Dean Antczak receives Classical Association Award

Grand Valley and Calvin College co-hosted the 107th Annual Meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, the largest regional professional association of its kind in North America, April 6-9. Nearly 500 Classics professionals attended the four-day event, which included sessions at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel on Saturday and a Friday award presentation.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Fred Antczak was presented the CAMWS Award for Special Service, which honors contributions to the promotion of Latin and Classical Studies. The award, which is not bestowed every year, recognized the “remarkable and successful growth in the past decade” of Grand Valley’s Classics program, which was founded in 2000. In announcing the award, Alice Sanford, steering committee chair, stated that “glowing examples of your initiatives provided such supporting evidence that some of us longed to join you at GVSU, while others longed to send you our students.”

Three Grand Valley alumni, who have gone on to postgraduate study in Classics at top universities around the country, returned to attend the event and to present their research.

Joshua Congrove (‘02), now in the doctorate program in Classics at Indiana University, presented “Caritate consensio: Cicero, Christianity, and the Transformation of Friendship in Augustine.”

Charles T. Ham (‘06), now in the doctorate program in Classics at the University of Pennsylvania, presented “Calendar and Cosmos: The role of Janus and lis in Ovid’s Fasti.”

Kate T. Allen (‘08), now in the doctorate program in Classics at the University of Michigan, presented “Staging a Deception: The Manipulation of the Stage in Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus.”

Many of the CAMWS participants also attended a performance of “The Braggart Soldier,” a main-stage production of Theatre at Grand Valley. The play is a modern translation of Plautus’ Roman comedy, “Miles Gloriosus.”