Center for Hellenic Studies

The Iliad in the Second Millennium B.C.

July 23-August 11, 2007

This seminar will be led by Professors Christopher Blackwell of Furman University, Casey Dué of the University of Houston, and Mary Ebbott of the College of the Holy Cross. The seminar combines intensive work in Homeric poetry and its background in the second millennium B.C. with instruction in the latest technology for online publication and research. The goal is for each student to produce a project that will become part of the CHS Homer Multitext project (for more information please see that page). The seminar encourages both research in a traditional discipline of Hellenic studies and dissemination of that research through the possibilities offered by web-based publishing.

Professors Dué and Ebbott will introduce students to the oral traditional background of the Iliad and the development of epic over millennia, eventually resulting in the poetry we have as our Iliad. Professors Madeleine Goh of Indiana University and Corinne Pache of Yale University will be guest lecturers on the material culture and visual narratives from the second millennium that inform our understanding of the cultural milieu in which the epics began to develop.

Professor Blackwell will work with participants on state-of-the-art technologies and methods for publishing scholarship in electronic media. Topics will include eXtensible Markup Language (XML), the Text Encoding Initiative's standards for marking up humanistic texts in XML, the Unicode standard for representing the characters and symbols, the Classical Text Services protocol for distributing texts and fragments of them, and transforming XML documents for print and electronic publication using eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT).

A typical day will consist of a seminar meeting in either the morning or afternoon, lunch at the CHS, and a session devoted to the tools and skills required for electronic publishing of research. Sessions will be held in the Center’s state-of-the-art seminar space.

The seminars are intended for graduate students in Classics in their first or second year who have a solid background in ancient Greek. Five students will be selected for this year's seminar and all students will participate in the web-publication component. Housing, weekday lunches, travel expenses, and a stipend of $500 are provided to all students.

Applications and recommendations are due April 2, 2007.

Applications should consist of:

1. Curriculum Vitae and cover letter stating the student’s experience with Greek and interest in the seminar.

2. Two letters of recommendation from professors.

Completed applications and recommendations should be sent via email to: fellowships@chs.harvard.edu

Or by postal mail address:

Robin Olson
Center for Hellenic Studies
3100 Whitehaven St., NW
Washington, DC 20008
USA