UT Students Present Papers at Classical Association
Two of our students—Henry Greene and Walter Price—wrote excellent research papers for Assistant Professor Jessica Westerhold’s Latin class and were encouraged by her to present their work at the 2023 annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle, West, and South—Southern Section (CAMWS-SS) in Greensboro, North Carolina, Nov. 3-4, 2023. Both received CAMWS Manson Stewart Travel Scholarships, and Greene was given in addition generous funding by Professor Emeritus Chris Craig from his Faculty Public Service Award to cover the expenses of conference travel and stay.
Greene, a senior in classics and philosophy, and a prospective Latin teacher, spoke about, “Problems in Epicurean Readings of Horace.” Price, an alumnus of our department (’23) and now a graduate student at the University of Missouri, Columbia, gave a talk titled, “Poetic Uses of Structure and Meter in Catullus 108, 51, and 23.” Our congratulations to Henry and Walter for this significant achievement.
Both students share their experiences presenting for the first time at an academic conference.
Henry Greene:
“It was exhilarating to see what the process of academic research is actually like—as something done both through the papers presented, and the discussions and Q&As they spurred afterwards. I feel that attending the conference and seeing this firsthand has reaffirmed my commitment to apply to graduate school. I also feel very motivated to submit more abstracts and, hopefully, attend later CAMWS Southern Section conferences, or other conferences in the near future. Additionally, while I was already interested in Latin pedagogy and possibly teaching Latin at some point, seeing certain presenters talk about (and demonstrate) the use of spoken Latin in middle school/high school classes has made me more excited about that as well.
“There were many fascinating presentations, but I think my favorite part was interacting with so many interesting and knowledgeable people, and getting a feel for the shape of the world of classics. It’s always a pleasure to get to talk to those who are passionate about the same things that you are.”
Walt Price:
“This experience was definitely a big step in my professional career, and I think it’s helped me come to a better understanding of what my goals actually look like. I was asked a few times whether I’d be turning my talk into an article, and this has certainly encouraged me to do so. It puts into perspective the necessity of feedback before the publication of such an article as well. Having had the chance to present my research, I feel more inclined to continue doing so, and I’m really excited that I’ve been accepted to speak at the larger CAMWS conference in April.” A number of the questions and comments after various papers gave me some good examples of what kind of feedback is helpful versus what kind isn’t helpful, so I’ll be taking that forward and trying harder to give helpful feedback to other scholars.
“The best part of the whole experience was how much passion everyone had in their work and the joy they had in sharing it with others.”