newsletter
2018/19 DEPARTMENT OF
Classics
Welcome 2017/18 was very much a year of transition for the Department of Classics. Following the retirement of Brian McGing, we were delighted to be able to advertise for the newly renamed Regius Chair of Greek and A.G. Leventis Professorship of Greek Culture. The new title reflects our long-standing relationship with the A.G. Leventis Foundation: we are deeply grateful for their support over a period of some seventeen years, and in particular for their most recent philanthropic gift, which enabled us to appoint our newest member of staff, Dr Rebecca Usherwood, to an Assistant Professorship in Late Antique and Early Byzantine Studies. Rebecca joins us from the University of St Andrews, and is a specialist in the political and cultural history of the Roman and later Roman Empire. A second philanthropic donation enabled us to appoint one of our recent PhD graduates, Dr Charlie Kerrigan, to a Research Fellowship. As well as carrying out his own research, on Virgil’s Georgics and its modern receptions, Charlie has a brief to explore possible ways of expanding our outreach activities, and serves as a research assistant for our Latin language-learning app, Tabella, currently under development and due to be launched later this year. Full profiles of both Rebecca and Charlie, and much more on Tabella, in the next edition of this Newsletter! Returning to the subject of Brian’s retirement, some of our readers will have been present at a splendid day of celebration held in Trinity’s Long Room Hub in February, for which many of Brian’s former students and colleagues returned to College. This was a hugely enjoyable event, and I think all participants were delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate Brian’s long and distinguished career, in a light-hearted and informal way, yet one that also provoked and stimulated: a fitting tribute to our dear friend and colleague. May he continue to flourish for many years to come! (See full report on p. 4.) Our three Postdoctoral Fellows were busy over the course of the year: Boris Kayachev and Elena Spangenberg Yanes organized a very successful conference and workshop respectively (see p. 6 of this Newsletter). We were very sorry to say ciao in December to Jacopo Tabolli, but were thrilled by his success in securing a permanent post on the Soprintendenza Archeologica of Tuscany (not to mention the subsequent birth of his second child). Our undergraduate and graduate students continue to do well, too (see p. 7): four doctoral students gained their PhDs over the course of the year, and two more were awarded Irish
Research Council Studentships. And we were very glad to award the new Ferrar Memorial Studentship to our own Susie Ashton. Congratulations to all on their successes! We hope that readers will want to join us in congratulating ourselves, too, on a Departmental success. In the 2018 QS University Rankings, Classics Departments were rated for the first time. TCD Classics was ranked 28th in the world, a considerable achievement for a department which is small by international standards. We would like to thank all our alumni and current students for spreading the word about their positive experience of TCD Classics, and helping to make our community such a rewarding one to be part of. I end with a trailer for new developments in 2019 and beyond. 2019 sees the launch of our new integrated Single Honors programme in Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology (CLAHA); and in 2020 we plan to launch a new, dual degree programme with Columbia University in New York. I hope to report fully on both these exciting developments in our next issue. As ever, we are keen to hear news of our alumni: please do keep in touch, and take a look at our website and Facebook pages for forthcoming events and other news.
Professor Monica Gale Head of Department