ALUMNI/AE NEWS
Where Are They Now?
Jake Butera, (2003) stopped by the office just as classes were starting and as he was getting ready to leave for a year with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He has been in the process of taking his qualifying exams at Duke, where he will return at year's end, and has one more to go.
Jonathan David received his M.A. from Penn State in 2000, and his Ph.D. in 2005, with a dissertation titled "Herodotus and the Monuments." He has taken a tenure track job in the History Department, at California State University, Stanislaus. Jonathan was a triple major (History, Classics, Comparative Religion).
Alisa Stoughton writes: Seth and I have finally moved back to Tallahassee and are settling into our new home. It's a wonderful neighborhood in an excellent school zone. But best of all it cuts our commute down to seven miles rather than 25.
I'm still busily working at Mission San Luis (for those of you who don't already know, the Mission is a Spanish and Apalachee Indian site that was inhabited from 1656 to 1704. We were also just awarded with the prestigious presidential Preserve America award for our continuing excavations and living history program). Our current excavation, which was originally slated to last 10 weeks, is now in its 8th month. We found the foundations for a large Spanish building and are in the process of completing the excavation of the trash pit. It is always said that if you want to know about someone go through their trash - the same holds true of 300 year old trash. The pit is producing a wealth of unique artifacts and is providing us with a good picture of daily life at the Mission - from food items and pottery to clothing, jewelry, and sewing artifacts. However, it is June and hot here in N. FL and we're looking forward to returning to the lab soon for the heat of the summer.
And now for the most important guy in the family, Aidan! He will be 2 in July - very hard to believe that the time has passed so quickly. He is working on 3 and 4 word sentences, dressing himself and potty training. Every afternoon we take a walk around the neighborhood with our dog and he loves every minute of it.
Eric Schlichting writes: I guess the biggest news is that Andrea and I have bought a condo in Forest Park (just outside Chicago). We're going to do a little painting and I think I'm going to build some shelves into the dining room, so we won't be moving in right away. On a related subject, wedding planning is going well; I think the next thing we have to do is taste food! One classics item though --I read four books of the New Testament in Greek this summer with another guy from work.
I had my first day of orientation at the Lutheran School of Theology yesterday in the evening, and it continued all day. I can't wait until orientation is over. I've met some really interesting people down here, as you'd expect, and they told me today that I would get "advanced standing" in Greek. The commute today was a bit rough (which may be adding to my disdain of the orientation): 6:44 train to Northwestern Station downtown, a twenty-minute walk to Millennium Station, 7:35 train to 55th St. and then about another fifteen minute walk to the seminary. There may be some carpool possibilities in the works though. I'm beginning to see that I got pretty spoiled in Oxford...
News from Christopher A. Maraschiello I was saddened to hear the passing of Dr. Thornton. My first class at Miami (way be in 1984) was Latin 201 with her. Since graduating with a double major in Classics and History-- I completed 3 Masters (one in History, one in Social Studies, and one in Administration) all from Miami. I have taught secondary history since 1994 in the Hamilton, Ohio school district and have taught ancient history for the last two years. My training in classics at Miami has served me well. I am currently finishing a 3-month unit on Greece and Rome with my 7th graders. I had several students running to the library to check out the Iliad, Odyssey, as well as Sophocles and Euripides. I married in 2001 to a fellow teacher from Hamilton, Tracy Kiep, a UD and XU graduate in English literature, and we have a son, Nicholas (good Greek name) Anthony (good Italian name) who was read Fagles translation of the Odyssey on the day he was born. I can't tell you how much I value my education in the classics department at Miami. My students asked me recently how I knew so much about Greece and Rome, and I told them "it is in my blood" literally and figuratively. Please keep me updated on the old department.
News from Kat Walsh: Greetings from a happy, currently lazy graduate! So far this summer I have walked my dog (Smokey), read A LOT and spent a month in Ireland, saying hello to friends, and traveling throughout the west coast. So far I have been to the Aran Islands and looked at the remains of the Celtic ring fort of Dun Aonghus (A huge prehistoric fort on high cliffs), went surfing in 40 degree weather and seen more church and monastery ruins than I can remember!
I have also been figuring out what I want to do next year, and decided to forego Peace corp (in the Caribbean--what am I thinking) and instead, continue my education and get my Masters, and possible Ph.D. in a kind of combined course in Cultural Anthropology/Sociology (I guess I wasn't ready to give up academia yet).
I have been talking to Professors at Trinity College (in Dublin, Ireland) and have decided to apply to their Masters program of Ethnic and Racial studies, which though labeled "sociology" takes anthropological approaches looking at globalization, and current immigration and racial issues affecting Irish culture (Most of the profs are actually anthropologists, they just don't technically practice anthro in Ireland yet).
I am looking forward to possibly going to Trinity, as when I studied abroad in Dublin my junior year, I became very interested in looking at Ireland from an anthropological level and fell in love with the country and people in it! Courses begin in October (if I get in) so I'll be working in Washington, D.C. this summer to raise funds!!
Amy Barr writes: We moved this past summer to North Carolina so that Regan could try his hand working with a young start up company which sells databases to non-profits. We have been busy keeping all our plates spinning, too.
I am excited to tell you what our (Regan and my) new project is. It is called The Lukeion Project. Live online interactive classes for grades 10-12 (primarily but not exclusively home school) and for adults seeking enrichment at any age. We will only be offering courses in our areas of interest and experience so there will be Latin and Greek, Greek and Roman history, art, civilization and of course archaeology--piles of archaeology-and let us not forget Classical mythology. Check online at www.lukeion.org. The various software for conferencing is now truly amazing so that we are able to bring classrooms anywhere one can get high-speed. One can print the white board out during class, hand out files, show presentations in PowerPoint, and show videos, you name it.
The Lukeion Project is actually going quite well, much to the surprise of some. We are in the middle of our first full scale semester (last spring was our start up semester and we offered a total of 16 workshops plus a semester of Latin I --we had over 60 people attend. This year we are offering 4 semester classes in addition to workshops. I have 18 Latin students and 11 semester mythology students. We also have Greek Culture (art, arachaeology and literature) and Greek History. Next semester we will teach Roman History and Culture, Greek & Latin Word Roots, as well as workshops on things like "Imperial Murder Mystery" (on creative ways the Roman emperors did each other in) and Cleopatra. We hope to offer 3 or 4 years of high school level Latin. Many of our friends have been curious to see if this venture files. It is the only thing like it so I anticipate that by next year's registration, we may have full classes and need additional teaching staff!
We would be enjoying ourselves quite a bit if we were not frantically creating all of our classes at once and trying to promote our classes at conventions and speaking engagements. In addition, our classes have a heavy web component. We create Java games likes Battleship and Rags to Riches so our students can review the material online. Then we test online as well. It makes it all possible. I would think we may have a few Classics recruits for you except our students come from across the country: we have Monterey, CA; Seattle, WA; Weslaco, TX, all over PA and all over GA and VA. We will be expanding even more soon since we are getting ready to run an ad in a large Home school newspaper with a quarter million readership.
Our own kids are doing well after a rough spring. Isaiah broke his arms in two places (thanks to a neighbor child) and Hannah took a header off of her bike and broke an adult tooth out of the front of her smile. Our middle child just smiles and maintains his peacekeeper role. All three of them are going to be able to teach these subjects in another year or two. Our 8 year old, however, wants to be an architect and spends a great deal of time working out the architectural principles employed by the Greeks and Romans. Last night at dinner he said he was working out how to design a better-looking water tower design for our town. Our oldest Hannah is planning a career in fine arts. The five year old may do well on Broadway, at least that's his current forte.
Kristen Fife (1989), writes: I'm still living in Seattle, and I'm a recruiter for Microsoft Research, hiring computer science PhD candidates from around the world. Last summer I had the chance to go to Greece for the first time for two weeks. I went to Delphi, Delos, Naxos, and visited the Acropolis. I touched the Omphalos, and took over 600 digital photos.
I also put my Classics background to use researching for a novel I'm working on, and I won a short fiction contest three years ago set in ancient Rome. Next weekend I'll be at Rutgers hosting a writing conference, and I hope to visit Miami before the end of next year!
Miami University, Department of Classics, 105 Irvin Hall, Oxford, OH 45056; (513) 529-1480