Professor Rosa Sanchez Chosen to Participate in Seminar on Ancient Greece

Caldwell, N.J., May 9, 2019 – Caldwell University is pleased to announce that Rosa Sanchez, associate professor of Spanish language, literature, and culture, is one of a select group of faculty members nationwide chosen by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies to participate in an Ancient Greece in the Modern Classroom seminar, “The Ancient Greek Hero.”

CIC and the Center for Hellenic Studies recently selected 20 faculty members out of 42 highly competitive nominations to participate in the seminar, which will take place July 25–29, 2019, at Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies campus in Washington, DC. Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and professor of comparative literature at Harvard University, and Kenneth Scott Morrell, associate professor of Greek and Roman studies at Rhodes College, will lead the seminar. The program is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

“Strengthening the teaching of the classics at colleges and universities is of critical importance. This seminar series addresses the challenge of keeping alive in undergraduate education classical texts that generations ago were read and understood by every college graduate,” said CIC President Richard Ekman. “We believe that Dr. Rosa Sanchez will contribute to the seminar in meaningful ways and learn much that will energize teaching when she returns home.”

Sanchez teaches Greek literature in her Spanish and Latin American literature courses. Dr. Barbara Chesler, Caldwell University’s vice president for academic affairs, is delighted for Sanchez and how the seminar will align with Sanchez’s research and teaching.  Chesler pointed out that in Sanchez’s Spanish and Latin American Literature class she teaches how Aristotle’s “Poetics” influenced the Spanish Enlightenment movement. “Through discussion, students discover the core issues of antiquity and how they are still the same in modern society.  This amazes the Generation Z student,” said Chesler.  “This seminar will assist Dr. Sanchez in pursuing the Greek “hero” and various Greek writers in-depth with other scholars and will provide the opportunity for her to further study the Greek hero in poetry, history, and philosophy.”

Designed primarily for non-specialists, the seminar will explore what it means to be human. The organizing principle will be the study of a model of humanity, the h?r?s (hero), as it can be reconstructed by way of textual evidence attesting to myths and rituals from throughout the ancient Greek-speaking world. Beginning with the Homeric poems, the seminar also will engage with works of Sappho, Herodotus, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Plato, providing participants who teach in a variety of disciplines with approaches to integrate the literature of ancient Greece into a wide range of courses.

For more than ten years, CIC has collaborated with the Center for Hellenic Studies to provide seminars on teaching the classics for small and mid-sized independent colleges that have a limited number of faculty members or courses in the classics. The seminar is ideal for faculty members who have been trained in other disciplines and who seek opportunities to explore major classical texts and learn new ways to teach these texts to undergraduates.

For more information, visit the CIC website at www.cic.edu/AncientGreece.  

Participants in 2019 CIC-Center for Hellenic Studies Seminar

Sarah Blackwell, Instructor of English, Thomas More University (KY)

Dan Clanton, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Doane University (NE)

Morgan Dancy, Instructor of English, Methodist University (NC)

Ellen Dugan-Barrette, Professor of English, Brescia University (KY)

Chris Flynn, Associate Professor of English, St. Edward’s University (TX)

Erich Freiberger, Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy, Jacksonville University (FL)

Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Assistant Professor of English, George Fox University (OR)

Jeffrey Glodzik, Associate Professor of History, D’Youville College (NY)

Brian Harries, Associate Professor of English, Concordia University Wisconsin (WI)

Pamela Johnston, Associate Professor of History, Fresno Pacific University (CA)

Sigrid King, Professor of English, Carlow University (PA)

Sean Lewis, Associate Professor of English, Mount St. Mary’s University (MD)

Paula Makris, Associate Professor of English, Wheeling Jesuit University (WV)

Gretchen McKay, Professor of Art History, McDaniel College (MD)

James Pollock, Professor of English, Loras College (IA)

Irina Rodimtseva, Assistant Professor of Literature and Writing,

Alderson Broaddus University (WV)

Rosa Mirna Sanchez, Associate Professor of Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture,

Caldwell University (NJ)

James Snyder, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Mercyhust University (PA)

Kerri Tom, Professor of English, Concordia University Irvine (CA)

Kristen Waha, Assistant Professor of English, Grove City College (PA)

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About Caldwell University

Caldwell University is a private, Catholic coed four-year university with a strong liberal arts core curriculum that enhances critical thinking and analytical reasoning. Caldwell offers 31 undergraduate and 31 graduate programs, including doctoral, master’s, certificate and certification programs, as well as online and distance learning options that prepare students for today’s global marketplace. The university has 15 NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports programs and a football program that is a member of the Collegiate Sprint Football League.

Caldwell offers numerous clubs, fraternities, sororities and activities. It is located on a beautiful 70-acre campus in suburban Caldwell, New Jersey. Caldwell was founded by the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Caldwell. Its core values of respect, integrity, community and excellence influence academic and campus life. For more information about Caldwell University, visit caldwell.edu.

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is an association of 769 nonprofit independent colleges and universities, state-based councils of independent colleges, and other higher education affiliates, that works to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance public understanding of independent higher education’s contributions to society. CIC is the major national organization that focuses on services to leaders of independent colleges and universities and state-based councils. CIC offers conferences, seminars, publications, and other programs and services that help institutions improve educational quality, administrative and financial performance, student outcomes, and institutional visibility. CIC conducts the largest annual conferences of college and university presidents and of chief academic officers in the United States. Founded in 1956, CIC is headquartered at One Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.cic.edu.

Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies, located in Washington, DC, was founded by means of an endowment made “exclusively for the establishment of an educational center in the field of Hellenic Studies designed to rediscover the humanism of the Hellenic Greeks.” This humanistic vision remains the driving force of the Center for Hellenic Studies. The Center brings together a variety of research and teaching interests centering on Hellenic civilization in the widest sense of the term “Hellenic.” This concept encompasses the evolution of the Greek language and its culture as a central point of contact for all the different civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean world. Interaction with foreign cultures, including the diffusion of Roman influence, is an integral part of this concept.