The Pompeiiana Newsletter was created and edited by Bernard Barcio and ran from 1974 through 2003. Pompeiiana offered a place for Latin students to publish comics, stories, games, and articles, and was a beloved resource for Latin teachers. In 2008, Barcio granted Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers the rights for all of Pompeiiana. This blog will make all 229 issues freely available to Latin teachers, students, and others interested in Classics, one issue per day.
In August 2013, the Medieval Sai Project: The Greek Norwegian Archaeological Mission to Sudan began the serialized republication of the 22 issues of Nubian Letters published between 1983 and 1994:
Nubian Letters in an independent biannual bulletin for Nubian history and archaeology, published under the auspices of the International Society for Nubian Studies and the Department of Early Christian Art at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.
I'm really pleased to see these newsletters in general circulation. They represent a form of semi-formal scholarly communication which was common in the second half of the 20th century (and earlier), but which was never properly collected by libraries. Even those which have made the leap to digital media (and you can find many be searching the keyword "newsletter" in AWOL), remain mostly poorly curated or uncollected in libraries. They are nevertheless an extraordinarily important resource for the history of the disciplines they cover and the institutions and projects they represent.
In the Summer of 2014 Oriental Institute Research Archivist, Bibliographer Foy Scalf, began to scan the hard copies of the Oriental Institute Staff Newsletter (63 issues edited by me which appeared between February 1998 and March 2005) and upon discovering that they were incomplete, urged me to try to recover the lost files from a ten year old laptop. As a consequence we now have a complete set available. So a small piece of Oriental Institute microhistory is now recovered and preserved. They are available at Oriental Institute Staff Newsletter, and further information is at the OI History Blog.
Beginning in February 1998, with the encouragement and support of Gene Gragg who was then Director of the Oriental Institute, I compiled, edited and distributed by email an internal newsletter for the staff of the Oriental Institute. It chronicled the activities of the departments of the OI, and of individual scholars and senior students at the OI. It was distributed widely in the University of Chicago community by means of a listhost mailing list, but its archive was not publicly available.
Many scholars keep files of these things, which they get by virtue of memberships in societies or organization, or association with projects, and in other ways. Likewise, many projects, association, and societies hold files of them in their archives, or in their archives of their successor or sponsoring institutions. If you have a files of one of these inaccessible newsletters, or know of one, I challenge you to follow in the footsteps of The Pompeiiana Newsletter, Nubian Letters, and The Oriental Institute Staff Newsletter and make it available to your colleagues and the world at large. It is simple to set up a blog at Blogger, Wordpress or Tumblr (or one of many other comparable tools), to scan an issue a day, and post them online. Please make sure that you get, or make a good faith effort to get, permission from the organization or person who published the newsletter in the first place.
This past year I scanned and posted Pirradaziš: Bulletin of Achaemenian Studies I produced in the 1990s.
Pirradaziš (Pirradazish) [OCLC Number: 863381899] is a newsletter produced by Charles E. Jones at the Oriental Institute Chicago. Eight issues appeared between 1990 and 1994.
Pirradaziš seeks to gather information, primarily bibliographical, which relates to the study of the Achaemenid Persian empire, as well as relevant material on the periods immediately preceding and following it. Each issue will cover the material seen by the editor during the six months (more or less) prior to the date of issue.
Also in 2015, colleagues at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World scanned and made available copies of the orphaned Circle of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology Newsletter as a component of the relaunched Ancient World Digital Library.
Please let me know if you can participate, and what and where you efforts appear so I can include it in AWOL's List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies.
And I'll happily offer advice and assistance in how to go about doing it If you'd rather have me do it, and can supply the hard copy, I'll gladly make that happen as well.
The AWOL Index: The bibliographic data presented herein has been programmatically extracted from the content of AWOL - The Ancient World Online (ISSN 2156-2253) and formatted in accordance with a structured data model.
AWOL is a project of Charles E. Jones, Tombros Librarian for Classics and Humanities at the Pattee Library, Penn State University
AWOL began with a series of entries under the heading AWOL on the Ancient World Bloggers Group Blog. I moved it to its own space here beginning in 2009.
The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world, but I will also include other kinds of networked information as it comes available.
The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, my academic home at the time AWOL was launched. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique / early Islamic period.
AWOL is the successor to Abzu, a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, founded at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago in 1994. Together they represent the longest sustained effort to map the development of open digital scholarship in any discipline.
AWOL is one of a suite of online resources initiated by and with the continuing support of The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
Unlike many programs that offer an independent or hybrid PhD in ancient philosophy, the University of Michigan has its students pursue two degrees in tandem: a PhD in either Philosophy or Classical Studies together with an MA in the companion field, in accordance with the established standards in each field. Because of overlapping requirements, all of this can be accomplished within the standard six years for the PhD, depending on your level of preparation and planning, though some students take slightly longer.
This structure reflects our approach to interdisciplinarity. Rather than look for space between the two fields, we think that the study of ancient philosophy is best stimulated by bringing together the special expertises in each discipline, whether they be logical and analytical techniques, ancient literary theory, the knowledge of politicial institutions and religious traditions, or papyrology (all strengths at Michigan). There is no one best way to study ancient philosophy; all of these approaches provide valuable insights. By bringing each into conversation with the others, all are enriched.
The structure of the program is also designed with students in mind, with regard to both their training and their future job prospects. Students pursue their foundational and specialized training in the normal way, in accordance with the established standards in each department. Because each degree is in a traditionally recognized disclipine, the hiring department can be confident in the value of the degree. The special character and emphasis in a particular student’s course of study will show itself in their selection of courses and research projects.
More detailed information on the two tracks can be found immediately below. A separate page contains information on applying, including links.
Students in the PhD program in Philosophy spend the first four to five terms doing course work to develop their basic philosophical and analytical skills and improve their writing, by taking a range of courses, including a required first term proseminar on philosophical method. Ten graduate courses in philosophy are required, as well as passing a logic requirement (through a course or examination), before candidacy is achieved. After a term transitioning to the dissertation (with dossier and prospectus), the remainder of the time is spent researching and writing the dissertation itself (usually two to three years), culminating in an oral defense. On the website for the Department of Philosophy, there are full details the PhD program in Philosophy and program requirements. There is also information on financial support.
Students on this track will develop their knowledge of the ancient language(s) and culture by pursuing either an MA in Greek or in Latin. The MA requires (a) six to seven graduate courses in the language studied and (b) a sight translation exam. There is some flexibility with regard to (a) for those who have both Latin and Greek: Greek MA students may count up to two courses in Latin, and Latin MA students up to two courses in Greek. Students on this track are also strong encouraged to develop a knowledge of German and either French or Italian. The website for the Department of Classical Studies has more details about the MA in Greek and the MA in Latin.
All graduate programs at Michigan require four credit hours in a cognate subject in a different program. But in dual programs such as ours, the courses for one degree can also serve as cognate credits for the other (by special application to the graduate school), so that no additional course work is required. This significantly reduces the time need to pursue both degrees.
Students in the PhD program in Classical studies spend the first three years doing course work to improve and refine their command of Greek and Latin; gain a broader and firmer grasp of the development of Greek and Roman literature in their historical settings; and acquaint themselves with the various subfields and basic tools, methods, aims, and achievements of classical scholarship, and with the methodologies (literary, historical, linguistic) currently being applied to classical texts. Ten courses of specific types are required, as well as a range of qualifying and preliminary exams, before candidacy is achieved. The student then undertakes a dissertation under the supervision of an advisor and a committee. The usual time required for its completion is one to two years. The final oral examination is on the dissertation and related topics. The website for the Department of Classical Studies has full details about the PhD program and requirements. Information about fellowship opportunities and support can be found in the last section of that page. All students are guaranteed five years of support, with a mixture of fellowship and teaching.
Students on this track will develop their philosophical skills and knowledge by pursuing an MA in the Department of Philosophy. The MA requires six to seven graduate courses in philosophy, in a range of areas, as well as passing a logic requirement (through a course or examination). The website for the Department of Philosophy has full details about the MA requirements.
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