Stanford's Department of Classics is growing and changing, heading in new directions, with more diversity in research and more links with other disciplines.
Ian Morris, bridging ancient history and archaeology, arrived in 1995 from Chicago, Joe Manning, papyrologist, legal historian and social scientist, the following year, from Princeton. Michael Shanks, with his distinctive perspectives on archaeological thinking and design history, joined us from University of Wales Lampeter in Winter 1999, and Richard Martin, world Homer and epic expert, from Princeton in the Fall of 1999. Reviel Netz is exploring early science and philosophy. Jen Trimble's archaeology includes the study of Roman visual culture, computer visualization and fieldwork in Rome itself. Alessandro Barchiesi teaches Latin literature in the Winter quarter. Walter Scheidel is pioneering comparative ancient history with innovative modelling. Giovanna Ceserani, adding her expertise in the history of Classical Archaeology to the department's archaeology program, arrived in 2003. Also in 2003 Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi first came to us, bringing with her an expertise in Aesthetics and Lyric Poetry. In the following year, Susanna Braund from Yale joined us, specializing in Roman literature. This year we have been fortunate enough to add Josiah Ober who is a foremost scholar in Athenian law and classical politics and Grant Parker whose current work centers on Roman colonization, in particular, Roman appropriation of Obelisks.
This heady mix includes the intellect and passion of those who have made the expansion and diversification possible. While we feel we are in a new era of Classics that looks to a future of interdisciplinary experiment, we have not forgotten the great tradition of Classics at Stanford. Previous faculty have included Pearson, Webster and Fraenkel, Michael Grant, Kenneth Dover, Tony Raubitschek, and Jack Winkler. Our Classics is rooted in a profound appreciation of the best of traditional scholarship.
The Department dates back to the first year of classes at Stanford in 1891. At that time, there were already 10 Greek and 18 Latin "majors" with two faculty members. Among the early faculty members were Augustus Taber Murray who would in 1928 take a leave of absence to become President Herbert Hoover's religious advisor. He was by contemporary accounts not simply a great Classics mind but also an avid tennis player!
Emphasis in the early years of the department was on undergraduate education, and the faculty offered classes in Greek and Latin and well as in translation. Professor Murray would go on to translate Homer's Iliad and Odyssey for the Loeb Classical Library and Professor Fairclough, who joined the faculty in 1893 and would later serve as President of the American Philological Association, translated Virgil and Horace's Satires and Epistles, for the same series. Several distinguished European scholars joined the faculty, notably Hermann Fraenkel from Germany and Lionel Pearson from England. By 1952 the faculty was up to five members.
The graduate program began in earnest in 1958, with the first PhD awarded in 1963. A number of very distinguished Classicists are counted among the graduate alumni of the department. Continuing its strong connection to Europe, the department appointed Toni Raubitschek, the distinguished Austrian epigrapher and Greek historian from Princeton University, in 1963 and T.B.L. Webster in 1966. Throughout the 1960's the department continued to grow in numbers and in breadth of coverage. In 1965, the linguist Professor Andrew Devine arrived. In the 1970's the distinguished translator of classical texts Michael Grant came to the faculty, as did Professors Marsh McCall, with his enthusiasm for all things Classical, and Michael Jameson, archaeologist and epigrapher. The Stanford in Greece Program began in 1972 and continues to support students in the Mediterranean. Susan Stephens, papyrologist and specialist in Hellenistic literature, arrived in 1978 followed by Roman historian Sue Treggiari in 1982. Jack Winkler, one of the most brilliant scholars of his generation, was a leading light in the Department from 1979 until his untimely death in 1990.
The department has a long tradition of service to Classics in America with Mike Jameson serving as President of the American Philological Association in 1980 and Sue Treggiari serving in the same capacity in 1997. Members of department can be found on key editorial boards and professional committees. Of note in this regard is Richard Martin's service on the Board of the American School at Athens.
A Short History of the Department of Classics excerpted from "The Department of Classics:A History," in The Stanford Classicist 4/1 (Summer 1991) by Lionel Pearson, with additional notes by Mark Edwards and Michael Shanks.
