This page contains a description of the activities at past, current and future sessions (in reverse chronological order)
2010
Third Spring session
(May 1--7)
Teaching materials and suggested reading cf. here
2009
Third Summer session
(July 20 -- August 3)
Teaching materials and suggested reading cf. here
Second Spring session
(May 1--7)
Teaching materials and suggested reading cf. here
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Iamblichus. His sources and Influence.
Athens, March 8-10
Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies
2008
INTERNET-DISCUSSION:
TEACHING CLASSICS AND DEVELOPING EDUCATIONAL METHODS
For participation join the following groups: Live Journal and VKontakte
Second Summer session (August 20 -- September 4)
Suggested reading cf. here
"Philosophy and Literature"
Interdisciplinary seminar. June 2, 2008, Novosibirsk University
Greek and Latin
Cf. also: a list of the Resources for Classical Studies
A selection of materials for those who teach and study Greek and Latin
First Winter session (January 27 -- February 5)
The program PDF
Teaching materials and suggested reading cf. here
Starting 2007, November 20
INTERNET-DISCUSSION:
TEACHING CLASSICS AND DEVELOPING EDUCATIONAL METHODS
This is a ongoing activity in which all the participants will inform about their progress in teaching, communicate their findings and discuss problems and concerns with the rest of participants and the faculty
For participation join Live Journal
2007
First Summer session (August 6-18)
Suggested reading cf. here
The First Year (2007/2008)
A short outline of the activities
Starting with fundamental issues, – such as the problem of religious conflict and mutual intolerance, the problem of the legitimation of authority and the limits of personal freedom, and the problem of the destruction of the environment, – discussed, first, in the context of an internet-conference and then during the Summer session in the framework of a seminar on Classical Tradition and the World Crisis, this year’s program proceeded in a roughly historical sequence. Three main themes, initially proposed, namely, “Classical thought and the Development of the European Doctrine of Values”, “Teaching Liberal Values in the Changing World”, and “Hellenic Classical Humanism and its Relevance to the Formation of Man’s Critical Thought” are reflected in five seminars, conducted by resource faculty at two contact sessions (August 2007 and January-February 2008), and a number of on-line events.
The basic idea of the project’s management was to achieve an effective collaboration between the participants from different fields and regions in order to bring forth new ideas for studying and teaching classics. Although each participant has specific interests and could be assigned an individual task within the collaborative project, everyone was free to contribute to any topic, depending on his or her interests and abilities. Personal findings were actively circulating by means of the web-site, so everyone was able to participate in the discussion.
Study materials were our special concern. Although the situation in the region has slowly been improving for the last decade, many regional centers of higher education still lack sufficient resources for classical studies. Libraries are quite poor, electronic storages of information (like J-Store and similar on-line resources) are often unavailable, and undergraduate students not always sufficiently prepared to read original scholarly publications. Moreover, even basic sources of the Ancient tradition are still not accessible for students not working with the original texts. We were much concerned that participation in the project helped junior educators to improve quality of the teaching material they normally used.
Methodology. It is difficult to give a general recipe, but, basically, we started with the following schema. At the very beginning we determined specialization of the participants and their special needs in terms of classes they taught and approaches they preferred. Then we tried to help them to develop syllabi, and supplied them with readers and translations, which corresponded to the international standards of the Classical scholarship. We determined the exact titles, on which we shall focus in the process of working, considered which classical works must be studied in their entirety, and what rather extracted and commented upon. In this way junior faculty would be involved in both teaching and learning: they would use new materials and knowledge in the process of teaching and, simultaneously, would be able to share their experience with the core faculty and other participants. Reading material were available for the participants at the web-site, on CD’s and, partially, in printed form. It was expected that the directors, the faculty and the participants communicate via e-mail; we organized online discussion; other methods of distance learning were also used (cf. below). In this way we were able to determine the most important issues to be addresses in the future, both during the contact sessions and at distance.
Summer session August 6–18, 2007
(A short outline)
1. Opening session: the address by John Dillon on Classical Tradition and the World Crisis,
followed by introductory words of other resource persons, general discussion
and some practical matters
2. Seminars conducted by the resource persons, namely
(a) “Plato’s Laws and the contemporary global problems”,
directed by John Dillon (Dublin)
(b) “Hellenic Classical Humanism and its Relevance to the Formation of
Man’s Critical Thought (Part one: Introduction and classical
concept of education)”, directed by Leonidas Bargeliotes (Athens)
(c) “Classical Intercultural Thinking (Part one: Introduction and
Zoroastrianism)”, directed by Mostafa Younesie (Teheran)
3. Classes in the framework of general theme The teaching methods from the Antiquity
to present times, based on the previous Internet-conference, including
(a) A seminar on “Sources for Ancient Philosophy and Doxography“
and “New methods in classical studies”,
conducted by Eugene Afonasin (Novosibirsk)
4. Daily round-tables and discussions, prepared and conducted by the participants
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Humanities: Mission, the Goals, and the Methods
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Teaching Classics: Sources, Language, Translations, and Syllabi
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Platonic Tradition
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Christian Platonism and the Late Antique Philosophy
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Gnosticism
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Hermeneutics of Philosophic Text
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History and Philosophy of Law
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Multiculturalism and Inter-Cultural relations
-
Teaching in University: Practical Matters, the Methods and the Means of Education
A typical day of the session started with working in groups and classes organized and conducted by the faculty and/or participants, and continue with a discussion or a lecture directed by a resource person. Although each seminar was led and organized by specific person(s), all the participants and present faculty participated in this activity.
Reading materials were mainly circulated in electronic form, except to smaller parts of readings and handouts for particular seminars, practical classes or discussions. The readings are available here and sent to the participants via e-mail. More extensive materials are prepared on CD’s and distributed among the participants during the session and/or sent out to them in advance. This primarily concerns rare books and articles, not easily available in the libraries of the region.
Inter-session activities
(June 2007 – May 2008)
Our basic concern is improving practical skills of the participants. For this reason we organized the following Internet-classes
1. An Internet-seminar on “Classical Languages”
A list of the Resources for Classical Studies and a selection of materials for those who teach and study Greek and Latin are available as a part of this resource.
2. An Internet-seminar on “Academic Writing”
A syllabus and a selection of materials are available here.
Besides, we launched
3. An Internet-discussion: Teaching Classics and developing Educational Methods
By means of Live Journal
This is a ongoing activity in which all the participants inform about their progress in teaching, communicate their findings and discuss problems and concerns with the rest of participants and the faculty. We discussed an interesting article by T. Shanin on differences between Russian and British systems of education, an article the “Rediscovery of Classics” by E. Dodds, and exchanged opinions about current trends in educational reform.
Winter session January 28–February 5, 2008
(A short outline)
1. Opening session: Eugene Afonasin, On the Scope and Nature of the Project. A summary of the first year activities, built upon the Internet-conferences, Summer session and Internet-classes, focused on preliminary results and plans for future work.
2. Seminars conducted by the resource persons, namely
(a) “Plotinus on Plato”; “Why does Plotinus not like Gnostics”,
directed by John Rist (Cambridge)
(b) “Galen: Portrait of an Ancient Scientist”;
“Galen and the Controversy over the Seat of the Intellect”,
directed by Teun Tieleman (Utrecht)
3. Classes in the framework of general theme The teaching methods from the Antiquity to present times, based on the previous Internet-conference and Internet-classes, including
(a) Reading Latin. Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes,
conducted by Eugene Afonasin (Novosibirsk) and Vadim Prozorov (Moscow)
(b) Reading Greek. Heraclitus, Fragments and Testimonia
conducted by Svetlana Mesyats (Moscow)
(c) Chrysippus. Selected texts, English translation Part A Part B
conducted by Teun Tieleman (Utrecht)
(d) Plotinus. Selected texts, English translation
conducted by John Rist (Cambridge)
4. Round-tables, working in groups, and discussions prepared and conducted
by the participants, including
(1) History and philosophy of Law Reading materials
(2) Rethinking the Foundation of Morality: Fundamental Values in the Changing World
Materials: John Rist, Human Value: A Study of Ancient Philosophical Ethics (Philosophia Antiqua 40) (Leiden 1982), Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized (Cambridge 1994), Real Ethics: Rethinking the Foundations of Morality (Cambridge 2001)
(3) Reading Philosophical Texts Materials: Marina Wolf and Igor Berestov
Assignments to be completed by the participants. It was expected that each participant was actively involved in the group work and complete his/her assignments before and during the session as thoroughly and thoughtfully as possible, since they were important for the group’s discussions. Participants were expected to attend all the scheduled meetings and contribute through their presence to the creation of a true academic dialogue.
In the framework of the Sessions there were organized various events, excursions, etc.