Faculty News - Duke University | Classical Studies

Diachrony
Diachrony: Diachronic Aspects of Ancient Greek
Literature and Culture was held in the Gothic
Reading Room of Perkins Library on the Duke
University campus on Friday the 23rd and Saturday
the 24th of October 2009. The conference featured
keynote addresses by Gregory Nagy, of Harvard
University and the Center for Hellenic Studies, and
Anton Bierl, of the Seminar für Klassische
Philologie der Universität Basel. A distinguished set
of panelists presented papers that explored aspects
of Greek literature and culture from the archaic
period to Roman imperial times whose central
insights turned crucially on diachronic analysis.
Paper topics ranged from literature and history to
linguistic and cognitive semantics.
The conference received broad institutional
sponsorship, including our own Department of
Classical Studies, the Department of Classics at
UNC-Chapel Hill, the former Dean of the
Humanities N. Gregson G. Davis, and the Franklin
Humanities Institute. A very special thanks to Carla
Antonaccio for her unwavering support of
Diachrony despite significant budgetary challenges.
In addition to Carla, our own Micaela Janan and
William Johnson performed magnificently as panel
chairs, encouraging the stimulating discussion that
followed the papers. This conference would not
have been possible without the support of my wife,
Lauren, who cheerfully shared the burden of
planning; and without the help of the graduate
students, who assisted at every stage, from airport
shuttling to chair folding. A hearty thanks to you all
for making the conference a resounding success!
For more see http://www.duke.edu/web/diachrony.
6
The Classical Studies Department would like to
congratulate our very own Professor William
Johnson and Graduate Instructor Laury Ward,
each for receiving the following letter:
Dear Professor,
We would like to express our heartfelt
appreciation for your contribution to teaching
excellence at Duke. During the spring semester
2010, your course evaluations were among the top
5% of all undergraduate instructors at Duke. Your
commitment to teaching, dedication to students, and
creative approaches toward instruction have been
recognized by your students. Together with your
students, we recognize the value of your dedication
and applaud your efforts.
Professors like you enable us to build upon
our academic traditions by infusing academic
instruction with a sense of dynamic engagement and
inspired learning. We wish you continued success.
Sincerely,
Alvin L. Crumbliss,
Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Lee D. Baker,
Dean of Academic Affairs of Trinity College
Former Faculty
John G. Younger: I finally got around to writing
the mammoth "biography" of the sculptures of the
Temple of Zeus, Olympia, that Paul Rehak and I
initiated way back in 1993 -- "Technical
Observations on the Sculptures from the Temple of
Zeus at Olympia,"
by John G. Younger and Paul Rehak,
Hesperia 78 (2009) 41-105. Last year I was named
Chair of Information Technology at the American
School of Classical Studies, Athens, which means a
couple of trips to Athens per year (poor me). And
this Summer (2010) I'm taking a bunch of KU
students on a 4-week archaeological tour of Greece,
which I first did for Duke students back in 1976.
Life continues!