Oberlin Classics Department

10/28/2025

Hello Friends! Oberlin Classics is excited to announce this year's Charles Beebe Martin Lectures, "Thinking with Thersites: the Afterlives of a Greek Anti-Hero," presented by Ralph Rosen from the University of Pennsylvania. The lectures will take place Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, Nov.10-14. See the poster below!

But wait -- there's more! This year, the opening lecture of the series will be live-streamed. If you'd like to join us virtually, please register in advance using this link: https://oberlin.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_oGVUktm2TSyzX8kpXctv_w

We hope to see you there, in person or via zoom!

10/17/2024

Hello Obies! A nice write-up in the most recent review of Carissa Chappell's recent Winkler Lecture at Oberlin, sponsored by the Classics Department. Bonus quotes from a couple of our senior majors! https://oberlinreview.org/33660/arts/award-winning-paper-says-classics-must-be-viewed-through-q***r-perspectives/

Chappell is the winner of the 2024 John J. Winkler Memorial prize, given to the best graduate or undergraduate essay in a "risky or marginal area of classical studies." Kirk Ormand (at Oberlin) has administered the prize since 2001, but has recently handed the prize competition over to James Uden, a former Winkler prize winner who teaches at Boston University.

On Oct. 8, Carissa Chappell gave a talk titled “Leaving No Trace: Reading the Asexual Possibility in an Ancient Greek Novel” which discussed their award-winning paper on sexuality in ancient Greek novels. They deconstructed the notion of the boy-meets-girl trope in The Adventures of Leucippe and...

10/11/2024

Hi Folks! Please see the flyer (attached) for our friends at Theater of War productions (including Oberlin graduate Marjolaine Goldsmith)! They'll be at Kenyon College just down the road on Thursday, Oct. 16 with a production of Euripides' /Trojan Women/ and /Iliad/ book 6!

10/11/2024

Great to see Susanna Faas-Bush at Pompeii and hear about her research!

04/12/2024

Spectacular new paintings uncovered in a recently excavated dining room at Pompeii. Check out Helen, Paris, and (?) Fido?

A frescoed dining room is the latest find in an excavation campaign to shore up an area of the site, which was destroyed by a powerful volcanic eruption, and better preserve it.

03/30/2024

Hello Folks! We have an update from our distinguished alumn and friend of the department, Marjolaine Goldsmith. The Theater of War production team will be just down the road at Kenyon College next week -- see details below. (Zoom attendance also possible -- go to knoxmemorial.org !)

Greetings from Mount Vernon, Ohio! I am on a preliminary scouting trip for a very exciting collaboration with community stakeholders in Knox County, OH and Kenyon College to present An Enemy of the People: A Theater Project from America’s Hometown. You are warmly invited to attend in person or on Zoom, and spread the word to the Oberlin Community! A flyer is attached for easy reference and circulation!

Saturday, April 6, 2024
6:00pm-9:00pm
Knox Memorial Theater
112 E High St.
Mt Vernon, OH 43050

Sunday, April 7, 2024
4:00pm-7:00pm
Oden Hall, Kenyon College
107 College Dr.
Gambier, OH 43022

An Enemy of the People: A Theater Project from America’s Hometown will present acclaimed actors, elected officials, scientists, journalists, and local community members performing dramatic readings of scenes from Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play An Enemy of the People to help frame powerful, guided audience discussions aimed at generating connection, understanding, compassion, and positive action. The play tells the story of a doctor who discovers the water supply in his small, rural town has been poisoned by a tannery. Despite his efforts to convey the truth to the public, the doctor fails to save his community from environmental disaster and is ultimately scapegoated for his whistleblowing. An Enemy of the People was first performed in Norway in 1882, and yet it speaks to the present moment as if it were written for our time.

Featuring performances by David Strathairn (Nomadland, Lincoln, The Bourne Ultimatum), Elizabeth Marvel (Homeland, Burn After Reading, Love & Death), Bill Camp (The Queen's Gambit, The Night Of, Joker), Matthew T. Starr (Mayor, City of Mount Vernon, Ohio), Julie Kornfeld (President, Kenyon College), John K. Chidester (Library Director at Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County), Jon Tazewell (Thomas S. Turgeon Professor of Drama and Film, Kenyon College), Peter Marks (former Chief Theater Critic of The Washington Post), Marjolaine Goldsmith (Company Manager, Theater of War Productions), Osose Omofomah (Student, Kenyon College) and Wendy MacLeod (James Michael Playwright-in-Residence/Professor of Drama, Kenyon College).

These free, live events are presented by Theater of War Productions, the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County and the Kenyon College Office for Community Partnerships, with support from Ohio Arts Council*, ArtStart Grant, LSTA Competitive Grant Program, National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant, Kenyon Bicentennial Fund, and the Kenyon College Office for Community Partnerships.

08/23/2023

Welcome back to the start of a new school year! To kick things off, a cool story from the New Yorker about the hidden archaeology of modern Athens: https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/the-hidden-archeologists-of-athens. While you're there, check out the app that's referenced in the story: https://map.mappingancientathens.org

Happy (digital) wandering!

04/15/2023

Bonus photo of the abduction/marriage of Thetis by Peleus.

04/15/2023

This year’s Bardic Reading is underway! Thanks especially to Bailey, who has organized this year’s dramatic reading of Euripides: GirlBoss Edition (8 plays, all featuring strong and/or infanticidal women.)

03/31/2023

Hello Obies!
The Classics department is excited to be hosting Cat Lambert, a recent PhD from Columbia and post-doctoral associate at Cornell University, on Thursday April 13. Cat is also the winner of the 2022 John J. Winkler Prize in Classics, and will be delivering her Winkler-winning essay as a talk, "Lucian's Q***r Book User in the Adversus Indoctum." You can see details on the Oberlin events calendar, linked here: https://calendar.oberlin.edu/event/winkler_lecture_lucians_q***r_book_user_in_the_adversus_indoctum .

You can find out more about Cat here: https://classics.cornell.edu/cat-lambert .

We hope to see you there!

Dr. Cat Lambert works widely on Latin and Greek literature through the lenses of book history, gender, q***r studies, and the intersections between these critical approaches. Much of her research explores the relationship between textuality, reading, and embodiment. For example, in her article "The....

03/27/2023

Hi Folks! Bloomsbury Academic is running an on-line asynchronous symposium on P. Allen Miller's new book, /Foucault's Seminars on Antiquity: Learning to Speak the Truth/. A group of scholars have written brief responses to Miller's work, which will be posted online one per week; Miller will respond online to the responses, and participants can then comment on the book and/or the ongoing discussion. (Kirk Ormand's response will be published on April 12).

You can sign up to participate in the symposium by following this twitter link: https://twitter.com/BloomsburyClass/status/1640318772400783361 .

“The are running a symposium on Foucault's Seminars on Antiquity (from our Classical Receptions in 20th-Century Writing series)! It runs 29th March - 26th April. Enter your details here to follow the symposium and post comments: https://t.co/MuTyN22zNg”

03/06/2023

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand is credited at the end of episode two of the second season of the "Bear Brook" true crime podcast. You can catch the podcast here: https://www.bearbrookpodcast.com/season-two

Kirk (along with Paul Christensen and Francis Dunn) helped the podcast team track down and translate a short passage from Sophocles' Oidipous Tyrannos.

Sharon Johnson’s family and friends have spent the last 35 years coping with her brutal murder. But what if that story was based on a lie? The man imprisoned for her murder maintains his innocence.