Classical Studies Support

It feels like a long time since I’ve been able to write for this blog. I’ve missed it – and not just because I keep having to apologise to people for not keeping up with it! For me it’s a reference point: I use these posts to record things that I might want to mention or recommend to people. I used to have a fairly sharp memory, but these days if I don’t write something down it disappears from my head entirely, and my desk is already swamped with paper reminders!

I would update you with what I’ve been up to lately, but to be honest it’s not been very interesting! My son caught covid for a second time, and then I was ill for a few weeks, and I’m still struggling with the lingering cough and fatigue, so interesting activities haven’t really been a priority. I do have lots of plans and projects for over the summer, though – so once I have the last piles of marking out of the way (and maybe once I’ve spent a few days away from a computer screen!), you can expect updates on all manner of things…

But there have been many other people working on many exciting things – so this post is going to be a bit of a list, and a short one because I’m still running low on time. I’m sure I’ll miss things, so there’ll be more next week: but if you’re looking for fun things to do in the summer (particularly if you’re interested in taking up a new language) the people below have you covered…

Interesting Things

Summer Schools

Ancient Voices: In August the Classical Association of Scotland is running an online Summer School in ancient languages, open to anybody and with many classes suitable for beginners. Take a look: https://cas.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/ancient-voices/. There’s so much here I want to learn, I’m like a kid in a sweet shop…

Belfast Summer School: The Belfast Latin and Greek Summer School (with Old English for Beginners too this year!) takes place in July: here’s the link… https://helenmcveigh.co.uk/product/belfastsummerschool/

Guest lectures are free and open to all – and there are some really great speakers (see below)!

Durham In-person Greek and Latin Summer School: If you fancy an intensive experience of language learning in the beautiful setting of a Durham college, check out the summer school here (bookings are still open): https://greeklatinsummerschooldurham.org/

New Open University Stuff

Online seminar: The next in the Ancient Material Religion Seminars is on Wood: https://www.openmaterialreligion.org/events-1/wood. Everyone’s welcome – these sessions are free to join, and really interesting!

New animation: Check out the new Open University animation of Medea, here (along with other animations!): https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/classical-studies/medea

Schoolteacher scholarships: If you’re a state school teacher and want to study Latin or work towards an MA in Classical Studies, we have scholarships for that! Applications are open to 6th June. Do pass on the link to anyone you know who might be interested! http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/classicalstudies/?p=1809

Kassman Prize: If you’re a Classical Studies OU undergraduate, how about entering the Kassman Essay Prize Competition? You have all summer to write your essay, but you have to register your intention to do so.

That’s all from me this week, but I’m hoping to resume a proper schedule from now on, and hopefully to get some other website-related projects off the ground too!

Cora Beth.