graphic, video, and audio elements. The commentaries are peer reviewed and edited, and freely available at dcc.dickinson.edu.

The DCC High School Online Internship program is meant to give you a chance to contribute to the site, learn digital humanities skills, improve your Latin, and collaborate with others under the supervision of professional classicists. You will receive credit on the site for all contributions.

Statue of founder Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), in front of the East College building. East College is home to Dickinson’s Classical Studies Department and is the mother ship of DCC.

The projects are flexible enough to allow students of different levels of Latin, from intermediate to advanced, to meaningfully participate, and to give scope to those with special artistic, technical, linguistic, or research skills. The application process is simple and requires no essay or letters of recommendation.

Eligibility: Open to all rising High School Juniors and Seniors who have completed Latin 3. Graduating seniors may also apply.

Dates: June 23–Aug 1, 2025 (6 weeks)

Time commitment: 10–15 hours per week. The projects will involve a mix of independent work done on your schedule and mandatory Zoom meetings for approximately five hours per week.

Pay: this is an unpaid internship

Projects for 2025:

• Select, edit, and enhance notes on Vergil’s Aeneid
• Create images and other enhancements for the DCC Core Latin Vocabulary
• Edit and enhance notes for Aesop’s Fables in the Latin version of Elegiac Romulus.

Application Deadline: Feb. 15, 2025.

Apply here: https://forms.office.com/r/sWvT11BXt7

July 15-21, 2024

The Conventiculum Dickinsoniense is an immersion seminar designed for those who want to acquire some ability at ex-tempore expression in Latin. A wide range of people can benefit from the seminar: professors in universities, teachers in secondary schools, graduate students, undergraduates, and other lovers of Latin, provided that anyone who considers applying has a solid understanding of the grammatical essentials of the Latin language. A minimum requirement for participation is knowledge of Latin grammar and the ability to read a Latin text of average complexity – even if this reading ability depends on frequent use of a dictionary.  But no previous experience in speaking Latin is necessary. Sessions will be aimed at helping participants to increase their ability to use Latin effectively in spoken discourse and to understand others speaking in Latin. After the first evening reception (in which any language may be spoken), Latin will be the language used throughout the seminar. Participants will be involved in intensive activity each day from morning until early evening (with breaks for lunch and mid-afternoon pauses). They will experience Latin conversations on topics ranging from themes in literature and art all the way to the routines and activities of daily life, and will enjoy the benefits of reading and discussing texts in the target language. Activities will involve both written and spoken discourse, both of which engage the active faculties of expression, and each of which is complementary to the other. The seminar will not merely illustrate how active Latin can be a useful tool for teachers, it will show how developing an active facility in Latin can directly and personally benefit any cultivator of Latin who wishes to acquire a more instinctive command of the language and a more intimate relationship with Latin writings.

Moderators:

Prof. Milena Minkova, University of Kentucky

Prof. Terence Tunberg, University of Kentucky

We can accept a maximum number of 35 participants. Deadline for applications is June 1, 2024. The participation fee for each participant will $600. The fee includes lodging in a single room in campus housing (and please note that lodging will be in a student residence near the site of the sessions), two meals (breakfast and lunch) per day, as well as the opening dinner, and a cookout at the Dickinson farm. Included in this price is also the facilities fee, which allows access to the gym, fitness center, and the library, as well as internet access. The $600 fee does not include the cost of dinners (except for the opening dinner), and does not include the cost of travel to and from the seminar. Dinners can easily be had at restaurants within walking distance from campus.  Please keep in mind that the participation fee of $600, once it has been received by the seminar’s organizers, is not refundable.  This is an administrative necessity.

Registered participants should plan to arrive in Carlisle, PA on July 15, in time to attend the first event of the seminar. This first event is an opening dinner and welcoming reception for all participants, which will begin at about 6:00 p.m., in which all languages are acceptable. The actual workshop sessions (in which Latin will the exclusive language) will begin early the next morning on July 16.

For more information and application instructions write to: Professor Terence Tunberg:

terence.tunberg@gmail.com