August 17, 2018 at 1:53 pm

Message from the Chair | Changing Faces But Same Mission

Dr. William Owens

Dear Graduates,

The Classics & World Religions Department you once knew is still, in what’s important, the department that we are today. That is, we remain committed to teaching our majors, minors, and elective students the importance of knowing about the ancient Greek and Roman world. We remain committed to teaching our students the complexity and variety of religious belief, past and present. We remain committed to our mission of teaching Ohio students how an education in the Humanities can help make them more humble, more wise, and perhaps less inclined to folly. Though individual results may vary!

What’s changed are the faces: Steve Hays is part-time now. Tom Carpenter has retired. Lynne Lancaster is away for three years while she serves as the Mellon Professor at the American Academy in Rome. But the eminent Roman historian Fred Drogula has joined the department as Ping Professor of the Humanities. Roman archaeologist Neville McFerrin is stepping up as Lynne’s replacement while she is away.

We also are getting ready to move back to a renovated Ellis Hall. Homecoming is Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, and we welcome you to join us at the College of Arts & Sciences tent at Tailgreat Park that day and for an insider’s tour of the new Ellis Hall. Watch for details for the January ribbon-cutting ceremony for Ellis Hall. Also, mark your calendar for the Student-Alumni Networking Reception, Jan. 31, 2019.