This coming J-Term at Trinity, Prof. Lauren Caldwell will be leading a course that will have students learn about ancient Greek history and politics through a role-playing game!

Prof. Caldwell’s class will be re-creating the struggle to decide the political system in ancient Athens at a critical juncture in its history: 403 BCE. In that year, the Peloponnesian War came to a startling conclusion when the Athenians were finally defeated by the Spartans. The city was in chaos, torn by a civil struggle between the government imposed by the victorious Spartans, an oligarchy (ancient Greek: “rule by the few”) called the Thirty Tyrants and a rebel group that wanted the city to be a democracy (ancient Greek: “power of the people”).

Students will play a specific role in this historical context and together determine the course of history!

Dr. Caldwell’s “Democracy: Ancient Athens” course will meet for eight class sessions (Mondays through Thursdays) from 10:00AM-12:30PM from 1/7/19 through 1/18/19 for 0.5 credits.

Dr. Jason Pedicone gave a presentation at Trinity on his founding of the Paideia Institute for Humanistic Study, Inc. on September 25 2018. One of the Paideia Institute’s missions is to bring Latin and Greek into secondary schools were those languages are not offered, and Prof. Lauren Caldwell is doing just that. This semester, she spearheaded a program with her Latin students to introduce Latin to the students at the Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy (HMTCA) school, just steps way from Trinity.

Prof. Caldwell is continuing this effort in the spring semester of 2019.. f you’re interested in being a part of this project and bringing Latin to the students of the HMTCA, you can earn 0.25 academic credit by joining Prof. Caldwell’s LATIN 105 course in spring 2019! Contact Prof. Caldwell for further details. It would be ideal for you to have some background in the Latin language, whether in high school or here at Trinity.

Guest blogger: Morgan Hallow

Trinity College’s Classical Studies senior majors presented their final research projects on Tuesday, December 4, 2018. The four seniors did research on these projects for almost six weeks leading up to these presentations and each will write a longer paper that will go into more depth into their respective topics.

Amelia Roberts presented on the darker side of the mythology of Aphrodite. She focused on the Homeric Hymns as well as Hesiod’s creation story from Theogony to show how modern-day conceptions of Aphrodite as simply the “goddess of love” omit the ancient understanding of the goddess as a chaotic, almost primordial, force.

Morgan Hallow discussed references to classical mythology employed in the plays of Shakespeare. She used an example of a reference from Shakespeare’s As You Like It to show the complex relationship between the characters within the play, their individual understanding of classics, and how use of references to classical mythology becomes a competition of social standing.

Katherine Novko shared her interest in the relationship between Wedgwood ceramics and social mobility during the Victorian Era in Great Britain. She explored the similarities between Wedgwood’s designs and those from antiquity, specifically ancient Greece. Ultimately these objects, according to Novko, are used to signify knowledge of the ancient world and would thereby function as a means of signifying class status.

Thayer King narrated the movement of the Euphronios Krater from its alleged origin site, to its short stay at the Metropolitan Museum, until its eventual and compulsory return to the rightful owner: Italy. King was also interested in the various international laws concerning the looting of historically significant archeological sites and the impact thereby created in doing so both from an economic viewpoint as well as from a scholarly viewpoint.

You can do so many different things with a Classical Studies major/minor at Trinity College. Here’s a great example of that: Classical Studies minor Ardyn Allessie (’19), with the support of Prof. Lauren Caldwell, used her experiences in Classical Studies courses when she interned with the law firm Messing & Spector LLC in the summer of 2018. This is her experience in her own words:

“In the summer of 2018, I had the pleasure of interning for Noah Messing, a full-time member of the faculty at Yale Law School and founding partner of the law firm Messing & Spector LLC. Professor Lauren Caldwell in the Department of Classical Studies at Trinity had given my name to Noah, who was seeking an undergraduate with good research and writing skills for summer work in his firm. Professor Caldwell recommended me for the attention to detail I had shown in taking Latin at Trinity and serving as a teaching assistant for Latin 101 and 102.

During my internship, I was there to help Noah with whatever he needed. From designing business cards to renewing bar memberships, I was his right hand. Noah traveled often, so we decided that it would make the most sense for me to work remotely. He is based out of Yale, in New Haven, Connecticut and I worked from New York City. Noah’s law office is in Midtown, so I had to go there a few times as well. I enjoyed the new experience of remote working, as the concept had never previously crossed my mind.

The summer internship allowed me to put into practice time management skills, organizational skills, attention to detail, self-discipline when no one was watching over me, and an ongoing virtual dialogue with my boss. Noah also taught me the importance of a constant communication to make sure that we were on the same page, and the importance of asking clarifying questions even though I was a bit intimidated.

The workload itself came from all angles. One day I would be helping Noah join the Bar of the Federal Court of Claims; the next day I was scheduling appointments to get a new water pump in his car; the following day I was researching metrics on used car sales. I even researched class actions relative to labor laws, California advisory opinions — and I also found all Japanese restaurants with one or more Michelin stars!

Given the wide variety of the tasks Noah asked me to complete, I needed to learn to always think outside the box and keep an open mind. I gained the confidence to tackle topics I have never heard of or knew nothing about.

The bottom line is that through my internship, I sharpened my communication and research skills and gained a new sense of confidence in my abilities. Most importantly I gained an amazing mentor for life in Noah Messing.”