News and Kudos
We are pleased to welcome John Wynne (Ph.D. Cornell) to the faculty. John joined us in September 2007, and has wide interests in classics and philosophy, especially the cultural context of philosophical writing. His dissertation focused on Cicero's philosophical writings. Entitled, "A philosophical reading of Cicero's trilogy on the philosophy of religion: de Natura Deoum, de Divinatione, de Fato," the work treats the theological works of 45-44 BC as a unity, showing that in them Cicero takes a stance on his material by means of the literary shape he gives it and by the opinions expressed in his authorial voice and by the characters he constructs. In doing so, Mr. Wynne recovers the views on the gods and religion that Cicero gave to his narrator and characters and reads the results in the context of Cicero's philosophy of religion, Stoic theories of religion, divination and determinism, and Academic skepticism. He is also interested in ancient astronomy and astrology.
At Northwestern John teaches ancient philosophy, various Latin and Greek authors, introductory Roman Civilization, and will help us develop our curriculum in imaginative new directions.
Francesca Tataranni, lecturer in Classics, and the department's director of Latin instruction, was selected by the Northwestern student body as one of the outstanding Faculty of the Year for 2006-2007 and again for 2007-2008. Associated Student Government called her to the 2007 and the 2008 ASG Faculty Honor Roll, for which honorees are selected "based on their quality of instruction and contribution to the academic lives of undergraduate students" (2007), saying also that, "We deeply appreciate the time, effort, and intelligence you bring to your classes and how much you care about how much we learn" (2008). All of us join the students in offering congratulations, and thank you for your hard work and dedication!
In other news about faculty work in classics, Bob Wallace's co-authored volume with Kurt Raaflaub and Josiah Ober, Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece is now in bookstores (University of California Press, 2007); Kate Bosher is preparing to direct a production of Aristophanes' Assemblywomen in Ann Arbor in 2008; Marianne Hopman's article, "Revenge and Mythopoiesis in Euripides' Medea" has been accepted for publication in TAPA; Amalia Avramidou's article, "Attic Vases in Etruria: Another View on the Divine Banquet Cup by the Codrus Painter," appeared in the American Journal of Archaeology 110 (2006) 565-79; Dan Garrison's Vesalius Project is nearly complete. Richard Kraut's most recent publications are as editor of The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (2006), and What is Good and Why? The Ethics of Well-Being, published by Harvard in April 2007.
Dan Garrison has been awarded a WCAS Course Enhancement Grant to assist him in developing a new course on "The Human Body in Ancient Greece."
