The 2023 program for THE EXAMINED LIFE continued to offer new and interesting speakers to further expand our familiarity with Ancient and Modern Greece and to foster a growing intellectual rigor. Through readings, lectures and the annual Study Tour of Greece, our goal is to encourage teachers who work in our schools to think more deeply about the landscape of the Greek humanities, and how to bring the Greek ideal into our classrooms.
Readings centered around the Iliad and the Odyssey challenged the Greek Fellows while they explored other texts written by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, among others. In addition each seminar offered a selection of newly published readings to further expand the breadth of the lecture.
The ExL semester starts in early January with an intro Zoom when the Greek Fellows have a chance to introduce themselves and the Leadership Team can give an overview and highlights of what is to come. The year’s calendar featured seven conversations presented by esteemed lecturers reinforcing our goal to explore the many facets of the Greek experience.
Stephen Guerriero, ExL Resident Scholar, moderated our first conversation with Kelly Dugan, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor of Classical Studies and 2022-2023 Center for Teaching and Learning Faculty Fellow at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She holds a PhD in Language and Literacy Education from the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on educational linguistics, antiracist education, and teacher training in ancient studies. She also studies systems of enslavement and abolition from antiquity to today.
The following week, Stephen led a conversation with Debby Sneed., PhD, a Lecturer in the Department of Classics at California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Sneed received her B.A. from the University of Wyoming, her M.A. from the University of Colorado, and her PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles. Her research interests are disabilities in ancient Greece, identity and marginalization in ancient Greece, and the archaeology of ancient Greece.
Our last meeting before the February school vacation featured Elizabeth Marlowe, Associate Professor of Art & Art History at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. She is also the Chair of the Department and the Director of the Museum Studies Program. She earned a BA from Smith College, and another from Cambridge University. She earned an MPhil. and her PhD from Columbia University. Her areas of study include ancient art, late antiquity, the city of Rome, Roman imperial monuments, modern uses of the classical past, museum studies, critical museum theory, decolonizing museums, the art market, cultural property, antiquities looting and repatriation.
The Intersection of Ancient Text and Archaeology was the theme of our conversation with Maribelisa (Belisi), a PhD candidate at University of California, Berkeley in Classical Archaeology. She has a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Ancient Greek & Roman Studies from Brandeis University. She is an active field archaeologist with experience in northern Israel, Crete, Attica, the Cyclades, and the Peloponnese. She currently participates in the Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology’s projects at the panhellenic sanctuary of Zeus in Nemea, the prehistoric cemetery at Aidonia, and Petsas House, a ceramic production workshop at Mycenae.
In early March, we met in person at St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church so that we could see the beautiful Byzantine iconography in situ. Also, an old friend of the ExL program, Father Anthony Frame hosted our visit and shared an overview of the Greek Orthodox theology, especially the celebration of Orthodox Easter.
V. Rev. Anton C. Vrame, PhD is Director of Holy Cross Orthodox Press of Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Brookine, MA. He is also Associate Professor of Religious Education at Holy Cross. He is well known for his writings on Orthodox Christian religious education. He is a Greek Orthodox priest with the title “Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne.”
Theo Theoharis returned to lead a seminar on The Iliad and the Poetry of Cavafy, with Debi Milligan as his moderator. Theo Theoharis graduated from Williams College in 1977, and received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1983. He has taught at UC Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and, since 1985, at the Harvard University Extension School. He has lectured widely in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
After returning from the Study Tour of Greece and the extension to Turkey—Ephesus, Ancient Troy and Istanbul, Debi Milligan moderated a conversation with Dr. Patrick Hunt exploring wine in Ancient Greece
Dr. Hunt is the author of Wine Journeys: Myth & History by Patrick Hunt, published by Cognella Academic Publishing, 2013. He believes the perceived boundaries between academic subjects are too often arbitrary and artificial, and thus explores junctions between many intersecting areas of interest across the broader humanities, sciences and the arts. Patrick has followed several of his life-long dreams–archaeologist, writer, musician, composer, poet, and art historian.
Wrapping up the 2023 semester, we gathered at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to explore the recently renovated Behrakis galleries and expanded collection of Greek (and Roman) antiquities, with Stephen Guerriero as our guide.