Search Results

SASA is delighted to announce that we will be continuing our Summer Reading Groups this year. Our Reading Groups are free to anyone interested in the topic, and provide a forum to engage with ancient texts in English translation in the context of a discussion group with like-minded individuals from around the world. Thanks to the generous grant from the Delmas Foundation, SASA presents a wide range of excellent groups this summer. This Summer, we are joined by a team of fantastic leaders who will facilitate 16 reading groups across a breadth of fascinating subjects in the Ancient World, offering students of all levels, backgrounds, and support networks an opportunity to dive into the study of the past with a subject expert. This year’s reading groups cover topics from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Through discussion of texts and other materials, participants will engage with the past in rich and vibrant ways that apply to modern contexts. Reading Groups are either 5 weeks, or 3 weeks in duration. Groups run weekly, falling between June 1 and August 18, 2023. RSVP NOW! Catherine Nuckols-Wild, “Painted Stories: Reading Maya Mythology in Codex-Style Ceramics” Thursdays at 4 p.m. EDT June 1 - 29 (Five weeks) Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti, “The Alexander Romance” Fridays at 11 a.m. EDT June 2 - 30 (Five weeks) John Haberstroh, “Is This Your Neighbor, Is This You? Looking at Others and Ourselves in Theophrastus' ‘Characters’” Fridays at 2 p.m. EDT June 2 - 16 (Three weeks) Sophia Elzie, “Mother, Murderer: Medeas in Antiquity and Beyond” Sundays at 3 p.m. EDT June 4 - July 2 (Five weeks) Molly Anderson Stevens, “True Stories: Classical Sci-Fi and Fantasy” Mondays at 5 p.m. EDT June 5 - July 3 (Five weeks) Mariana Castro, “Beyond the Silk Roads” Thursdays at 9 a.m. June 8 - July 6 (Five weeks) Jessica Lugo, “She's Just Not That Into You: Unrequited Love in Antiquity” Thursdays at 2 p.m. EDT June 8 - July 6 (Five weeks) Brendan Hainline, “The Pyramid Texts: The Earliest Ancient Egyptian Rituals” Thursdays at 3 p.m. EDT June 8 - July 6 (Five weeks) Julian Posch, “Tomb Robberies in Ancient Egypt: Prevention, Persecution, and Punishment” Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. EDT June 13 - 27 (Three weeks) Kenneth Connally, “Atoms and Void: Lucretius' On the Nature of Things” Tuesdays at 1 p.m. EDT June 13 - July 11 (Five weeks) Dr. Sara Knutson, “Reading the Abbasid Past: History and Islamic Heritage” Wednesdays at 11 a.m. EDT June 14 - 28 (Three weeks) Yentl Love, “Queer Lives and Loves in Ancient History” Wednesdays at 1 p.m. EDT June 14 - July 12 (Five weeks) Charlotte Spence, “Curse Tablets: Personal Communication with the Dead and the Gods in the Ancient World” Fridays at 2 p.m. EDT June 16 - 30 (Three weeks) Naomi Moralez-Glenn, "Defying the Gods, Parallelism and Forgotten Female Rage: The Epics" Sundays at 11:30 a.m. EDT June 18, 25, July 9,16, 30, Aug 6 (No sessions July 2 & 23) (Five weeks) Karina Atudosie, “From Harlots to Heroines: Royal Women in the Hebrew Bible” Thursdays at 12 p.m. EDT June 29 - July 13 (Three weeks) Dr. Lillian Cespedes Gonzalez, “Unlocking Beowulf” Fridays at 11 a.m. EDT August 4 - 18 (Three weeks)

The SASA Spotlight for early April is Mentorship Team Leader, Agnieszka Arcisz! As the leader of the team, and one of the key volunteers who worked to bring this exciting new SASA program to fruition, Agnieszka is excited to promote her team and their efforts this summer! The Mentorship Team is the newest development in SASA's ever-growing structure. For the past year, the team has worked tirelessly to build the Mentorship Program, a recent culmination of SASA's vision of providing reliable, accessible guidance for young academics and pursuers of Ancient Studies. The principal goal of the program is to empower mentees, through an effective "cohort" model in which mentees will regularly meet online with their cohort mentors to actively participate in peer discussions, career guidance, and one-on-one guidance sessions. Agnieszka and her team strive to leave mentees with a sense of self-sufficiency to make proactive and conscious choices regarding their education and career paths. The Mentorship Program is not yet live, and is expected to be launched this summer. Until then, keep posted on our blog!

SASA is excited to introduce three new new volunteer team leaders: Sarah Richardson, Yuna Kim, and Marisa Morgan! Our team leaders are essential to the success of our work, conducting weekly meetings and guiding interns. Each of our team leaders are committed to SASA's mission to spread awareness of the importance of keeping ancient studies alive through education and resources. Sarah Richardson joined SASA this past winter, bringing her experiences in grant-writing and community outreach in the education sector. As the Outreach Team Leader, Sarah works on contacting and researching potential partners --from all around the world-- to add to our rapidly growing list. This currently includes an exciting project with a modern approach: onboarding TikTokers! Combining her experience in public education with her insight for modern trends, Sarah is working to promote the SASA message beyond the scholarly realm into the younger, and more digital demographics. As one of the newest members of SASA, Yuna Kim leads the Inter-Organizational Communications Team. She organizes SASA communications such as blog posts and newsletters for our ever-growing external network. Yuna has been involved in ancient studies from a young age, receiving the Baxter Award for Classics for her commitment to Latin studies as well as participating in the 2019 Yeronisos Island Expedition. Having just completed her M.A. Art History program in London, Yuna looks forward to leading her team with her enthusiasm and diverse experiences in global art markets. Last but not least, Marisa Morgan is our new Fundraising Team Leader! The Fundraising Team is an important branch of SASA due to our nonprofit nature. The Fundraising Team is responsible for making our projects possible through campaigning efforts and sustained networking. Marisa expects to guide her team through current significant milestones that require sustained funding efforts, such as our Birthday Bash event and the completion of the Annual Report.

Save Ancient Studies Alliance (SASA) is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a $20,000 grant for our 2024 Virtual Conference! The SASA 2024 Virtual Conference, Representations of the Past in Ancient and Modern Times, will be supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. This grant is the second largest SASA has received to date. With the substantial budget for advertising, we aim to surpass the number of 10,000 participants last year and achieve viewership over 30,000! The Wenner-Gren Foundation has been committed to fostering the field and academics of anthropology since 1941 through efforts such as Current Anthropology, the leading broad-based journal on anthropological scholarship and research; similarly, in 2016 the independent magazine Sapiens was launched in partnership with the University of Chicago Press. The grant marks the beginning of a thrilling relationship with a leading anthropological foundation, and the furthering of the SASA mission to bring Ancient Studies to wider audiences. The 2024 conference is scheduled for July 21-22, 2024. The grant rules do not allow payments for staff, so we will be relying on our wonderful volunteers and Virtual Conference Team Leader Anh Nguyen to lead the preparations! One of the many exciting things to come is the implementation of live interpretation into both Spanish and Arabic, allowing speakers of those languages to participate fully. We will be making further announcements in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we are excited to host this year's Virtual Conference Discovery, Science, and Technology in the Ancient World: Traditions and Innovations on July 24th and the 25th. This year, we will be joined by four keynote speakers: Dr. Adrienne Mayor, Dr. Gerardo Aldana, Dr. Geoffrey Killen and Dr. Alexander Jones. If you are looking to present, abstract submissions are due by March 31st, 2023. Click this link for more information. Disclaimer: Save Ancient Studies Alliance is a non-profit organization under IRS code section 501(c)3, dedicated to reversing the downward trend in Ancient Studies education and scholarship. For more information or to get involved, please contact David Danzig at daviddanzig@saveancientstudies.org.

Save Ancient Studies Alliance (SASA) is seeking to fill 15-20 unpaid, remote internship positions during the Summer 2023 period. The internship period is May 22, 2023 to August 11, 2023. SASA is a non-profit organization supported by passionate volunteers and interns, all working to promote the liberal arts. The aim is to inspire a broad, inclusive community of scholars and students by building a grassroots movement through outreach, collaboration, accessibility, and public scholarship. The internship program is mutually beneficial, offering opportunities varying from research and grant projects to communications and virtual event planning. Interns are given the opportunity to assess which team they wish to join. SASA is looking to find interns for the following teams (see information on the Teams page and Projects page): Communications Team Live Events Team Outreach Team Research Team Access Team Fundraising & Grant Writing Team Archaeogaming Educational Modules Team Executive Team Mentoring Team Interns may be undergraduates, have completed their BA, or be in graduate school. The minimum age is 18. Ideal candidates are strong self-starters and comfortable with remote work. Internships are scheduled for the duration of 5/22/2023 -8/11/2023, with room for flexibility. Weekly internship hours range between ten to fifteen hours per week, although we can accommodate up to 25 hours per week to meet requirements for college credit. Internship applications are now open and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Applications close May 1, 2023. To apply, please send a cover letter and resume to recruitment@saveanceitnstudies.org or upload them in the webform on our applications page. Please specify in your cover letter which skills you have and for which teams you think you would be best suited. We look forward to your application.

Save Ancient Studies Alliance (SASA) is delighted to announce we have yet again received two grants to support our free Text-in-Translation Reading Groups program for January 2023 and Summer 2023! Our January Reading Groups are funded in part by an $800 grant from the Society for Classical Studies as part of their outreach grant program, Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities. Our Summer Reading Groups will be supported in full by a $10,000 grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. These grants will support a full slate of exciting Reading Groups, as we seek to attract excellent young scholars to lead the discussion groups and to expand to new topics and a variety of areas of the Ancient World, and to provide groups in multiple languages. Groups are free and open to all, and we have seen our past groups welcome a wide range of participants in age, background, and nationality. On this exciting note, we would like to extend a Call for Reading Group Leaders! SASA seeks 15 Ancient Studies PhD Students or Early Career Scholars for the paid role of Reading Group Leader for our Summer 2023 Mini-Reading Groups. SASA’s Text-in-Translation Reading Groups are small, informal discussion groups, centered on ancient texts that the Group Leaders will choose and prepare a curriculum for. At the weekly sessions, the Group Leader will lead and expand upon discussions, giving both leaders and participants a chance to consider ancient topics in a casual and explorative manner. Feedback from our Reading Groups last January and the past two summers was incredible, as both participants and Group Leaders loved the experience. Follow this link to apply and for more information. Please note the deadline to apply is April 7, 2023. Please be on the lookout for the schedules of the January Reading Groups soon and of the Summer Reading Groups this spring. For now, check out our other free Live Events at saveancientstudies.org/events.

SASA is excited to welcome our newest SASA Ambassador, Dr. Frederick Winter. SASA ambassadors are an integral part of our team and serve as advocates for Ancient Studies. They help us spread our mission far and wide and assist in SASA’s fundraising. Dr. Winter is the latest addition to our Ambassadorial team and his years of experience and wide range of connections will aid in fostering the growth of our organization. Dr. Winter received his B.A. from the Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, and later received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He has led or participated in numerous international archaeological expeditions, including trips to Israel, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, the former Yugoslavia and Polynesia. Dr. Winter previously taught classical courses at the City University of New York. He worked as a senior grant officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Department of Education. He also helped found the Archeological Institute of America’s Committee on Professional Responsibilities and worked with the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Dr. Winter is excited to bring his wide experience with grant giving foundations at the federal level and with organizations that promote higher education to SASA. With over 55 years of experience in archaeology, Dr. Winter has gained a vast knowledge of the ancient world. His expertise lies in the Late Bronze Age Aegean and Balkan prehistory, Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean, the historical mid-Atlantic, and northern plantation archaeology and the archeology of enslavement. Now in retirement, Dr. Winter continues his involvement with archeology as a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers and the boards of the Cyprus American Archeological Research Institute. Dr. Winter has published over a dozen journal articles in his time as an archeologist. We are incredibly excited to welcome Dr. Winter to the team in a formal capacity and we are very much looking forward to his work with us. His work will support our growth and development as SASA continues onward and upward in our mission to promote Ancient Studies, by helping us reach our fundraising goals and expanding our network of public advocates.

We at SASA would like to congratulate Sage Michaels for being awarded her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California Santa Cruz in the field of European History, with a minor in Jewish Studies as of June 2022. Sage has begun to incorporate her BA with her passion for museum work. “Having completed my BA in history I’m super excited to get involved in the museum. I’m looking forward to seeing what jobs I can get with my BA and potentially getting a graduate degree in the future.” Sage has already begun working in museum settings. She currently works as a Museum Educator with the Lexington Historical Society and a Visitor Experience Ambassador at the Boston Children’s Museum. Sage has volunteered at SASA since September 2020 as a key member of the Live Events team. She joined the Archaeogaming Education Team when it was formed and is currently still involved with both teams. Sage discussed her experience with SASA in her job interviews and credited her experience planning reading groups and creating learning modules as part of the reason she was hired. As part of the Live Events team, she helps to develop, plan, and run SASA’s live events as well as being our Reading Group Assistant Coordinator. If you or anyone you think may be interested in our Live events, check out upcoming events at saveancientstudies.org/live-events. Thank you Sage for all your hard work, and congratulations on the well deserved BA! Good luck on your future career!

Save Ancient Studies Alliance (SASA) is looking for people who want to make a difference in Ancient Studies! We are looking to fill several volunteer positions within our organization that will help bring our fields together to promote Ancient Studies. We seek organized, fast learning, self-starting individuals to fill the following roles: Inspire Team Leader - an excellent opportunity to share Ancient Studies knowledge with the public Communications Conference Publicity Coordinator - help organize SASA’s outreach at conferences CASO Coordinator - play a pivotal role in bringing together Ancient Studies organizations Video Editor - creates and edits video content to engage audiences Communications Writer - a chance to assist in writing emails, social media blogs, posts, etc. Grant Writing Team Leader - lead SASA’s search for granted funding These roles are fantastic opportunities to get involved with a vibrant educational community and outreach-oriented non-profit in the Ancient Studies sector. SASA is looking for individuals from any background that is interested in growing, developing their skills, and making a difference. We enjoy working together with passionate, like-minded individuals from around the world, who believe in SASA’s mission - to raise awareness of the Downward Trend and work to counteract it. SASA aims to inspire a broad, inclusive community of learners and students by building a grassroots movement through outreach, collaboration, accessibility, and public scholarship. Click here for more information about these roles and to apply. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the positions are filled. To apply, send your resume and a cover letter to recruitment@saveancientstudies.org. Please share this email and posts with your membership and spread the word. We can’t wait for you to join our team!

SASA would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest SASA Ambassador, Dr. Barbara A. Porter. SASA ambassadors, influential Ancient Studies advocates, are an exceptionally important part of our team. They help us spread our mission far and wide and assist in SASA’s fundraising. Dr. Porter is the latest addition to our Ambassadorial team and her years of experience and wide range of connections will aid in fostering the growth of our organization. Early in her career, Dr. Porter led archaeological tours from Algeria to Iran. In 2006, Dr. Porter began her fourteen year long career as the director of the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Jordan. She has gained extensive knowledge on the current culture of Jordan, as well as its archaeology and history. Dr. Porter grew up in Lebanon, and returned several times to the country as part of her work with the American Community School at Beirut. She received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College and her M.A. M. Phil, and PhD. from the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. From her time working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to teaching at New York University, Dr. Porter has shared her vast knowledge of the historical world. The focus of her dissertation was on Syrian cylinder seals from the Middle Bronze Age. We are incredibly excited to welcome Dr. Porter to the team in a formal capacity and we are very much looking forward to her work with us. Her work will support our growth and development as SASA continues onward and upward in our mission to promote Ancient Studies, by helping us reach our fundraising goals and expanding our network of public advocates.

We at SASA would like to congratulate Dr. Kate Minniti for being awarded her PhD from the University of British Columbia in the field of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious studies, with her dissertation research project “Aegyptiaca in Archaic Sicily.” More information on her dissertation can be found at ubc.academia.edu/KateMinniti, so if you or anyone you know has an interest in the meaning, imports, and use of Egyptian artifacts in Archaic Sicily, Minniti’s website has it all! For more on Kate and her personal achievements, check on her academic profile at https://amne.ubc.ca/profile/kate-minniti/. Kate had already received degrees in three different countries, which helped to prepare her for the strenuous work it would take to obtain her PhD. She first joined SASA to join our archaeogaming project with her previous interest in the world of gaming. She has become active in researching the correlation that exists between games that portray aspects of the ancient world and how truthful these representations are. Now that she has graduated, Kate will be able to combine her interest in Antiquity and her passion for teaching. She is currently working as part of an NYU archaeological excavation team in Selunite (Italy) after working for previous excavations in Motya, Wadi Howei (Sudan) and the Norwegian Archaeological Survey of the Karystia (NASK). Kate has volunteered at SASA since September 2021 as Co-Lead of the Archaeogaming Live Team, organizing and hosting livestreamed playthroughs of a host of ancient-related video games. Check out her streams on https://www.twitch.tv/saveancientstudies. Kate Minniti - thank you for all your hard work, and congratulations on the well deserved Doctorate!

Being independent doesn’t necessarily mean being alone! Independent Scholars, just like affiliated scholars, rely on other groups and individuals to supply the interactive context for much of their work. An affiliation with Independent Scholar institutions can provide valuable resources, conferences, and networking opportunities that can strengthen your background, research, and notability. SASA has compiled a list of institutions for Independent Scholars that provide affiliation and benefits, so take advantage and join the larger community of Independent Scholarship! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Independent Scholars Community - The Independent Scholars Community is an HCommons community for Independent Scholars that’s slightly more casual than the prior institutions on this list. It’s a social group for friendly discussion, networking, and resource sharing. The HCommons Independent Scholars Community is a great place to look for anyone looking to meet Independent Scholars. Institute for Historical Study - The Institute for Historical Study is a community of researchers, writers, and artists bound by fascination in history. They share research, ideas, advice, and are a general community for Independent Scholars and Historians. Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship - The Ronin Institute is another academic community for people committed to truth and empathy. It’s a non-profit organization that, like others on this list, aims to establish a community for Independent Scholars for collaboration and sharing of research. National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS) - The NCIS is one of the top institutions for Independent Scholars to join. It’s a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides professional affiliation, support, and a community for Independent Scholars. Applying for membership is rigorous, but if you have enough history and work as an Independent Scholar, the NCIS is a fantastic option. Benefits of membership include a webpage, business card, letters of introduction, a JSTOR discount, and publication and grant opportunities. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- These institutions could be the cornerstone of your scholarship. Some of these have more complex application processes and requirements than others, so research exact requirements and send some inquiring emails! With a strong communal structure, you’ll find yourself with opportunities, fellows, and resources that will be invaluable to your career as an Independent Scholar. SASA’s Independent Scholars Working Group welcomes all Independent Scholars in the field of Ancient Studies. To learn more about our work, visit our home page or sign up to attend or present at one of our Work in Progress Forums!