By Ashley Duong (COM`25)
In early December, several hundred high school students converged on campus to glean collegiate insight on the ancient world.
The event, the Boston University Annual Classics Day, has been held annually for the past two decades. A collaboration with the Massachusetts Junior Classical League, the event brings students interested in classics to Boston University for a day of seminars and events led by classics graduate students and faculty. Some years, as many as 800 students have attended.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to integrate the study of the ancient world from middle school level, up to the faculty,” said Stephen Scully, professor of classical studies and director of graduate studies, who started the event 20 years ago with Janet Fillion, a teacher at Boston Latin Academy. “It’s a great integration of students, high school teachers, our graduate students, and our faculty to all think together … about classical themes.”
On Thursday, December 1, 2022, 351 high school students convened in the George Sherman Union ballroom for lectures by several classics professors, along with graduate students Peter Kotigua and Ilse van Rooyen.
The theme for this year’s Classics Day was “A Day in the Life,” which the high school students elected themselves while registering for the event.
James Uden, a BU associate professor of classical studies and department chair, who helped organize the event, says the focus was, “on the lives of the marginalized in the ancient world: children, the enslaved, foreigners, women.”
Uden and Scully said the annual event leaves a lasting impression on students, and has inspired many to apply to BU.
“It’s a vital form of outreach for us,” said Uden. “It’s a way for us to show potential applicants to BU what we do in the humanities, and for them to experience, even briefly, a classics class on the university campus.”
The lasting impression extends to professors, as well, “It’s thrilling at all levels,” said Scully. “It’s thrilling for art or a time of fun — for the students, the high school and middle students, to see people who are going for their advanced degrees or professors talking about these things.”