Department Highlights
Looking at Ancient Roman Plagues through an Environmental Lens
The Rumsey Family Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical Studies, Brandon McDonald builds a better understanding of antiquity by looking at the interplay of climate, environment, and disease.
Rethinking Ancient Rome and Its Colonies in Africa
Chair of the Classical Studies Department Bruce Hitchner confronts the colonial legacy of archaeology in North Africa, and presents a new understanding of antiquity.
Reconstructing the Large Scale Olive Oil/Agricultural Economy of North Africa in the Roman Empire
R. Bruce Hitchner’s project to employ remote sensing, deep learning models (AI), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with archaeo-historical documentation to produce a new inventory and analysis of archaeological sites in the Algerian Nemencha and Tunisian high steppe in North Africa, a region of mass olive oil production in the Roman Empire, has been awarded a Springboard grant of $34,788.08 from the Office of the Provost. Hitchner will head a team comprised of Magaly Koch (SOE, BU), Abigail Kosnik (A&S), Carolyn Talmadge (TTS), and Uku Uustalu (TTS).
Professor R. Bruce Hitchner is the editor of the forthcoming (November 2021) Wiley Blackwell Companion to North Africa in Antiquity.
See the book cover/back design.
Digital Approaches to Teaching the Ancient Mediterranean
Read about Professors Beaulieu and Bucci's approach to teaching computational methods to Humanities students.
Student Kenny Huang gave the Twentieth Dr. Joseph C. Cremone, Jr. Lecture titled "Digesting Disease: Maggots in Medicine"
Kenny Huang, a Junior majoring in Chemistry and a member of J. H. Phillips' Medical History Seminar, recently on December 5, 2018 gave the Twentieth Dr. Joseph C. Cremone, Jr. Lecture at Lawrence Memorial Hospital (Medford, MA). The title of his lecture: "Digesting Disease: Maggots in Medicine."
Professors Bruce Hitchner and Matthew Harrington lead a J-term program
Professors Bruce Hitchner and Matthew Harrington along with French Colleague, Dr. Guillaume Durand, of the American College of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France, lead a J-term program: Mediterranean Basin Traveling Seminar in France, Italy and Greece.
R. Bruce Hitchner awarded Research Grant
R. Bruce Hitchner has received a grant from the Mac Jannet Foundation in support of the Talloires Abbey Digital humanities Project
Interview with Marie-Claire Beaulieu
Watch 'Why Ancient Myths Remain Relevant Today', Tufts Magazine's April 2018 interview with Prof. Marie-Claire Beaulieu, about her research on the meanings of birds in Greek Mythology.
Gregory Crane featured in German Magazine
Gregory Crane was featured in the German U15 special issue on higher education on June 22, 2017.
Riccardo Strobino awarded Research Fellowship
Riccardo Strobino has been awarded the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fellowship and will be spending the 2017-18 academic year at the Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.
Ioannis D. Evrigenis awarded Research Prize
The Renaissance Society of America has awarded the 2016 RSA-TCP Article Prize in Digital Renaissance Research to Ioannis D. Evrigenis for his article, "Digital Tools and the History of Political Thought: The Case of Jean Bodin"
Marie-Claire Beaulieu's New Book is Available
"The Sea in the Greek Imagination", Marie-Claire Beaulieu's new book is available! Check it out through UPenn Press, 2016. Professor Beaulieu proposes that the sea marks the boundary between mortals, immortals, and the dead. A copy is also on display in the Classical Studies Department.
Marie-Claire Beaulieu Selected as This Year's Recognition of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence (ROUTE) Award Winner
The ROUTE Award is presented to junior full-time faculty members in Arts, Sciences, and Engineering who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and advising, concern for students' academic and personal growth, and the ability to convey a passion and enthusiasm for their field of study. The award was presented to Professor Beaulieu at the last faculty meeting this year, on May 13 at 2:45 p.m. in the Balch Arena.
Professor Beaulieu has also been awarded a Mellon grant to further her work on the Perseids project.
Perseus Digital Humanities Project
Recently, an article was written in Tufts University's Arts and Sciences News on the Perseus Digital Humanities Project at Tufts.
Department Welcomes Dr. Riccardo Strobino to the Position of Mellon Bridge Assistant Professor
The Classical Studies Department is delighted to welcome Dr. Riccardo Strobino to the position of Mellon Bridge Assistant Professor in Greco-Roman and Arabic Traditions. Currently a research associate at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cambridge, Dr. Strobino's interests lie in the history of philosophy and logic in Antiquity, the Latin Middle Ages, and the Arabic-Islamic tradition. In his capacity at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Dr. Strobino has worked in particular on the reception of Aristotelian epistemology in Avicenna (d. 428/1037) and the Post-Avicennan tradition. Recently, he taught courses in Arabic-Islamic and Medieval philosophy as a visiting lecturer at UCLA and co-organized the 20th European Symposium of Medieval Logic and Semantics at the University of Cambridge. As part of his current research, Dr. Strobino is writing a monograph on Avicenna's scientific knowledge from his Kitāb al-Burhān (Book of Demonstration), while also translating it into English.
Dr. Strobino's first course at Tufts, CLS 0189-01/PHL 0191-05: "Philosophy in the Greek, Latin, and Arabic Traditions," will introduce students to a comparative overview of philosophical concepts from Antiquity to the Arabic tradition. Focusing on specific themes and their transmission in the context of various translation movements, students will consider a range of topics relating to metaphysics, natural philosophy, epistemology, and ethics.
Drama Professor Publishes a New Translation of Euripides' Bacchae
Laurence Senelick, Professor of Drama at Tufts University, has published a new translation of Euripides' Bacchae through Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. Called "Crazed Women," the play was performed by Tufts students in the 2000-2001 season.