The annual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies (SCS) is over a week in the past. I had a delightful time at the conference. A few of the highlights:
- Presenting a delightful poem. I presented in a panel entitled, “Literary Texture in Augustine and Gregory.” (Handout, full-text, and primary text here) Late Antiquity never draws crowds, and this was no exception. However, the audience present listened attentively and asked good questions. Since I presented on a topic few people know anything about (the poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus), I knew that I had successfully connected my niche topic to texts and themes of more general interest. That’s the mark of a good conference paper, I think, at least for a large conference. As I’m now working full time as a software developer, it was quite fun to wear my “scholar of literature” hat again.
- Meeting other digital philologists. It’s always worthwhile listening to Greg Crane talk (the nous, inter alia, behind Perseus and the Open Greek and Latin Project). I got to sit in for most of the Digital Philology panel, which meant I got to meet people involved in terrific digital projects (like Logeion and Tesserae). This also led to a meet-up about the Classical Language Toolkit, where I got to meet Kyle Johnson. Chatting classics and code with someone who’s tread a similar path was absolutely delightful. I’m hoping to make some contributions to the CLTK in the coming months. I also got to meet Luke Hollis and see some of the terrific projects coming out of the Center for Hellenic Studies. A lovely time!
- Seeing old friends. Though I still live quite close to my alma mater, I don’t frequently get an excuse to see my colleagues and professors from Catholic University. It is always fun to catch up. Special κῦδος to my friend, Patsy Craig, for presenting a terrific paper on Vergil!
Conferences like these are best spent strengthening old ties and making new ones. By that measure, these few days were a great success! I’m looking forward already to the next SCS.
Alex Poulos, PhD 