#camws

just finished composing an email politely asking CAMWS to adopt a nondiscrimination policy on the basis that they ignored LGBTQ members’ pleas to not set next year’s meeting at BYU

they’re a little fragile and have already gotten an earful from other members, so politeness is (sadly) key to getting our message across at the moment

alright this was probably my last conference as primarily a grad student (with luck it might be the last one where i don’t have my phd yet but i’m not gonna bank on that yet) and i did not expect it to be so interesting

1. gave a paper on Lucan and GoT s08 e03, “The Long Night” which went really well even though (or because??) i didn’t read an essay aloud but planned it like a presentation with notes, not script. met Monica Cyrino who presided over the panel, did a great job with that, was super nice, and gave me and my colleague specific advice for future presentations.

2. noticed a lot of the problems of the field in action: saw a white man quote a Jamaican source with his “bad Jamaican accent” kind of for levity in his paper, heard an award acceptance speech that claimed classics is under fire from cancel culture (also a lot of other really... troubling ideas in there that went lauded instead of challenged), missed a meeting in which reports indicate that white woman tears were shed in response to a proposal that CAMWS adopt an explicit non-discrimination policy for choosing the sites of future meetings. 

3. realized how extensive my network is, actually -- saw 3 of my undergrad classics profs at the meeting, met up with 1 religion prof in town, tracked down 1 summer school friend, saw in passing one of the Temple profs who taught me everything I know about Homer, met 2 people in person who I know well from pandemic-era zoom events. And in addition to that I made some new friends, some just by mutual connections, some just by the chance of standing near each other in a reception or panel or whatever.

4. did hear a presider excitedly claim that it’s nice to have “emerged victorious from the pandemic” which....... i hold out hope that we didn’t all attend a superspreader event but we probably won’t know that for a few more days.

A Few Thoughts on Virtual CAMWS 2021

Just a couple of weeks ago we wrapped up the 117th CAMWS—and the second virtual CAMWS—annual meeting. I thought this year’s virtual conference was a huge success, thanks in large part to the amazing team of CAMWS tech volunteers who helped keep everything running smoothly. In both the panels I attended live and the ones I watched after the fact, there were very few tech hiccups—no more than we…

From CAMWS.org/racism

We, members of the Executive Committee of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, wish to state unequivocally our opposition to racism of any kind. As the second largest classical society in North America, we are particularly alarmed by the appropriation of ancient imagery by any political entity that might seek to employ the ideas and images that are property not only of classicists but also, in fact, of any thoughtful human being.  We therefore call out all groups that seek to use these ideas for deleterious purposes as charlatans and manipulators.  We urge all to adopt a posture of generosity and empathy as, whatever our race, creed or color, we are all together engaged in the human enterprise. Classicists are and will continue to be at the vanguard of advancing this way of thinking, promoting no particular world view save that of thoughtful care and compassion for every person, for that is the vital lesson we have learned from the civilizations that we study.

I enjoyed seeing Roxanne Perko's name and Ave Maria University's atop this list; this award was for work that Roxanne had done through the end of her junior year. More recently, Roxanne read her senior paper analyzing a homily by Pope St. Leo the Great to faculty, fellow students, and some residents of the town.