News archive 2010
Iris Project recognised by Mayor
The work of the
Iris Project, run in conjunction with the Classics Department at King’s, was recently recognised by London Mayor Boris Johnson at the launch of his publication 'Widening Horizons', which features ten outstanding charities working with schools in London.
The Iris Project is an educational charity which exists to promote access to Latin, ancient Greek and Classical Civilisation in UK state schools. It focuses particularly on schools in deprived urban areas and one of its largest projects in London – the Latin-through-literacy teaching project in primary schools – involves King’s students visiting a primary school each week to deliver an hour of Latin.
The project aims to enhance literacy and linguistic skills through Latin, as well as offering educational enrichment through learning about the context of this language. This scheme has been running for several years.
Participating students receive training delivered by Aisha Khan-Evans from the King’s Department of Education & Professional Studies, and they are supported and mentored throughout the year by the Iris Project’s Lorna Robinson and
Dr Will Wootton, Lecturer at the Department of Classics and Liaison Officer for Iris within the Department.
The student teachers attended the City Hall celebration on behalf of the Iris Project. The evening included performances of ballet, and speeches by Boris Johnson and Munira Mirza, the Mayor’s Director of Culture, who spoke of the importance of volunteering in schools.
Palaeography at King’s
The Palaeography Working Group, formed in March 2010 to advise on the future of Palaeography at the College, made its recommendations.
Palaeography at King’s
08 Jul 2010, PR 154/10
The Palaeography Working Group, formed in March 2010 to advise on the future of Palaeography at the College, has made its recommendations. The College welcomes this as a fine piece of work that sets out a creative and convincing intellectual case for ongoing support for the discipline at King’s.
The Group recommends that the College emphatically re-affirm its long-standing commitment to Palaeography, and acknowledges the many scholars across the College in a range of academic areas whose research involves palaeographic expertise. The Group argues that it is important that these scholars are provided with visionary intellectual leadership that takes full advantage of opportunities to develop teaching and research in this field and advocates the establishment of a new post that will have a broad remit to do this in the College and beyond.
The Group recommends the creation of a Chair in Palaeography and Manuscript Studies to provide this leadership. The Chair would be firmly embedded in the College’s undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programme. As well as developing a significant PhD programme it would be interdisciplinary in character, including significant involvement in collaborative teaching. It would work closely with teachers and researchers in medieval vernaculars because all engaged in medieval studies (hence too the proposed title for the new Chair) have a stake in Palaeography. It would be fully endowed through philanthropic monies and it would be integrated within one of the College departments. The post would be fully engaged with the digital environment and work closely with the College’s Centre for Computing in the Humanities.
The Working Group was chaired by Dame Jinty Nelson FBA, Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and former President of the Royal Historical Society, and included a number of distinguished academics from the College and the University of London.
The College has accepted all the recommendations of the Working Group and is committed to fully funding an established Chair of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies. The process of finding appropriate candidates for the post, and of attracting philanthropic funding, begins with immediate effect.
The working group paper is available at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/07/64/51/ThePalaeographyWorkingGrouppaper.pdf
London Summer School in Classics
Around 240 students, ranging in age from 14 to 70+, took part in the 2010 London Summer School in Classics from Tuesday 6 to Thursday 15 July. Participants can study either Ancient Greek or Latin. Classes cover all ability levels from absolute beginners to readers of original texts by classical authors. Details of the programme are available on the
London Summer School in Classics webpage.
The Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award
The Katie Lentakis Memorial Fund Award was made to the final year BA Ancient History student, Petros Bouras-Vallianatos for his dissertation on:
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'Alexander of Tralles on epilepsy: a commentary'
The presentation took place at 6 pm on Monday 28th June in the Council Room.
Lecturership in Latin Language and Literature
The Department is appointing to a permanent Lectureship in Latin Language and Literature, commencing in September/October 2010.
Libyan workshop
Two members of the Department of Classics took part in a
Leverhulme Trust funded workshop in Libya. Professor Charlotte Rouché and Dr Will Wootton took part in the workshop and attended a range of other events.
Conclusion of School of Arts & Humanities consultation
Following discussions within the department and the School of Arts and Humanities, the Department of Classics has successfully identified ways to retain its academic strength in all its core academic areas, despite a difficult climate for Higher Education nationally.
These include Greek and Latin language and literature, classical archaeology and ancient history. This means that at King’s College London, an exceptional range of courses and specialisms, including Byzantine history and archaeology, papyrology, and ancient Persia, continue to be offered to students.
The department will also work more closely with other departments to create new opportunities in teaching and research, notably the Department of History, and the new Centre for Hellenic Studies. As a testament to its vitality, the Department has been able to create a post in Latin language and literature, which is to be advertised shortly. The new lectureship in Latin will allow the Department to maintain and further enhance its position as one of the leading centres for the study of the classical languages in the UK.
The
full version of the revised restructuring document is available on the Arts and Humanities webpages.
Greek Play Guest Lecture
At 6.00 pm on Thursday 11 February 2010, before the evening performance, there was a discussion of Aeschylus' Persae, with contributions from
Professor Simon Goldhill of King's College Cambridge and Dr Lindsay Allen of King's College London.
Such talks are free and open to the public.
New Head of Department
Professor Henrik Mouritsen took up his duties as Head of Department at the start of the Lent Term on Monday 11th January 2010.
Stavros S Niarchos Scholars' Fund
A scholarship to the value of £30,000 per year for a maximum of three years was announced. The award will support doctoral research on any aspect of Hellenic Studies, carried out in either the Department of Classics or the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. This generous award has been made possible by the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation.
The Centre for Hellenic Studies webpage provides
full information on the award.