NAME:  Dan Curley
RANK:  Visiting Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT:  Classics
EMAIL:   dcurley@skidmore.edu

I.  TEACHING

A.  New departmental courses taught:

1.  CL 105:  Elementary Latin.
2.  CL 301:  Seminar in Latin Prose — Suetonius.
3.  CL 302:  Seminar in Latin Poetry — Horace.
4.  CL 365:  Topics in Classical Studies — Singer, Song, and Society.

NOTE:  CL 301, 302, and 365 are repeating courses but with varying content.  I have taught these three courses before, but with different authors and subject matter.  CL 365 was a course on Greek and Roman social poetry (especially lyric), which I hope to recast as a regular course offering, CC 225, in the near future.

B.  New approaches to existing courses:

1.  CL 201:  Intermediate Latin I.  This course saw a change of primary authors, from Cicero to Julius Caesar.  The change was prompted by the need to focus more on Latin syntax and sentence structure, to which Caesar's text provides readier access.  Furthermore, Caesar's encounters with the Gauls, especially the Druids, are simply more engaging to students than the political machinations of Cicero.

2.  CL 222:  Greek Tragedy.  I adjusted the syllabus from Fall 1998 so as to allow for greater depth in the readings.  I imposed a new structure on the semester project (the writing, performance, and production of an original Greek tragedy in English) in order to accommodate a greater class size;  I also redefined my standards and expectations for the project, making it a more rigorous learning experience for the students.  Finally, I put more emphasis on tragic performance, including an in-class workshop on the form and use of masks.

C.  Use of computers or multi-media in teaching:

1.  As in past years, I created a website for each of my courses, typically consisting of an on-line syllabus, a timetable of readings and events, links to other web-based resources, and guidelines for assignments and other class projects.

2.  This spring I once again used my online textbook/workbook ÆON (Ancient Etymology ONline) [http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/courses/aeon/] for CL 100:  English Vocabulary from Greek and Latin.  I am happy to report that none of the server errors that arose last spring (mostly related to the start-up phase of ÆON) occurred this term.

D.  Curricular work-in-progress:

1.  CC 220: Mythology, which I have not yet taught at Skidmore (Fall 2001)

2.  CL 310: Seminar in Latin Poetry, our reconfigured version of CL 301 (Fall 2001).  This fall the focus will be on the Roman elegists Propertius and Tibullus.  (My previous poetry seminars have dealt with Ovid and Vergil).

3.  I am also revisiting CC 224: Greek and Latin Epic, which I first taught in spring 1999, and I will probably make substantial changes to the course syllabus.

E.  Skidmore curriculum/pedagogy summer workshops attended:

1.  I was on the panel of the "Honors Violations, Plagiarism, and Academic Integrity" workshop (March 23, 2001).

2.  I presented and discussed the Classics writing webpages [http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/writing.html] as part of the Standards and Expectations Writing Workshop (14 June 2000).

F.  Other:

1.  I guest-lectured on "Hospitality in Homer's Odyssey" in Professor Murray Levith's Evolving Canon I class (September 15, 2000).

2.  I guest-lectured on Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Euripides' Trojan Women in Professor Michael Arnush's HI 202 course (November 29, 2000).

3.  I also contributed seven lectures on Greco-Roman literature to the Classics Department's gateway course, CL 200.

II.  PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

A.  Publications:

1.  I completed an essay entitled "Ovid's Tereus: Theater and Metatheater" for the forthcoming volume Shards from Kolonos: Studies in Sophoclean Fragments (Levante Editori, Bari, Italy;  Alan Sommerstein, ed.) (1 March 2001).

2.  I was invited to write a review of A Discourse of Wonders: Audience and Performance in Ovid's Metamorphoses, by Stephen M. Wheeler.  I am in the process of writing the review, which will be published in Classical Outlook.

3.  I am also at work on a second draft of an article entitled "The Alcaic Kid: Horace and the Poetics of Sacrifice."  After teaching my course on Horace in the fall (CL 302), I began to see a new direction for the piece.  I hope to complete it this summer and to submit it to the American Journal of Philology.

B.  Presentations at professional meetings or on campuses:

1.  "Ovid's Tereus: Theater and Metatheater."  Fragments of Sophocles Conference.  University of Nottingham, UK (July 18, 2000).

2.  "Where Have All the Tragedians Gone?  Ovid and the Tragic."  Skidmore College (November 13, 2000).

3.  "Intratextual Footnotes in Ovid's Metamorphoses."  American Philological Association.  San Diego, CA (January 6, 2001).

4.  "Off-center Stage: Procne and Hecuba in Ovid's Metamorphoses."  Classical Association of the Atlantic States.  New Rochelle, NY (April 27, 2001).

Presentation (1) was fully supported by Skidmore travel funds.  Presentation (3) was mostly supported by Skidmore travel funds, and partially by my personal annual allowance of $400.00.  Presentation (4) was funded by the remainder of my annual allowance.

III.  SERVICE

A.  Administrative responsibilities in program or department:

1.  I participated actively in departmental discussions about reconfiguration.

2.  I represented Classics during Accepted Candidates Days (November 10, 2000, and April 23, 2001), and attended the Accepted Candidates Honors Forum lunch (April 23, 2001).

3.  I have begun the process of implementing a new assessment program for our advanced majors, designed to enable a more comprehensive review of the porfolios we require them to keep.  Students will read through their portfolios on a regular basis and respond to on-line forms on various topics related to their work.  The purpose of the forms is to help the students pinpoint their academic strengths and weaknesses, and to help them direct their studies as they proceed toward the completion of the major.  Thus far a "Writing in Classics" form has been written, but is not yet online.  A form on "Research in Classics" is in the planning stages.

B.  Committee responsibilities:

1.  I served on the Palamountain Prose Committee.

2.  I served as the Faculty Representative to the Honor Code Commission.  This year, the HCC tried to raise community awareness / interest in the Honor Code with the so-called "Wall of Honor," a planning wall not unlike the those devoted to Strategic Planning.  (The HCC actually conceived the "Wall" in late Summer 2000, and went set it up about two weeks before the Strategic Planning stations were in place.)  We simply asked students, faculty, and staff to define their own honor code, and planned to use the data we received to explore some alternatives to the current Skidmore Code.  Unfortunately, we received little input from the community, so the project was ultimately a failure (albeit a noble one).  We are regrouping.

3.  In the spring I was a contributor to the Honor Code Discussion Group, an ad hoc group of faculty, students, and administrators who are working to focus attention on the Honor Code and issues of academic integrity at Skidmore.  Within this group I represented the interests of the Honor Code Commission.

4.  As a member of the Honor Code Discussion Group, I participated in the Integrity Board Workshop (June 12, 2001).

C.  Advising responsibilities:

1.  This year I was the advisor of five first-year students, eight second-year students, three third-year students, and one fourth-year.  Five of these seventeen are/were Classics majors.

2.  I attended the Advising Focus Meeting (February 21, 2001).

3.  I attended the morning session of the Intercollegiate Advising Workshop (May 16, 2001).

D.  Other community activities:

1.  I participated in the New Student Honor Code Workshops (September 4-5, 2000).

2.  I participated in the New Student Dinner / Discussion (September 5, 2000).

3.  I participated in one of the Strategic Planning Meetings (November 29, 2000).

4.  I was a member of the CITS-sponsored Email Working Group, a consortium of students, faculty, and staff, whose function is to explore new email options for Skidmore and to make recommendations to CITS.

5.  I was a member of the Parents' Advisory Board of the Greenberg Childcare Center.

E.  UWW:

I am currently working with a UWW student, Pam Baltuskonis, on a tutorial in classical mythology.

F.  Saratoga Springs and region:

This spring I was a coach for Micro-soccer, a young children's athletic program at the Saratoga YMCA.

 
May 29, 2001