Classics banquet 2025. Back row: Dr. Mischa Hooker, Brayden Moseley, Collin Patinka, Ben Muñoz-Ripley, Mari Hanson, Ethan Ellis, Pheonix Martin, Molly McArdle, Sophie Dizon, Dr. Nick Dobson, Iratze Aceves, Catherine Darragh, Jeanette Reese, Ronza Alkhass, and Dr. Kirsten Day. Front row: Jules Fielder, Liv Parker, Ezekiel Aurelius (’22), Lily Kirvan, and April Ladenberger (’08).
So far this year, eight first-year students have joined our Classics family: Jaylynn Chapman is majoring in Classics, Neuroscience, and Biology; Lily Kirvan is majoring in Classics and Creative Writing; Molly McArdle is majoring in Classics; Collin Patinka is a Philosophy and Asian Studies major with minors in Classics and Linguistics; Ethan Paxton-Ellis is majoring in Classical Studies with a Greek emphasis and Religion and minoring in Anthropology; Jeanette Reese is majoring in Neuroscience and History and minoring in Classical Studies with a Latin emphasis; Megan Sveda is majoring in Classics and Biology; and Keegan Weir is majoring in Classics and History. Welcome, carissimi!
This spring we graduate just one major and one minor, but both of them superstars: Iratze Aceves will graduate with a triple major in Classics, Psychology, and Public Health; and Charlotte Newport will graduate with a major in History and minors in Classical Studies with a Latin emphasis and Psychology. After graduation, Iratze will be working as a Behavioral Health Technician at Balance Autism. She plans to work for a year before enrolling in higher education. Charlotte will be attending the University of Texas School of Law this coming fall. Bonam fortunam to our soon-to-be newest alumnae!
As we have come to expect, this year again, Classics students covered themselves with glory and honor!
This year, sophomores Ronza Alkhass, Elios Blue Ballard, Sam Baugous, Mari Hanson, and Pheonix Martin earned entry into our Epsilon Sigma Chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, the national honor society for Classics, while Sam and Mari both earned a place in Glaux Aquila, our local honor society for those who excel in both Greek and Latin.
Mari Hanson is delighted to have gained entry into the National Honor Society for Classics!
Ronza Alkhass shows off her Eta Sigma Phi certificate.
In addition, this year Iratze was honored as first runner-up to the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS) Anthony Fauci Award in STEM and Classics (see conference section below for more!). This is the third year in a row (!!!) that Iratze has been honored at CAMWS: in 2023 she won the Rudolph Masciantonio Diversity Award, and in 2024 the Manson A. Stewart Undergraduate Award. Both Iratze and Charlotte, moreover, are also being honored with this year’s CAMWS Awards for Outstanding Accomplishment in Classical Studies, along with initiation into Augustana’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. εὖγε!
Iratze Aceves [center] is joined by her parents Armando Aceves-Rodriguez and Maribel Quintana-Madrigal after receiving the first runner-up to the Anthony Fauci Award in STEM and Classics at the CAMWS conference in Champaign.
Congratulations to all our Classics superstars!
A note from Ezekiel Aurelius (’22):
Ezekiel Aurelius and a friend having dinner at the Bedouin Tents.
"Hello all, this is Ezekiel Aurelius, class of 2022. The last time you all heard from me, I had just become the Latin teacher of Rivermont Collegiate. I have been working there for the last three years and have enjoyed every moment of teaching. I know I've had a few students who have really fallen in love with Latin and I hope to see them keep learning. I will also keep learning and teaching as I have taken a teaching fellowship that will take me abroad to teach English! I was accepted to the 10 month Masa Israel Teaching Fellowship and will be teaching English to elementary or middle school aged students in Bat Yam, Israel. I will be working as a teaching assistant and mostly be helping with conversational practice for students. I had recently been on a trip to Israel to do some sight seeing and I cannot wait to go back. While I am there I also hope to involve myself in studies of Jewish text and develop my Hebrew while immersed in the culture of Israel. I know there are many opportunities in surprising places, so who knows what I will find while I am there!"
Kira Banks (’23) continues in her position as Community Outreach Coordinator at Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, but now in addition is a first-year graduate student at the University of Illinois Chicago pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH). Her concentration is on Health Policy & Administration and she is also working toward a Global Health certificate. This summer, Kira will be conducting Public Health research in Morocco!
Liz Johnson (’10) is the VP of Compliance and BSA Officer for The Bank of New Glarus in New Glarus, WI.
Dr. Mischa Hooker and Laurence Pavlik at the March CAMWS meeting at UIUC.
Victoria Karnes (‘18) is a Senior Library Specialist at the Governors State University Library in University Park, Illinois. Among other things, she oversees the maintenance and creation of the Library's informational and instructional materials.
Laurence Pavlik (’24) is a graduate student in Classics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he serves as a Teaching Assistant in a class on minority receptions of Classics. He also served as our local host at the recent CAMWS meeting in Champaign (see section on Classical Association of the Middle West and South Conference below).
Joe Goodkin performs his Blues of Achilles for an audience of students, faculty, and campus guests.
This year, we welcomed back Chicago-based musician Joe Goodkin for a performance of his Blues of Achilles. Since 2002, Goodkin has been traveling throughout the US and beyond as a modern bard, performing his one-man folk opera retelling of Homer’s Odyssey to high school and college students, and to general audiences (including a performance here at Augustana in 2015). Based on Homer’s Iliad, The Blues of Achilles is Goodkin’s second folk opera, which draws on ancient and modern war literature along with interviews and his experience playing music at VA hospitals as part of recreational therapy for veterans experiencing PTSD and other war-related traumas.
Dr. Roberta Stewart offers our annual AIA lecture to students, faculty, and campus visitors.
For our annual AIA lecture, we welcomed Dartmouth College’s Dr. Roberta Stewart, who spoke on “Augustus’ War Against Antony and Cleopatra as Seen Through the Coins.”
In this lecture, Stewart tracked the iconography of Cleopatra and of defeated Egypt as a means of examining Augustan propaganda about Cleopatra as a threatening female outsider.
ANM lecturer Dr. Clara Bosak-Schroeder on “Disability and Enslavement in Ancient Rome.”
This year, we welcomed Dr. Clara Bosak-Schoeder of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a lecture entitled “Disability and Enslavement in Ancient Rome,” where she used ancient texts and objects to explore the lives of disabled Romans, both enslavers and enslaved, and to examine how disability has been used by scholars as a metaphor for understanding Roman enslavement.
Our Classics club Collegia Classica this year continued the tradition of end-of-term dinners, while cooking up a few new events and initiatives, such as an Ides of March event and end-of-week snack breaks that included fun activities like coloring pictures of ancient statues, classically-themed games, and playing with theater dioramas.
Jules Fielder, Mari Hanson, and Liv Parker prepare for the Ides of March event.
Classics gathers at Tiramisu in Bettendorf at the end of fall term for our traditional end-of-term dinner. Pictured: Sam Baugous, Iratze Aceves, Catherine Darragh, Dr. Mischa Hooker, Liv Parker, Jules Fielder, Dr. Nick Dobson, and Dr. Kirsten Day.
Molly McArdle bests Dr. Nick Dobson and Xander Dennis at a spirited game of Minotaurus.
This year junior Jules Fielder and sophomore Liv Parker served as co-consuls, while senior Iratze Aceves took on the role of secretary, and Mari Hanson acted as treasurer.
Our leadership board next year will consist of current first year Molly McArdle as president; sophomore Mari Hanson as vice-president; sophomore Xander Dennis as secretary, and sophomore Catherine Darragh as treasurer.
Our newest members are initiated into Eta Sigma Phi by Consul Jules Fielder and Secretary Iratze Aceves at our spring banquet.
Iratze Aceves has fun with 0.5 (not a selfie).
Our annual Classics banquet was held on April 15th this year. In addition to our usual Mediterranean buffet, we welcomed our newest majors and minors; acknowledged our graduating seniors; inducted new Eta Sigma Phi and Glaux Aquila members; presented awards; and heard a presentation by the Putnam Museum’s Dr. Nora Moriarty on her evolution from Classical archaeologist to Assistant Museum Curator, as well as getting an overview of the Putnam’s ancient holdings and some exciting possibilities for connections between Augie Classics and the Putnam. We were also delighted that alumni April Ladenberger (’08) and Ezekiel Aurelius (’22) were able to join us. Many thanks once again to our donors who make events like this one possible!
The Putnam Museum’s Nora Moriarty gives a presentation to Classics students and faculty.
John Taylor visits Kirsten Day's CLAS 258 in March.
TY Stone speaks to CLAS 258 students in April.
Beau Gumm pays a virtual visit to Kirsten Day's CLAS 258 class in May.
Thanks to a Humanities Fund grant, Dr. Kirsten Day’s Greek Warrior Myths and Combat Trauma course was able to welcome three speakers.
First, Iraq War veteran John Taylor spoke about his wartime experiences and the difficulties he had reintegrating back into society, eventually finding his path through the power of music. Taylor has offered concerts featuring musicians from around the world on his front porch in Cambridge, Illinois since 2014, an initiative which eventually developed into “Crossroads Cultural Connections” and Heartland Connections in 2022. He is currently President of Levitt AMP Galva Music Series.
Then in April, TY Stone, a former Augustana Prison Education Program student now studying on the Rock Island campus and majoring in Communication Studies, visited the class to speak about his own experiences with the trauma of incarceration and later with reintegrating after release.
And finally in May, Iraq War veteran Beau Gumm paid a virtual visit to the class to speak about his difficult upbringing, his experiences in war, and the challenges he faced upon his return to civilian life, all of which he chronicled in his memoir Immaterial Children. Gumm is Founder and President of the Arkansas Paint Project and Associate Publisher with Best Version Media.
Dr. Mischa Hooker’s Classical Epic course, in addition, benefitted from a class visit from our 2024-2025 AIA lecturer Dr. Roberta Stewart, Professor of Classical Studies at Dartmouth College.
Sam Baugous and Iratze Aceves attend the keynote address by the University of Iowa’s Dr. Sarah Bond.
Sam Baugous enjoys the Cena Classica at the fall ICC meeting.
In October, Dr. Kirsten Day attended the annual meeting of the Illinois Classical Conference at Monmouth College, where she presented a paper entitled "Classics and Catharsis in Cinema: John Woo’s Face/Off and Teaching Homer in Prison." Thanks to Student Attendance at a Professional Conference grant, as well as the Harry S.B. Johnson and Terence Funds for Classics, two Classics students, Iratze Aceves and Sam Baugous, were able to attend as well.
Greece program participants take a group photo by the Temple of Apollo at Corinth.
In January, as co-leaders of the Greece Program, Drs. Kirsten Day and Mischa Hooker took students to Greece for the first time in J-term rather than in summer. While the itinerary hit the usual “greatest hits” mainland sites in Attica, central Greece, and the Peloponnese, this time we also targeted Northern Greece, visiting Meteora before traveling to ancient Aigai, Thessaloniki, and Pella, with a stop at Thermopylae on the way back to Athens. In addition to the ancient sites and museums, students were treated to Greek dancing, cooking, and pottery lessons, and tours of an orchard, winery, olive oil press, and icon workshop. Many of our student participants also took advantage of Dr. Hooker’s expertise in theater to stage a one-time-only performance of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata for an enthusiastic audience that included students from Elon University.
Greece program participants make an “Augie A” in the theater at Epidaurus.
Sophomore Classics major Sam Baugous enjoys picking oranges at Zotos Biofarm.
Jules Fielder [center] and other program participants try out the hot springs at Thermopylae.
Augustana students perform excerpts from Aristophanes’ Lysistrata to a packed house at the Hotel Amalia in Kalabaka.
Augustana students and faculty watch a performance of Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus.
Iratze Aceves discusses her Senior Inquiry project as part of a presentation on “Classics, Catharsis, and Community.”
In March, three students – Iratze Aceves, Sam Baugous, and Ethan Paxton- Ellis accompanied Drs. Kirsten Day and Mischa Hooker to the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The students not only enjoyed multiple paper sessions, but they also attended a staging of Plautus’ Roman comedy Miles Gloriosus and visited the Spurlock Museum, which houses a number of small antiquities, along with casts of larger, more famous works. In addition, Iratze and Dr. Day gave a joint presentation entitled “Classics, Catharsis, and Community” as part of a panel entitled “Better Together: Collaborative and Community-Building Approaches to Growing Classics,” organized by Dr. Robert Holschuh Simmons of Monmouth College. Iratze was also honored as the first runner-up to the Anthony Fauci Award in STEM and Classics at the CAMWS business meeting, while Dr. Day received the CAMWS Award for Excellence in College Teaching. We are grateful to two additional Student Attendance at a Professional Conference grants, as well as to the Harry S.B. Johnson and Terence Funds for Classics, for making this trip possible.
Dr. Kirsten Day with Iratze Aceves, Sam Baugous, and Ethan Paxton-Ellis at the conference banquet.
Xander Dennis, Dr. Mischa Hooker, Dr. Nick Dobson, Sophie Dizon, Molly McArdle, Mari Hanson, Jaylynn Chapman, Jeanette Reese, Ethan Paxton-Ellis (at back), and Lily Kirvan at the Art Institute.
Kira Banks, Jaylynn Chapman, Xander Dennis, Dr. Mischa Hooker, Mari Hanson, Dr. Nick Dobson, Jeanette Reese, and Lily Kirvan at the “Myth and Marble” exhibit.
This year, Classics also took a field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the exhibit of the Torlonia Marbles – 58 Roman sculptures ranging in date from the 5th century BCE to the 4th century CE, around half of which have not been displayed for over 70 years. Sophomores Xander Dennis and Mari Hanson and first-years Jaylynn Chapman, Lily Kirvan, Molly McArdle, Ethan Paxton-Ellis, and Jeanette Reese joined Classics faculty Drs. Kirsten Day, Nick Dobson, and Mischa Hooker for the outing - and we were thrilled that alumna Kira Banks was able to meet up with us for this rare opportunity! After exploring the museum’s permanent collection of Greek and Roman antiquities and seeing the special exhibit, students had the opportunity to explore the museum’s other holdings on their own before we met back up for a lovely Italian dinner at the Village at Italian Village, the oldest Italian restaurant in Chicago. An Academic Initiative Grant from the Humanities Division at Augustana and our Harry S. B. Johnson and Terence Funds made this trip possible. Thank you for your support!
Jeanette Reese enjoys an Italian dinner at the Village at the Italian Village in Chicago.
Mari Hanson and Jaylynn Chapman savor a sweet after-dinner treat at the Village at the Italian Village restaurant.
A note from Augustana College’s Special Assistant to the President Kai Swanson:
“In March, the Augustana President's Office received a letter from a 1950 graduate, the Rev. Dr. Theodore Swanson, inquiring whether Augustana might be interested in a book he'd found while paring down his library. It's an earlier printing of the Greek grammar text Swanson used in the 1949-50 school year while studying Greek with Professor (and Dean) Harry S.B. Johnson. This copy, however, happened to be one he picked up more than a decade later when he returned to Rock Island to teach at the Augustana Seminary, then preparing for its move to Chicago. The book had been the property of Augustana archivist Ira Nothstein, but only later did Swanson realize it had originally been the property of Gustav Andreen, since it was inscribed by him with the date January 8, 1913. In those days Andreen served as both president of the College and professor of Greek, and now, for the first time in decades, the book is on the shelf of an Augustana professor - Dr. Kirsten Day - just like it was 112 years ago.”
Thank you for passing on this special text, Rev. Dr. Swanson!
Kai Swanson shows off Gustav Andreen’s copy of White’s First Greek Book.
In 2022, with the help of his son David, we highlighted in our newsletter Harry S. B. Johnson, the namesake of the Harry S.B. Johnson Endowment for Classics. This year, we reached out to Dr. Jane Borelli, Professor Emerita of Classics at Augustana, to learn a bit more about the eponymous hero of the Terence Fund for Classics, which Dr. Borelli implemented upon her retirement. Please read on to learn more about this feles nobilis, to whom we give maximas gratias!
Certificate of Pedigree for Terence the cat.
“a. d. viii Kal. Dec. MMI, xvi annos mensesque iv natus. Optimus erat et fidelissimus amicus.
As the Certificate of Pedigree testifies, Terence was an AristoCat of the Burmese variety. At an early age, he agreed to settle in Rock Island at 3233-8th Ave, where he reigned for 16 years. For one year he was an only cat, but, thinking that Terence might like a companion, but without consultation, his person welcomed Terence's half brother, Scipper, into the family circle. (Scipper's proper name is Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Feles.) Terence considered Scipper an upstart, and wondered why this silly creature was necessary. Though also an AristoCat, Scipper clearly needed instruction about who was in charge here.
One episode will serve to illustrate Terence's means of control. The person worked on her class preparation at a special desk on the north side of the house; her bedroom and the specially installed cat tree were across the hallway, in clear view from the desk. Scipper loved to fetch, especially his favorite mousie toy. He would take it to the person, she would pause her study, and throw the mousie into the bedroom. Scipper, in a flash, would retrieve the toy and take it back to the person. Do it again, he would imply. Over and over.
Terence recognized that this routine was not conducive to study! And so, after the 101st toss, the person saw a paw poke out from under the bed, grab and pull in the mousie. End of game!
Terence with Scipper in their special basket.
In addition to a keen sense of propriety, Terence had great clarity about what belonged to which cat. He didn't spend much time or energy marking toys, he shared his food and water bowls, but the special cat tree was his and his alone.
If Scipper dared to approach it, Terence was there, up to the top, warning his brother off. On the other hand, the two were often seen cuddling in their specially woven basket, a sweet fraternity.
Tales of Terence rang through the halls of Old Main in those days. Well, in truth, they reached the ears of Joan Robinson, who was English Department secretary, and maybe one or two others. Joan was always ready to listen to a quick episode, and evidently began to imagine a panther in the house on 8th Avenue. When she finally met Terence in person, there was some cognitive dissonance: how could this 6-pounder be the hero of epic tales? She had to be reminded that, like Hermia in the comedy, Terence was little, but he was fierce!”
Thanks to Dr. Jane Borelli for this charming remembrance. The Classics Department is also grateful for the woodburn of Terence, created by Jim Morgan, and gifted to Classics by Dr. Borelli. Terence is now overseeing the common area in our Classics compound, much to the delight of our students!
Terence the cat.
Woodburn of Terence by Jim Morgan.
Terence keeps watch over the Classics “compound.”
It is the support of our donors which allows Classics at Augustana to be such a vibrant, active department. We are very grateful to all our donors, but acknowledge in particular the continuing support of the Harry S. B. Johnson Endowment and the Terence Fund for Classics. Multas gratias vobis agimus!
Carly Davis's poem "Seattle Song" won the 24th annual Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award at Augustana.
Kaitlin Jacobson's poem "crooked smile"” won the 23rd annual Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award at Augustana.
Kira Banks '23 came to Augustana to study biology and public health and, as often happens at a liberal arts school, discovered a passion for a seemingly unrelated major — Classics. Read about her recent award.
Augustana Professor of Classics Dr. Kirsten Day will talk about the enduring legacy of Homer's Odyssey as Putnam guests prepare for an upcoming trip to Greece.
Dr. Danielle Fatkin will present "Understanding Baptism: Its Origins in Roman Judaea and Why They Matter."
