In recent months, several members of the Classics Program represented APSU in front of members of other schools, and Professor Tim Winters achieved an award for his accomplishments.
Six classics majors at APSU attended the fifth annual Undergraduate Classics Conference at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on Feb. 20, 2016. These students are Etenia Mullins, Brittany Orton, Kate DiStefano, Amber Kearns, Alexander Kee and Rebecca Illig.
The UTK Classics Department website states that submissions for the conference were abstracts fewer than 250 words “from any discipline within classical studies.”
These disciplines include subjects like history, literature, language and archaeology.
Steve Kershner, a professor of APSU’s Classics Program, said in a written statement, “Each student gave a 20 minute paper on classical topics from…reading the tragic figure of Oedipus as an Epic hero to the legal motivations for the Roman restriction of prostitutes.”
Kershner said that Etenia Mullins was considered “best in show” by several attendees for what they considered a unique “analysis of Livy’s prose style using contemporary creative non-fiction ideas.” Livy is the nickname of Titus Livius, an ancient Roman historian.
A total of 29 abstracts were submitted for the conference.
Among the participating universities were Baylor University, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of South Carolina, University of Montana, the American University of Rome, Tel Aviv University of Israel, Rhodes College, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and APSU.
One woman travelled from Israel for the conference and another from Rome.
Of all the schools, APSU had the largest showing with six participants. Kershner said all of the APSU students “performed with great sophistication and poise” and received a lot of questions from the crowd.
In addition to students, Tim Winters, a professor of the Classics Program at APSU, received an Ovatio Award at a yearly meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle, West and South.
The CAMWS website describes these awards as “honorary citations written in Latin” given to “members for their service to CAMWS and the Classics profession.” Only three ovationes were awarded at the 2016 CAMWS banquet on March 18.
According to Kershner, CAMWS named the award after the ovationes once given as a sort of recognition ceremony for Roman generals returning from war.
The Classics Program will also be adding a scholarship beginning next semester for a sophomore student with a classics major. The award is in honor of Kaye and Grady Warren, who spent 40 years teaching Latin in Clarksville.
“Ultimately, we are aiming at a scholarship that will be $1000 a year,” Winters said.
This scholarship, in addition to new classes that teach about scientific and medical terminology or about classical roots in book series such as “Harry Potter” and “Percy Jackson,” is part of a push to expand the Classics Program.
