Events – Discentes

Events

A Review of the Penn Museum’s New Eastern Mediterranean Gallery

Posted on January 22, 2023February 26, 2023by Discentes

A Review of the Penn Museum’s New Eastern Mediterranean Gallery
By Evan Dash

The Penn Museum celebrated its grand opening of the Eastern Mediterranean Gallery on November 19. In the months leading up to the exhibit’s opening, I visited the museum weekly for my Mediterranean archaeology class, and there was clearly excitement in the air for the new installation. After taking two separate tours of the Eastern Mediterranean Gallery, I have concluded that the buzz surrounding the exhibit’s debut was more than justified. The Eastern Mediterranean Gallery is unlike any other exhibit at the Penn Museum.

Events

A Facultea with Professor Emily Greenwood

Posted on December 18, 2022January 22, 2023by Discentes

A Facultea with Professor Emily Greenwood
By Riley Glickman

A recap of the Classical Studies Undergraduate Advisory Board’s recent Facultea with Dr. Emily Greenwood, a professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at Harvard University who is taking part in Penn’s Classics visiting lecturer program.

Events

A Facultea with Professor Peter Struck

Posted on April 4, 2022June 5, 2022by Discentes

A Facultea with Professor Peter Struck
By Olivia Lee

A recap of the Classical Studies Undergraduate Advisory Board’s recent Facultea with Dr. Peter Struck, Professor and Chair of Penn’s Classical Studies Department.

Events

Wolf Humanities Center Visiting Fellow Profile: Dr. Christopher Parmenter

Posted on February 20, 2022May 20, 2022by Discentes

Wolf Humanities Center Visiting Fellow Profile: Dr. Christopher Parmenter
By Luke Snyder

Based in Williams Hall, Penn’s Wolf Humanities Center selects a small group of fellows each year to participate in annual research projects. Bringing together a group of scholars from diverse backgrounds, the Wolf Humanities Center seeks to encourage interdisciplinary studies centered around a different theme each year. This year’s theme focuses on migration, an especially interesting topic for Dr. Christopher Parmenter, one of this year’s visiting fellows.

Events

Meet the Penn Classical Studies Class of 2021!

Posted on September 29, 2021May 20, 2022by Discentes

Meet the Penn Classical Studies Class of 2021!
By Elizabeth Vo-Phamhi

Every year, we here at Discentes have sadly bid another graduating class farewell while happily celebrating their achievements by featuring some of our newest Classical Studies and Ancient History alumni. The recently-graduated Class of 2021 is unique—they completed their entire senior year remotely, yet they excelled.

Events

Classics Must Be Anti-Racist

Posted on April 14, 2021May 20, 2022by Discentes

Classics Must Be Anti-Racist: The Classics Studies Department’s Anti-Racism Working Group at Penn
By: Cecelia Heintzelman

Classics is at breaking point, one where it must decide to be actively anti-racist.

Our seemingly small field exploded into public controversy after the recent publishing of the New York Times’s article about Princeton professor Dan-el Padilla Peralta. The NYT article, “He Wants To Save Classics From Whiteness. Can the Field Survive?” begged the question: if we attempt to make Classics an anti-racist field, will it remain Classics as we know it…

Events

A Conversation with Professor Kate Meng Brassel

Posted on December 7, 2020May 20, 2022by Discentes

A Conversation with Professor Kate Meng Brassel
By Elizabeth Vo-Phamhi

This fall, Professor Kate Meng Brassel joined Penn’s Department of Classics as a visiting assistant professor of classical studies. I was excited to get to know her, so we arranged to meet over Zoom for a Friday morning chat.

Professor Brassel received her B.A. from Columbia University, M.A. from Princeton University, M.Phil from the University of Cambridge, and her Ph.D. in Classics from Columbia University in 2018…

Events

BLM x CLST: A Series of Interviews with the Faculty of Penn Classics — Part 3: Professor Cynthia Damon

Posted on September 14, 2020May 20, 2022by Discentes

Future Directions and Resources
By Elizabeth Vo-Phamhi, Sara Chopra, Cate Simons

For the third installment of our Black Lives Matter & Classics series, we invited Professor Cynthia Damon to talk about the relevance of the Black Lives Matter movement and the current reassessment of past scholarship in the field. She also provides advice for fostering inclusivity in our classrooms and suggests reading material and resources for us to become better allies by listening, reading, and learning…

Events

BLM x CLST: A Series of Interviews with the Faculty of Penn Classics — Part 2: Professors Kimberly Bowes and Sheila Murnaghan

Posted on September 5, 2020May 20, 2022by Discentes

Looking Back, Thinking Forward: what Black Lives Matter means in our own department and discipline
By Sara Chopra, Cate Simons, Elizabeth Vo-Phamhi

In the first interview of the Black Lives Matter & Classics series, Professor Emily Wilson discussed the translation and reception of BIPOC voices in classical literature. In our second installment in this series, Professors Kimberly Bowes and Sheila Murnaghan provide critical considerations of the exclusionary past of our field and discuss strategies for cultivating a climate of inclusivity here in our department, especially in light of recent statements made by members of peer departments…

Events

BLM x CLST: A Series of Interviews with the Faculty of Penn Classics — Part 1: Professor Emily Wilson

Posted on August 24, 2020May 20, 2022by Discentes

A Translator’s Take on the Black Lives Matter Movement
By Elizabeth Vo-Phamhi, Sara Chopra, Cate Simons

Although several weeks have passed since the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Rayshard Brooks, amongst countless others, the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States continues to inspire many discussions among us students about how we can better address the issues of race and diversity in Classics. At Discentes, both individually and as a group, we have been joining our nation in long-overdue reflection and action, committing to creating an anti-racist future for our discipline…