Saturday, January 30, 2010

Temporary Change in Publication Schedule for Amphora

Over the last three decades the APA has built up an endowment, its General Fund, that generates income to supplement publication revenue; grants and contributions; and membership, annual meeting, and placement fees. This investment income allows the APA, despite its relatively modest size, to offer programs and services that are usually offered only by much larger disciplinary societies like the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Association, and the American Academy of Religion.


To preserve the endowment in the General Fund, the APA's Finance Committee has developed guidelines that limit our withdrawals to 5% of the Fund's average value over the previous three years. The recent declines in financial markets have therefore reduced the amount that it is prudent to withdraw from the General Fund. As a result, when it approved the budget for the current fiscal year (July 2009-June 2010), the APA Board instituted a number of changes in programs that would reduce expenses. These changes included suspension of automatic mailing of the Newsletter and the annual meeting Program to members, a major reduction in the amount of food to be offered at the President's Reception in Anaheim, and a reluctant decision to publish only one issue of Amphora during the current fiscal year.


The next issue of Amphora will therefore be published in March 2010 rather than the customary December 2009. APA members in good standing for 2010 will receive that issue by mail only if they have checked the box on their 2010 dues bills requesting a printed copy. Nonmember subscribers will, of course, receive a printed copy as usual. The issue will also, as usual, appear on the APA web site.


The publication schedule for the subsequent issue of Amphora will be determined in Spring 2010 when the Association develops its budget for the next fiscal year. In the interim, we appreciate the support of both members and nonmembers for this effort to bring the excitement of the Classical world to the widest possible audience.


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Calls for Papers for 2011 Annual Meeting

Calls for abstracts from Organizer-Refereed Panels and Affiliated Groups have been posted on the APA web site since December

http://apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/2011_CFPs.html

The abstract deadline for many of these calls is next Monday (February 1).

With the assistance of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), the APA will soon offer a mechanism for online submission of both panel proposals and individual abstracts for the 2011 meeting. Instructions for using this mechanism will be posted in a few weeks. In the interim, APA members should make sure that their dues are paid for 2010 and should register with the SSRN if they do not already have an account. Members paid up for 2009 but not for 2010 should have received an e-mail message to that effect last week and can expect to receive printed reminders in early February. You can register for SSRN at

http://hq.ssrn.com/login/pubSignInJoin.cfm?

and you can find more information about this organization at

http://www.ssrn.com/

as well as Josh Ober's President's Letter about preprints in the February 2009 Newsletter.

http://www.apaclassics.org/Newsletter/2009newsletter/February_2009.pdf

Coffin Fellowship Deadline Approaching

The receipt deadline for applications for the David D. and Rosemary H. Coffin Fellowship for Travel in Classical Lands is next Monday (February 1).

http://www.apaclassics.org/education/coffin.html

Capital Campaign News

GATEKEEPER TO GATEWAY CAMPAIGN

We have received some exciting news from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): APA's deadlines for meeting the NEH Challenge Grant through our Gatekeeper to Gateway Campaign for the Future of Classics have been extended! To date, the APA has raised just over $1.5 million toward the Campaign's goal, but that total must reach $2.1 million by July 31, 2010, and $2.6 million by July 31, 2011, if we are to claim all matching funds that the NEH has offered.

If you have not yet contributed to the campaign, now is the time to do so, if possible with a two-year pledge. If you are already a campaign donor, please consider an additional gift so that we can reach these ambitious goals for the future of the field to which we devote our lives and energies. To make a gift online, follow this link:

https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/AmericanPhilologicalAssociat/OnlineDonation.html

The Capital Campaign Committee is working hard to build on the enthusiasm generated by an event at the Center for Hellenic Studies this Fall

http://www.apaclassics.org/campaign/news.html

and to identify new prospective donors from throughout the Classics community and beyond. As always, APA membership participation in critical to this extended fund raising effort.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

The 2009 Executive Director's report is now available

Executive Director Report for 2009

Calls for Abstracts for Organizer-Refereed Panels and Affiliated Group Sessions at the 2001 Annual Meeting

Calls for Abstracts for Organizer-Refereed Panels and Affiliated Group Panels for 2011 Annual Meeting

December 2009 Jobs in Classics

December job listings

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar , “The ‘Falls of Rome’: The Transformations of Rome in Late Antiquity”

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar
“The ‘Falls of Rome’: The Transformations of Rome in Late Antiquity”

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

NEH Summer Seminar at the American Academy in Rome
28 June – 30 July, 2010

Director: Michele Renee Salzman, University of California at Riverside
Michele.Salzman@ucr.edu or 951 827 1991
Associate Director: Kimberly Bowes, Cornell University
kdb48@cornell.edu or kimberlybowes@yahoo.com or 917 699 0340



The NEH Summer Seminar, “The ‘Falls of Rome’: The Transformations of Rome in Late Antiquity” will take place at the American Academy in Rome from 28 June through 30 July 2010. This seminar will focus on a topic that is fundamental to the study of antiquity; “What does it mean to say Rome fell?” Unlike other attempts to analyze the fall in terms of the political and military end of the Roman Empire, this seminar will focus on the capital of that empire, the city of Rome, in the late third to the seventh centuries. Through intensive study of texts and new archaeological remains, we will critically examine the reasons traditionally adduced for Rome’s fall - political and/or military crisis – and search for more complete definitions, and more complete explanations, of societal change.

The seminar is founded on interdisciplinary interactions, including the collaboration of the Seminar Director, Michele Renee Salzman, an historian, with the Associate Director, Kimberly Bowes, an archaeologist. All readings and seminar discussion will be in English. We welcome applicants from a wide variety of fields in the humanities.

Participants are chosen from university and college faculty who teach American post-secondary students. This includes faculty teaching abroad who teach American students. Applicants of all ranks and all levels of institution are welcome.

In addition, two places are reserved for qualified advanced graduate students

For detailed information about the Seminar and the application go to the American Academy in Rome website,

http://www.aarome.org/other-ways-to-participate.php#program5

or contact the Director or Associate Director at the addresses above.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: March 2, 2010.