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Latin Day Welcomes Secondary Students to Campus

Latin Day Welcomes Secondary Students to Campus

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A man making a class presentation with information about Indiana Jones - The Dial of Destiny on the projector screen
Tristan Barnes presents during the 41st Annual Latin Day, which welcomed more than 300 middle and high school students and teachers to UT.

Our 41st Annual Latin Day took place on October 26, 2023, in the UT Student Union. As many as 312 young scholars from Knoxville, Kingsport, and Murfreesboro, their teachers, and chaperones attended a combination of talks and workshops. 

The program was enhanced by feedback from our amazing high-school Latin teachers. Sessions were more interactive than before, and tailored to different audience levels to accommodate student attendees from seventh through 12th grade. A business meeting for teachers provided a welcome opportunity to share thoughts and talk about Latin pedagogy and the future of classics. 

UT’s Classics Club participated for the first time. Its students designed and moderated a myth-themed trivia game during the lunch period. Our esteemed speakers included faculty from the classics, English, and history departments. We look forward to welcoming even more young scholars on Latin Day XLII (Oct. 30, 2025).

The talks for our 41st annual Latin Day included from the Department of Classics:

  • Associate Professor Justin Arft, “Mythology from Greece to Rome”;
  • Lecturer Tristan Barnes, “The Real Dial of Destiny: The Antikythera Mechanism”; 
  • Assistant Professor Sam Blankenship, “mater, mētēr, Mutter, Mom: The Indo-European Language Family Tree”;
  • Senior Lecturer Dylan Bloy, “Shipwreck! The Roman Taste for Greek Art”;
  • Lecturer Lorenzo Del Monte, “Roman Paintings Between Past and Present”;
  • Senior Lecturer Reema Habib, “Smelling Powerful: The Perfumes of Caesar, Cleopatra, and Pericles”;
  • Distinguished Lecturer Theodora Kopestonsky, “Defigo Eos: How to Curse Someone in Ancient Rome”; and
  • Chancellor’s Professor Aleydis Van de Moortel, “Pirates of the Bronze Age.” 

Also presenting were:

  • Associate Professor Jacob A. Latham, Department of History, “Roman Social Media: Imperial Communication and Provincial Consensus”; and
  • Caitlin Branum Thrash, a lecturer in the Department of English and Latin coordinator for the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, “Introduction to Medieval Manuscripts and Paleography.”