Darryl A. Phillips

The new issue of College of Charleston Magazine  features a profile of recent Classics graduate Melissa Huber.  A great story.  Melissa is heading off to pursue a Master’s at the University of Reading in their unique program on the history of the city of Rome.  The program includes several months of work in Rome, based at the British School.  Would that we were all heading off to England and Italy!!

At long last, Spencer Williams’ article “The Nobility under Augustus” has been published electronically on the Chrestomathy website.  The print edition of the article came out in 2010.  It is an excellent study of changes to the political culture of the elite in Augustan era Rome.  Terrific work.

Each year the journal Chrestomathy publishes the best undergraduate research at the College of Charleston  in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Inspired by working with Spencer on this project and in an Honors tutorial back in Spring 2010, I’ll be offering a new course on Roman Political Culture (CLAS 303) in Spring 2012.

Congratulations, Spencer!

Following up on the excellent training I received in the Faculty Technology Institute back in the summer of 2009, I’ve been experimenting with wikis in my ancient history classes for the past couple of semesters and the results have been excellent.  I’ve been trying to spread the word about the academic merits of course-specific wikis.  I was delighted to be invited by the TLT folks to be featured in an “Innovative Instruction” video. 

For certainly types of courses, especially courses with heavy amounts of specific content for students to master, I highly recommend trying a wiki.  Feedback from students has been very positive — and students have been performing better on exams, both in factual content and in analytical essays, as a result of using the wiki.  To mix a bit of Hawaiian and Latin, I advocate “wiki omnibus”!

On Monday, August 23, 10:00-2:00, URCA (Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities) will be hosting a research poster session on the second floor of the New Science Center.  Come by and see what our talented undergraduates have been working on.  Two Classics students will be presenting posters, Angelina Phebus (who was working with Prof. Newhard), and Melissa Huber (who was working with me )

It should be a terrific event. 

Here is a little preview of Melissa’s poster — you’ll have to come by the event to learn what it means!

Congrats to Citadel/College of Charleston history graduate student Stefan Kosovych  who will be presenting a paper “Commemoration of War during the Roman Republic and Early Principate” at the William & Mary Graduate Research Symposium, held March 26-27, 2010.

Presenting your work at a research conference is a terrific experience for a graduate student — a great way to get introduced to another aspect of the profession.  In recent years, universities have developed new conferences designed specifically for graduate students.  William & Mary’s annual conference draws students from a variety of disciplines from schools across the region.