Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Classics Conference: A Debrief

The first annual Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Classics Conference (MAUCC) was held on March 15. The conference is the brainchild of Maryland Classics major Erik Shell and Gregory Callaghan, a Classics major at William and Mary.

New Undergraduate Classics Conference Inaugurated on the Ides of March

The first annual Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Classics Conference (MAUCC) was held on March 15.  The conference is the brainchild of Maryland Classics major Erik Shell and Gregory Callaghan, a Classics major at William and Mary.  While digging together in the Athenian Agora last summer, the two students began discussing their individual ideas for holding research conferences at their own institutions and decided instead to merge their plans into one, large, annual conference encompassing the entire Mid-Atlantic region.  It would feature a keynote speaker and four panels of research presentations on different aspects of Classics and the ancient world, and the panelists would consist exclusively of undergraduates, who would present full papers reviewed and selected by other undergraduates in a double-blind review process.

This year’s MAUCC was directed by co-founder Callaghan with resounding success. The keynote speaker was Dr. Norman Sandridge of Howard University, who spoke on psychopathic leadership in Greece and Persia.  The panels were Ancient Women, Political Systems, Religion and Ritual, and East Meets West. Eleven papers were chosen for presentation, and the conference included two “Talk-back” sessions, where panelists and observers alike participated in round-table discussion on controversial aspects of the field, such as how to integrate women into the history books and should “Classics” include Near Eastern studies.

Next year’s MAUCC will be directed by co-founder Erik Shell and take place at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Panels are planned on Ancient STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, and Mathematics), Greek Heroes, Feminist Classical Reception, and Greco-Roman Egypt. A call for papers will go out in September, as will the application to direct and host MAUCC in 2016.

Photo: Who's who from left to right...

Back row: Callie Angle (William & Mary), John Marlett (William & Mary), Gregory Callaghan (MAUCC Co-Founder, William & Mary), Jonathan Young (UNC Asheville), Katrina Szabo (UMD College Park), Cayland Gee (Towson University), Erik Shell (MAUCC Co-Founder, UMD College Park).

Front Row: Julie Gavin (University of Mary Washington), Sarah Tew (New College of Florida), Meghan Kiernan (Rutgers University), Sarah French (Bucknell University), Vanessa Felsö (Bryn Mawr).