I’d like to begin my first year as chair by acknowledging all of the work done by outgoing chair Deb Kamen. During Deb’s five-year term she has steered us steadily and wisely through many challenges and our department has only continued to grow in recognition, excellence, and openness to new approaches and areas of study. I’m grateful to her for leaving such a legacy and look forward to serving the Department and University as we meet new challenges ahead.
Congratulations to our graduates of 2025, with whose families we celebrated in style, sharing good food and taking photographs in our special booth with beautiful accessories (Zeus beards, Athena helmets, Hades hair etc.) crafted by our administrator, Emily Warren! We are proud that graduate students Lauryn Hanley and Laura Harris both received prestigious awards for 2025-2026 which will enable them to work toward completing their dissertations. Our array of scholarships for undergraduate support received a very special addition in the form of a scholarship in honor of beloved emeritus Professor Larry Bliquez, who can still be found in his office most mornings working on his research. The donors are alumnx Laura Matz and Trevor Peterson, longstanding supporters of the Department and of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) Puget Sound chapter. We are sad to report that this past year we lost a great friend of the Department and supporter of the AIA, Dr Thomas Morgan.
Graduate students and faculty from UW Classics as well as graduates of the program formed a significant bloc of presenters at the annual conference of the Society for Classical Studies / Archaeological Institute of America, held in Philadelphia in January 2025. There was also a strong UW Classics presence at this year’s meeting of the Classical Association of the Pacific Northwest (CAPN), held this year at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C.
Our faculty’s research continues to advance knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean world and to attract attention. Sarah Levin-Richardson was interviewed on the podcast Betwixt the Sheets about sex workers in ancient Roman culture—give it a listen! Jim Clauss, Alex Hollmann, and 2002 PhD graduate Chris Chinn all published chapters in A Companion to Apollonius Rhodes (ed. Ruth Scodel). Articles and book chapters by Olga Levaniouk, Deb Kamen, Catherine Connors, Kathryn Topper ,and Chris Waldo also appeared last year. Alex Hollmann together with co-author Robert Daniel of the University of Cologne published Magica Levantina, a long-awaited collection of late-antique curse tablets in ancient Greek from Antioch and Caesarea. Emeritx Alain Gowing and Stephen Hinds also continue to publish regularly.
We look forward to an exciting series of talks by visiting speakers, beginning in October with this year’s Harmon lecturer and graduate of the Department, Tyler Lansford. All are welcome to attend: if you can’t be there in person, we generally livestream via Zoom. If you’d like to be kept informed about talks and events as they come up, please contact us at clasdept@uw.edu to be placed on our list-serv.
And lastly, if you are a graduate of our undergraduate or graduate program, we'd love to hear what you are up to and the role Classics has played in your life.
With best wishes for the year ahead,
Alex Hollmann, Chair, Classics Department