Discentes’ Senior Send-Off: Reflections from Penn Classics’ Class of 2020

Discentes’ Senior Send-Off: Reflections from Penn Classics’ Class of 2020
By Elizabeth Vo-Phamhi 

Over the last two months, students have dealt with massive uncertainty amid the coronavirus outbreak. Yet for the sixteen seniors in Penn Classics, one thing has certainly remained constant: the importance of classics.

At the end of April, the Classics department held its annual Senior Colloquium, a roundtable discussion celebrating the seniors’ research. Central to the discussion was the question: “What does it mean to study Classical Studies and Ancient History?” When participants were asked to come up with a single word to describe the nature of classics, these were their responses…

Read More

A New Chapter of Discentes: A Letter from the Editorial Team

A New Chapter of Discentes: A Letter from the Editorial Team

Reflecting upon the first half of 2020, it would be an understatement to say that the world around us has changed immensely. As individuals, as classicists, and as an editorial team, we have experienced a global pandemic, faced an abrupt ending to our semester on campus, and, most harrowingly, witnessed unthinkable acts of racism and hatred in our country. At the same time, we have also seen benevolent acts of kindness, watched the fight for justice rise even greater than before, and found moments of light even during these uncertain times…

Read More