CANE Annual Meeting Recap!

Even in the midst of a winter rain and snow storm, I was delighted to travel to New Hampshire to present at the 118th annual meeting of the Classical Association of New England. As we move towards a post-COVID world, I am so excited to be part of more and more in-person events which facilitate open dialogue about Classics.

I spoke on a panel with three other Classics students, all of whom were undergraduates at New England Universities. As part of the panel, "Next Generations: New Perspectives," we presented our independent research papers and responded to the questions from our audience. Following a very interesting talk about three iterations of "consumption" in the ancient Greco-Roman world, I shared my research on the reception of minoritized translators in Epic.

For me, another highlight of this Conference was the ongoing book sale that participants could drop-in to between presentations. I found myself flipping through copies of Classical texts, translated works, pedagogical manuals, and essay collections on so many different topics within Classics. Specifically, I encountered "The Poems of Catullus: A Bilingual Translation by James Mitchie." Instantly, I gravitated towards this book because I had spent the past semester at school reading Catullus' poetry, working to craft translations on my own both inside and outside of the classroom. A key takeaway from my study of Catullus was realizing that he took pride in ambiguity. For example, Catullus rarely uses an adjective of the superlative degree, but loves to shower his descriptions with comparatives, which can either be understood as endearing or belittling. Looking at Catullus' Latin side-by-side with Mitchie's translation, I was able to see the routes that he took in terms of understanding those comparative adjectives, a task that I continue to work towards.

I am incredibly grateful to CANE for the opportunity to participate in their annual meeting. I took part in the Cane Summer Institute this past summer, learning under the instruction of Professor William Mierse at the University of Vermont and Professor Irene Soto Marin at Harvard College. As an organization, CANE is committed to increasing access within the Classics, aligning with TCIC's mission. I look forward to collaborating with and supporting CANE in the future as well!