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Duke students with a desire to live outside their own political and cultural bubbles will have a new housing option this fall. A new Living-Learning Community for Transformative Ideas will house about 35 students with meeting spaces that can host up to 75. Headquartered in Kilgo Quad on Duke’s West Campus, this new program will bring students together who are actively looking to explore ideas different from their own, said its faculty sponsor, Jed Atkins. “This is about having students take the lead in creating a space… read more about Coming Soon: A Duke Dorm for Transformative Ideas »

A Cultural History of Money in Antiquity, edited by Prof. Stefan Krmnicek (Universität Tübingen), has just been published in simplified Chinese (货币文化史Ⅰ 希腊罗马时期钱币的诞生与权力象征. Shanghai: Wenhui Publishing House). Prof. Alicia Jiménez contributed to the volume with a chapter titled: “Money and its interpretation. Archaeological and anthropological perspectives.”   read more about New translation of A Cultural History of Money in Antiquity in Chinese »

Last year Lauren Ginsberg was excited to be invited to write a historiographical essay and to contribute to the world premiere of the new opera, Poppaea, by composer Michael Hersch and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. This past week, she traveled to Baltimore for its first screening in the US to introduce Poppaea's life and to take part in a panel discussion with opera creators: Staging Poppaea - Gender, Power and Violence. How do we stage violence against women in the contemporary moment in a way that centers the… read more about Professor Ginsberg contributes to a panel discussion on new opera »

Doug Boyer was a hit at his daughter’s kindergarten show and tell. The associate professor of Evolutionary Anthropology came armed with a life-sized, 3D-printed vertebra belonging to the world’s largest living snake, the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus). Once the students were done oohing and aahing over the plum-sized bone replica, he pulled a second vertebra, ten times larger than the anaconda’s, out of his bag. It was a life-sized replica of a vertebra belonging to Titanoboa, a snake that went… read more about How a Digital Repository Is Democratizing Science From a Duke Basement »

Duke Classical Studies believes in supporting our graduate students as they build valuable, transferable skills and work experience for careers in higher ed and beyond higher ed.     This past summer, Sinja Küppers worked as a provostial intern for the Curriculum Development Committee (CDC) at Duke. Here is what she writes about her experience: "With my research on best practices and peer institutions, I supported the faculty committee in a 2-3-years long process of revamping the undergraduate curriculum at… read more about Duke PhD Students build Networks and Skills through Summer Internships »

"People have lobbied for bans since the days books were handwritten. Volumes containing religious, sexual, racist, political or otherwise offensive language have been singled out, most often as a means to protect young readers or to prevent contentious ideas from spreading. With book banning on the rise again, we take a multidisciplinary look behind the context of targeted tomes through the ages."     Sign up for one or more of the following sessions in this theme:        … read more about Sign up for Policing Pages: A History of Banned Books »

Alicia Jiménez presented a paper co-authored with Adam Rosenblatt about their project "Reckoning with Race, Racism & the History of the American south". The talk discussed the political implications of labeling these spaces as ruins, the lack of memorials to recollect the lives of slaves, as well as the work of the community to document and honor these spaces of the dead. Writing Global Histories Today (Brown University) Writing Global Histories… read more about Professor Jiménez presents at Brown University a paper about Black burial grounds in the North American south »

This summer I participated in the Argilos Excavation, a dig run by the university of Montreal and the Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Serres in Greece. As a field archeologist on this dig, I spent the majority of my time working in my trench with a team of three other undergraduate students and supervisor. On the days that we spent on-site, we spent our time digging in the trench with pickaxes and trowels while also keeping detailed notes of our activities and findings in a log book. We also took daily… read more about Tyler Donovan: Argilos Excavation »

This summer 2022 I was granted a Classical Studies Research Travel Award in support of my participation in a Summer Seminar at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Thanks to the generous funding and support of the Teasley Family Student Endowment Fund I was able to take part in an incredible opportunity that made for an educational and enriching summer. The Summer Seminar I attended was focused on the Northern Aegean: Macedon and Thrace, so we spent most of our three weeks together traveling around the… read more about Tara Wells: ASCSA Summer Seminar: The Northern Aegean: Macedon and Thrace »

Thanks to the research travel funding from the Classical Studies Department this summer, I was able to explore both the discipline of archaeology and the history and art of Italy through the Vulci 3000 Project. As an Economics and Art History major, I was virtually completely new to archaeology, but the Trench Supervisors, especially Dani Vander Horst, worked closely with me to teach me the excavation and documentation methods I needed to succeed this summer. I was able to gain an incredible amount of knowledge and new… read more about Skylar Brogan: Vulci 3000 Project »

This summer, I participated in the Exeter Humanities Institute at my alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy. The weeklong program was dedicated to training educators in Exeter’s famous Harkness Method. The Harkness Method is founded on student led, discussion based learning in all subjects. I worked with humanities educators in all fields, from elementary to college level, to learn how to teach with Harkness. During this week, I was able to experience the Harkness Method from the perspective of both student and teacher. While… read more about Melissa Baroff: Exeter Humanities Institute »

Over the course of the summer, the department’s generous funding allowed me to return for another season to the Vulci 3000 project so that I could attain experience as a Trench Supervisor. This experience was enlightening in many aspects and allowed me to gain a better appreciation for the higher-level decision making processes that occur in archaeological fieldwork and the minute-by-minute interpretative decisions that must be made by supervisors and directors. The Vulci 3000 project is an important source of data within… read more about Danielle Vander Horst: Fieldwork Supervisor Experience »

Thanks to the summer funding provided by this department research travel award, I was able to attend and complete the British School at Rome’s postgraduate course in Roman epigraphy, held in person in Rome, Italy. The course was conducted from July 11th to July 20th, under the direction of Dr. Abigail Graham. The course provided an excellent introduction to the field of Roman epigraphy by taking us students on a series of educational trips throughout Rome, including a day trip to Ostia Antica. Other destinations included… read more about Benjamin Moon-Black: British School at Rome's Postgraduate course in Roman Epigraphy »

I was able to take advantage of several opportunities this summer thanks to the generous funding offered by the department. My summer started off with the Duke in Rome summer study abroad program for which I served as the Teaching Assistant alongside Prof. Gonzalez. It was a truly incredible experience! We brought a fantastic group of Duke undergraduates on the educational adventure of a lifetime, teaching Roman history through the very fabric of the city itself. We also made numerous excursions to visit the most important… read more about Antonio LoPiano: Roman and Etruscan Archaeology »

I am grateful for the departmental funding that enabled me to participate in the Vulci 3000 Archaeological project, led by Dr. Maurizio Forte, for the first time. As a budding Etruscologist, I was excited to continue my studies of Etruscan civilization at such an important site. The tombs of Vulci’s wealthiest citizens yielded some of antiquity’s most heralded painted vases and other artifacts in centuries past, yet the Vulci 3000 project is the first scientific stratigraphical excavation of the city itself. In this season’… read more about Andrew Welser: Vulci 3000 Archaeological Project »

This summer, I worked with Professor Maurizio Forte in the region of Viterbo, Italy on the Vulci 3000 project. Entering this season, I hoped to further explore my passions for Classics, Computer Science, and digital strides in archaeological fieldwork. For me, archaeology is the natural way to extend my studies outside the classroom. While during the year I spend my time learning about the grammar and culture of ancient civilizations, I hope to spend my summers with my knees bent digging in their footsteps, their roads,… read more about Alex Pieroni: Vulci 3000 Excavation Project »

Transformative Ideas, a new Trinity program for sophomores in partnership with KIE, hosted its first welcome dinner at Parizade. TI students and faculty heard about Fall programming from faculty director Jed Atkins and discussed civil disagreement in the classroom with Teresa Bejan (Oxford) and John Rose (Duke). Theater Studies Professor Doug Jones and TI summer graduate fellow Ejuerleigh Jones enjoy a meal with students at the TI welcome dinner.… read more about Transformative Ideas Welcome Dinner »

Professor Jed Atkins joins Luke Bretherton's "Listen, Organize, Act" podcast to discuss Thucydides' understanding of politics, how he has shaped the history of political thought, and his importance for contemporary democratic politics. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/listen-organize-act-community-organizing-democratic/id1553824477?i=1000570172412 read more about Jed Atkins on Thucydides and the Athenian-Melian Dialogue »

This summer, a museum in Italy is displaying the results of a six-year archaeological excavation conducted by more than 20 Duke faculty and students. The exhibit, which opened recently at the Museo delle Antichita Etrusche e Italiche at Sapienza University in Rome, displays findings from Vulci, an Etruscan and Roman archaeological site in Viterbo, Italy. The summer project, a partnership with Sapienza University researchers, leans heavily on virtual reality and digital tools, and the exhibition includes interactive… read more about Digital Exhibit Reveals Buried Roman-Era Secrets Uncovered By Duke Archeologists »