Fresco of a Bird from Knossos

About the Program

GreeceOnsite is an on-campus graduate humanities program, developed by The Examined Life: Greek Studies in the Schools (ExL), and consists of:

• A course of study that includes 10 classroom lectures—accompanied by a variety of study materials
• An opportunity to write and publish curricula
• Participation in a study tour of Greece
• Membership in a Leadership Corps of Greek Study Fellows

GreeceOnsite is open to educators, school and public librarians, museum specialists, and all those working with young people, as well as individuals committed to the program’s mission to strengthen Greek studies in the schools and to raise public consciousness and knowledge of ancient (and modern) Greece.

Click a link to find out more:

• Overview
• Schedule
• Program Requirements
• Noncredit/Credit Participation, Grading Criteria
• Lectures
• Required Reading
• Lecturers
• Study Tour (Required)
• Curriculum Project
• Leadership Corps
• Application Form and Costs
• Program Leadership
• Funding Sources

Overview

	Professor Gregory Nagy, Harvard University, leads The Odyssey lecture.

GreeceOnsite provides an exciting journey to ancient (and modern) Greece through the eyes of world-class scholars. History, literature, philosophy, art, culture, government, and politics are explored in lectures and readings that include The Iliad and The Odyssey; the tragedies of Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus; the comedies of Aristophanes; the writings of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plato. In addition, the influence of ancient Greece is examined in the works of such modern writers as American playwright Eugene O’Neill in Mourning Becomes Electra. Lecturers take up several themes in the literature including democracy and the obligations of citizenship, war and peace, anger and reconciliation, the meaning of life, the ideal of heroism.

GreeceOnsite provides a time for reflection and renewal, a time to step away from teaching to ask such questions as Why do we teach? What do we hope to impart? And a time to explore the quality of our own lives and the legacy we choose to leave to our children.

Course Name: The Examined Life: Greek Studies in the Schools
Course Number: RSEM 016 1G1
Location: Brandeis University (campus map)
Times:

• Wednesday classes, 4:00-5:30PM, Goldfarb Library, Gardner-Jackson Room; class on Wed., March 14, 2012, meets at MFA Boston
• Saturday classes, 9:00AM–12:00PM., (TBD)

Contact: Connie Carven, email, 781-405-6094

Schedule 2012
(tentative dates)

The schedule includes 10 lectures, a tour of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, a study tour of Greece, and a curriculum development project.

Dates	Topics	Lecturers (bios)
Oct. 4, 2011	Reception for Year 13 Fellows, 4:00 PM, Brandeis University, distribution of program schedule, Year 12 Fellows’ presentations
Jan. 25, 2012	Seminar #1 – Introduction and Overview	B. Harrison, A. O. Koloski-Ostrow
Jan. 28	Tour of the Sackler Museum, 10AM at Sackler	M. Eirich
Feb. 4	Seminar #2 – The Iliad	L. Muellner
Feb. 15	Seminar #3 – The Odyssey	A.O. Koloski-Ostrow
Feb. (TBD), Winter break, public schools
Feb. 29	Seminar #4 – Tragedy	A.O. Koloski-Ostrow
Mar. 10	Seminar #5 – Women of Antiquity	M. Lefkowitz
Mar. 14	Seminar #6 – MFA tour	A.O. Koloski-Ostrow
Mar. 24	Seminar #7 – Comedy and Politics	K. Rothwell
Apr. 4	Seminar #8 – The Inventors of History	C. Walker
Apr. 14-22, Spring break, public schools
Apr. 14-22, ExL Study Tour of Greece
May 5	Seminar #9 – Greek Philosophy	A. Teuber
May 9	Seminar #10 – Greek Influence on Modern Theater, Preliminary Curriculum Projects due	J. Malone-Neville
Sept. 12	Preworkshop Planning and Sharing	B. Harrison
Oct. 2	Ithaka 2012 Festschrift
Wednesdays ()	4:00-5:30PM, Goldfarb Library, Gardner-Jackson Room Class on Wed., Mar. 14, 2012 meets at MFA Boston
Saturdays ()	9:00AM–12:00PM., (TBD); 10:00AM at the Sackler Museum
Tuesday ()

Program Requirements

	Fellows have ample opportunity to participate in discussions with the lecturer and classmates.

Class Participation

Class starts promptly at 4:00 PM on Wednesdays and at 9:00 AM on Saturdays. We ask Greek Study Fellows to arrive by 3:50 PM on Wednesdays, and 8:50 AM on Saturdays in order to meet informally, hear announcements, and receive any handouts for the day.

Class attendance will be taken informally, but Greek Study Fellows are always expected to be present and alert, during those class periods set aside for analysis of a text (or texts), to participate with informed observations, reactions, questions, and answers as often as possible.  Two or more absences (unless the circumstances are extraordinary and laid out well in advance) WILL have a negative affect on your participation.  Such an attendance record will be brought to the attention of the funding organizations and authorities at your schools.

Essays

Two essays (5-6 pages each) on two separate texts read in the course of the year are required for this program.

• Essay #1 topic: TBD
• Essay #2 topic: TBD

Curriculum Development Project

In Fall, 2012, there will be two additional meetings at which the Greek Study Fellows will present their ideas for implementing the materials from the seminars in their future teaching and in the curricula of their schools.  The first of these, a Preworkshop Planning and Sharing Session, is scheduled for Wednesday, September 12, 2012.  The second of these will be Tuesday, October 2, 2012, the Welcome Festschrift for new Fellows.   

Due dates:

• May 9 — Study Guide Draft due
• September 12 — Final Study Guide due
• October 2 — Presentation of Study Guide      
  

Notebooks

Your notebooks should contain a number of items:

• Up-to-date notes on class presentations
• Impressions of the texts we read
• Ideas
• Questions

If you are serious about notebooks, you will have an excellent collection of material to help you in your own teaching, and to help you remember in the distant future all the pleasurable moments you will experience from your reading and your hard work! This is a great way to begin to develop your curriculum ideas as well.

Handouts

Handouts include materials such as outlines, study guides, chronologies of the ancient world, glossaries, pronunciation guides, maps, discussion questions/problems, and/or anything deemed useful for enhancing appreciation and understanding of the texts.  When questions about the texts are given in advance of reading texts, they are not intended to limit discussions, but to give them some focus, and, perhaps, a point of departure for the new areas we would like to explore through interaction with each other throughout the year.

Academic Honesty

Violations of University policies on academic integrity, described in Section Three of Rights and Responsibilities, may result in failure in the program or on the assignment, or in suspension or dismissal from the University.  If you are in doubt about the instructions for any assignment in this program, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification: aoko@brandeis.edu or 781-736-2183.

Noncredit/Credit Participation and Grading Criteria

For those Greek Study Fellows who wish to receive three graduate credits from the Rabb School of Summer, Special, and Continuing Studies at Brandeis for their participation in the seminar, the following program requirements must be completed:

1. Regular attendance at all Wednesday and Saturday seminars with participation in discussions.
2. Two short papers (5-6 pages) on two separate texts read in the course of the year.
3. Written preliminary proposal for the curriculum project to be presented on May 9, 2012.
4. Study Guide (3-5 pages or longer, if desirable) and informal presentation September 12, 2012, with clear explanation of how material from the seminar will be implemented into the curriculum at your school. On October 2, you will present and distribute copies of your final study guide at a reception for guests and new Greek Study Fellows.

Noncredit participants do not have to complete Item 2 above.

Grade by Percent

Class Participation during the year:		20%
Essays 1 and 2:		40%
Preliminary Curriculum Report:		20%
Final paper on curriculum implementation and presentation:		20%
		100%

Lectures

January 25, 2012, Wednesday, 4:00-5:30 PM
Seminar 1: Introduction and Overview

• Welcome and Introductions:  Dr. Barbara Harrison, Ph.D., and Prof. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow.
• In addition to our welcome and introductions (to each other), Project Humanist, Prof. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow will explain seminar goals and talk about the difficulties of reading ancient texts.  It would be our hope that you would have finished reading at least Iliad, Bks. (scrolls) 1-24 and most of Odyssey by the end of January.  The epics are LONG poems, you will need to give yourself sufficient time to read them, and this means advance planning is necessary.  The two entire “scrolls” of poetry (Iliad and Odyssey) amount to no less than 48 hours of reading!  Yes, that is one hour per “book/ scroll” times 48 “book/ scrolls.”  You can double that, if you want to read them with care and thoughtfulness.
• Prof. Koloski-Ostrow will also give a brief slide lecture demonstrating some of the interconnections between ancient Greek material culture (painting, architecture, sculpture) and the literary tradition (oral and written).  We will consider how the cultural ideals set forth in the Homeric tradition, Iliad and Odyssey, and in Athenian tragedy had far-reaching impact on many aspects of Greek (particularly Athenian) life and art.  The discussion considers the power of art in ancient (and modern) society; and asks what exactly a “text” is (to us and to those in ancient Greece)?
• Reading: the Homeric tradition, Iliad, at least Bks. 1-12 (Fitzgerald trans.).

January 28, 2012
Tour of Sackler Museum

February 4, 2012, Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Seminar 2: The Iliad

• Prof. Leonard Muellner, Dept. of Classical Studies, Brandeis, lectures on the Iliad: how to read it, how not to read it, and what is in it--friendship, anger, and the meaning of life, and what Achilles himself learns and what he teaches us.
• Discussion will consider comparisons between our Judeo-Christian world view and that of the pagan world.  This is an ideal forum in which to discuss issues of cultural and religious diversity with students in our own society.
• Reading:  Finish reading the Iliad, Bks. 13-24 (Fitzgerald trans.), if you have not already done so; Hesiod’s Theogony is also highly recommended, although not required.

February 15, 2012, Wednesday, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Seminar 3: The Odyssey

• Professor Koloski-Ostrow introduces some of the complexities of the epic poem, Odyssey.
• Discussion: Odysseus’ fantastic journey home (‘nostos’) and the struggle he faces when he reaches home raises questions about the meaning of “home,” growing up and leaving home, our inherent need ultimately to return home, and what life is like when one is truly home-less.
• Reading:  Odyssey, Bks. 1-24 (Lombardo trans.)

February 29, 2012, Wednesday, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Seminar 4:  Tragedy 

• Professor Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow pursues the interplay between ancient Athenian drama and religion in Seminar 4.  Fellows read five plays, by the greatest Athenian tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.  (In the Oresteia be sure to read Agamemnon, and Libation Bearers,and, if time allows, Eumenides.)
• Discussion will consider the following:  What was the experience of going to the theater in Athens?  How do the three Athenian playwrights vary the story of the House of Atreus?  What are the literary techniques of all three?  What do we today hope to get from our theatrical entertainment?  Is our “worship” of movie stars different from Greek hero worship?  If so, how?
• Reading: Aeschylus (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides); Sophocles (Electra); and Euripides (Electra).

March 10, 2012, Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Seminar 5:  Women of Antiquity

• The Greeks were notoriously harsh in their treatment of women.  Prof.
  Mary Lefkowitz, Dept. of Greek and Latin, Wellesley College, tackles this contention by way of two tragedies and a slide presentation on Greek painted pottery.
• Discussion:  What were the contributions of women in ancient Greek society?  Can myths help inform ancient reality and even how we feel about women in society today?
• Reading: Sophocles (Antigone ); and Euripides (Medea)

March 14, 2012, Wednesday, 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Seminar 6: MFA Tour — Professor Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow

March 24, 2012, Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Seminar 7:  Comedy and Politics

• Seminar 7, led by Professor Kenneth Rothwell, Department of Classical Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston, explores Athenian comedy through the work of Aristophanes.
• Discussion:  We may consider differences between ancient and modern comedy.  We will also consider the nature of the Athenian democracy compared to our own.
• Reading:  Aristophanes (Acharnians, Lysistrata, Clouds)

April 4, 2012, Wednesday, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Seminar 8:  The Inventors of History

• Prof. Cheryl Walker, Dept. of Classical Studies, Brandeis University, introduces us to an overview of Greek history and shows us how the Greeks invented history through selected passages in the Greek historians, Herodotus and Thucydides.
• Discussion:  Who were the Greeks?  What is worthy of the historical record?  How can we judge historical accuracy?  Who are “history makers” today and in the ancient Greek city-state?
• Reading:  Herodotus and Thucydides (selections):  Herodotus, Bk. 1., Thucydides, Bk. 1.1-13.  If you have time, Thucydides Bks. 2.34-54 and 5.84-116, are also highly recommended.

Sat., April 14-22, 2012
Spring Break, Public Schools

Sat., April 14-22, 2012
ExL Study Tour of Greece

• From Saturday, April 14 to Sunday, April 22, 2012, Greek Study Fellows will travel to a variety of ancient Greek sites.  The itinerary features sites highlighted in the texts read during the winter months.  Connie Carven, Barbara Harrison, and Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow will accompany the Fellows on the tour.
• Readings: separate readings on the art and archaeology of ancient Greece are encouraged (to be provided closer to the trip) for this archaeological component of the seminar.  Greek Study Fellows are asked to participate fully, which involves informal discussions in evenings and occasionally “on site” in Greece.

May 5, 2012, Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Seminar 9:  Philosophy

• Seminar 9 is devoted to two dialogues of Plato, Apology and Crito.  Prof. Andreas Teuber, Dept. of Philosophy, Brandeis University, guides Fellows through these texts with a number of fascinating questions: Why did the Athenian democracy condemn its most famous citizen, Socrates, to death?  What did Socrates say or do that prompted the charges against him in the first place?  What was the relationship between Socrates and Plato and their philosophies? 
• Discussion:  According to one common interpretation of the Crito, Socrates seems to say that a citizen must always obey the laws of the city, no matter what it commands, but in Apology he seems to leave room for justified disobedience.  How can the Apology and Crito be reconciled?  Was Socrates inconsistent?  What are Socrates’s arguments in Crito for a citizen’s obligation to obey?  Are those arguments still applicable today?
• Reading: Plato’s Apology, Crito, and (optional) Republic Bk. 1.

May 9, 2012, Wednesday, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Seminar 10:  Greek Influence on Modern Theater
Preliminary Curriculum Ideas due for ALL Fellows.

• In Seminar 10, Greek Study Fellows have an opportunity to consider the influence of the ancient Greeks on one “modern” classic and on modern Greek poetry.  Part of the discussion, led by Dr. Judy Malone-Neville focuses on a comparison of Aeschylus’s trilogy and the three plays of O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra.
• Discussion will begin with O’Neill, though we can also consider other modern texts strongly influenced by the quest for “the examined life,” especially in the realm of poetry.
• Reading:  Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra. 

September 12, 2012, Wednesday, 4:00-5:30 PM
Preworkshop Planning and Sharing

• This is the first of two meetings scheduled for Fall, 2012, where Greek Study Fellows will present their ideas for implementing the materials from the seminars in their future teaching and in the curricula of their schools.

October 2, 2012, Tuesday
Ithaka 2012 Festschrift

• This is the Welcome Festschrift — current Fellows welcome the new Fellows and share curriculum projects.

Required Reading (in the order to be read during the winter and spring)

1. The Iliad (Homer) trans. by Robert Fitzgerald (Vintage/Random) ISBN 0-385- (If you cannot secure a copy of Robert Fitzgerald’s translation, you may use Iliad [Homer] trans. by Stanley Lombardo [Hackett Publishing Co, Inc.] ISBN 0-87220-352-2.)
2. The Odyssey (Homer) trans. by Stanley Lombardo (Hackett Publishing Co, Inc.)ISBN 0-87220-484-7.  (If you cannot secure a copy of Stanley Lombardo’s translation, you may use Odyssey [Homer] trans. by Robert Fitzgerald [Vintage/Random] ISBN 0679728139.)
3. Oresteia:  Agamemnon, Choephoroi, Eumenides (Aeschylus) trans. by Robert Fagles (Penguin/Viking) ISBN 014 044-3339.
4. Electra, (Sophocles), in Sophocles Electra and Other Plays trans. by E. F. Watling (Penguin/Viking) ISBN 014-044-028-3. Electra, Medea (Euripides), in Medea and Other Plays, trans. by P.Vellacott (Penguin/Viking) ISBN 014-044-129-8. 
5. Antigone, Oedipus the King (Sophocles), in The Three Theban Plays,  trans. by Robert Fagles (Penguin/Viking) ISBN 014 044-425-4.
6. Herodotus and Thucydides (selections):  trans. by David Grene, HerodotusThe History (Univ. of Chicago Press) ISBN 0-226-32772-8 (paperback), trans. by Crawley, Thucydides.  (ISBN not available.)   Other possibilities:  trans. by Moses Finley, selections of Herodotus & Thucydides (Penguin/Viking) or trans. by Paul Woodroof, Thucydides (Hackett Publishing  Co., Inc.).
7. Apology and Crito (Plato) trans. by G.M.A. Grube (Hackett Publishing Co., Inc.) ISBN 0-915145-22-7; Republic (Plato) trans. by G.M.A. Grube,   revised by C.D.C. Reeve (Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co.) (ISBN not available.)
8. Acharnians, Lysistrata, Clouds (Aristophanes) trans. J. Henderson (Focus Classical Library, R. Pullins Company, P.O. Box 369, Newburyport, Mass. 01950) ISBN 0-941051058-7.
9. Mourning Becomes Electra (E. O’Neill), in Three Plays of Eugene O’Neill (Vintage/Random) (ISBN 0679763961.
10. Your own notebook (see above).

Lecturers (ExL Faculty )

• Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow*, PhD, ExL Project Humanist, Associate Professor and Chair, Dept. of Classical Studies, Brandeis University, tel. (781)-736-2183 (with voice mail) or email: aoko@brandeis.edu
  
• Mary Lefkowitz*, PhD, Professor Emerita, Dept. of Greek and Latin, Wellesley College
  
• Kenneth Rothwell*, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Classics, University of Mass., Boston
  
• Leonard Muellner*, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
  
• Andreas Teuber*, PhD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Philosophy, Brandeis University
  
• Cheryl Walker*, PhD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
• Eirene Visvardi, PhD, Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Classical Studies & Theater Arts, Brandeis University
  
• Gregory Nagy, PhD, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard Univesity Classics Department
  
• Olga Broumas, MFA, Director of Creative Writing and Writer-in-Residence, Department of English and American Literature, Brandeis University
  
• Theoharis C. Theoharis, PhD, Associate in Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
• Frank Nisetich, PhD, Visiting Professor, Classical Studies, Boston University; Professor Emeritus, Classics Department, University of Mass., Boston
• Judith Malone-Neville*, PhD, Independent Scholar
• Charles Segal, PhD, Walter C. Klein Professor of Classics at Harvard University (b. 1936, d. 2002)

	Judas Tree, Olympia.
	(Click here to view generalized map of the 2009 Study Tour)

Study Tour (required) (see GoogleMap of 2011 Tour, courtesy Don Lloyd, 2011 ExL Fellow)

"Greece is still a sacred precinct—
and my belief is it will remain so until the end of time."          —Henry Miller

Representative 2 Week Tour 2009
April 18 – May 1

• Greek tour guide will lead tour
• Team leaders and Greek Study Fellows will participate in occasional evening seminars and gatherings
• EST + 7 hours = time in Greece

April 18, Saturday, Depart Boston
April 19, Sunday, Greek Easter, Arrive Athens

• Overnight flight to Munich. Dinner and breakfast onboard.
• Short layover in Munich on Sunday morning, then depart for Athens
• Arrive Athens mid-afternoon. Greek Fellows will be met by a representative of our travel agency and will travel by private motor coach to our hotel, conveniently located within minutes of Plaka, the old quarters of the city, and near the new Acropolis Museum.
• Dinner on your own.
• Overnight stay in Athens.

April 20, Monday
Athens

• Breakfast.
• Group will take a guided tour of Athens. During this tour, the motor coach will drive by Temple of the Olympian Zeus; Hadrian's Arch; the Parliament; the Presidential Palace; the Olympic Stadium where the 1896 games took place; the National Library; Schliemann’s house; and the University of Athens.
• The tour continues with a visit to the National Archaeological Museum, well known for its excellent collection of artifacts from different periods and regions of Greece.
• Dinner at local restaurant.
• Overnight stay in Athens.

  Notice: In case the National Archaeological Museum is closed, we’ll visit the Acropolis and new Acropolis museum. We’ll visit the National Archaeological Museum on April 29th.

April 21, Tuesday
Delphi

• Breakfast.
• The group will drive to Delphi, stopping at Ossios Loukas, 11th century Byzantine monastery, and Arachova, a small town on the steep slopes of Mt. Parnassus.
• Dinner at local restaurant.
• Overnight stay in Delphi.

April 22, Wednesday
Delphi, Litochoro

• Breakfast.
• We will tour Delphi, site of the Delphic Oracle, including visits to the Temple of Apollo, the Castalia Spring, the Treasury of the Athenians and the local museum housing the famous bronze statue of the Delphic Charioteer.
• The group will head north to the town of Litochoro in the foothills of Mt. Olympus
• Dinner at local restaurant.
• Overnight stay in Litochoro. 

April 23, Thursday
Mt. Olympus, Vergina, Metsovo

• Breakfast.
• Short hike on Mt. Olympus, home of the gods.
• Tour of Vergina, the site of the royal tombs of Alexander the Great’s family, discovered in 1977.
• Continue through several villages to arrive in the evening in Metsovo, designated a traditional settlement by the Greek National Tourist Organization.
• Dinner at local restaurant
• Overnight stay in Metsovo.

April 24, Friday
Zagoria, Ioannina

• Breakfast.
• Drive northwest to the picturesque villages of Zagoria.
• Following this visit, we will drive to the historic city of Ioannina, a city on the western side of Lake Pamvotis. There will be time to explore the city in the afternoon.
• Dinner at local restaurant.
• Overnight stay in Ioannina.

April 25, Saturday
Dodona, Lefkada, Ithaka

• Breakfast.
• Drive to Dodona, ancient sanctuary and oracle of Zeus (some say oldest oracle in Greece).
• Following the visit, we will drive south for an afternoon arrival in Lefkada to meet a chartered yacht to take us to Odysseus' island of Ithaka in the Ionian Sea.
• Dinner on your own.
• Overnight stay on the boat.

April 26, Sunday
Ithaka, Kefalonia

• Breakfast on the boat.
• We will visit Ithaka, the purported home of Odysseus, off the northeastern coast of Kefalonia. There may be an opportunity to swim in the Ionian Sea, perhaps to Ithaka!
• Return to Kefalonia.
• Dinner on your own.
• Overnight stay on the boat.

April 27, Monday
Olympia

• Breakfast.
• We will cruise to the port of Kilini and board the bus to go to Olympia, site of the ancient Olympic Games.
• After touring Olympia, including visits to the stadium and the museum, we will go to our hotel in Olympia.
• Dinner at local restaurant.
• Overnight stay in Olympia.

April 28, Tuesday
Mycenae, Epidauros

• Breakfast.
• We will drive to Mycenae to visit Agamemnon’s palace and the Tomb of Agamemnon.
• Continue on to the ancient theater of Epidauros, well known for its excellent acoustics.
• Drive to Nafplion
• Dinner at a local restaurant.
• Overnight stay in Nafplion.

April 29, Wednesday
Corinth, Athens

• Breakfast.
• We will head for Corinth. There will be a stop at the Corinthian Canal and then we will continue on to Athens.
• Once in Athens, the group will take a walking tour of the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum.
• Dinner on your own.
• Overnight stay in Athens.

April 30, Thursday
Athens

• Breakfast.
• Day of leisure to complete your visits to such museums as the Benaki, the Byzantine, the Cycladic and the National Gallery of Art; to wander through the ancient cemetery of Keramikos on the edge of Plaka or visit Monastiraki, the flea market adjacent to Plaka; to stroll through the National Gardens, next to the Parliament Building, and visit Lycabettus Hill.
• Farewell dinner at local restaurant.
• Overnight stay in Athens.

Useful Words and Phrases

• YIA-sou — Hello, goodbye (general greeting)
• Ef-ha-ri-STO — Thank you
• Ka-li-MER-a — Good morning
• Pa-ra-ka-LO — Please
• Ne-RO, pa-ra-ka-LO — Water, please
• En-DA-xi — Everything’s okay
• Ti KA-nis? — How are you?
• Ka-LA, ef-ha-ri-STO, — Fine, thank you
• Kai-e-SIS? — And you?

Share a Poem

Plan to share a poem or prose passage on the trip. We will have ample time — several days on the bus, occasional evening gatherings over wine — to bring to the attention of others a poem or prose passage that speaks to Greece and Greek aspirations and ideals. In 5 minutes or so, introduce the poem and the poet, read the poem aloud, and briefly comment on why you chose it, and what it means. You might choose a passage from something we’ve read in class, the Iliad or the Odyssey, for example, or one of the ancient plays, or from Herodotus or Thucydides. You might read from Hesiod’s Theogony or Works and Days, or from the lyric poets Pindar and Sappho. Or you might select a poem from Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Byron; or from the modern Greek poets C.P. Cavafy, George Seferis, Odysseus Elytis, Yiannis Ritsos; or from poets who have drawn from classical themes such as Seamus Heaney, Irish Nobel Prize winner, or Rita Dove, former American poet laureate. Please bring copies of poems for others.

Recommended Reading
(see also Examined Life program list of required reading)

Modern Greek Poets

• C.P. Cavafy Collected Poems. Revised Edition (1992). Edited by George Savidis. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992. pb
• Oysseus Elytis The Sovereign Sun Selected Poems. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Kimon Friar. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1974. pb
• Yiannis Ritsos Selected Poems. Translated by Nikos Strangos with an Introduction by Peter Bien. Athens: Efstathiadis Group pb 1988.
• George Seferis Collected Poems. Revised Edition. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Phillip Sherrard. NJ: Princeton 1995. Pb

Writers on Greece

• Laurence Durrell’s Prospero’s Cell (Faber) /Corfu
• Louis DeBernieres’s Corelli’s Mandolin /Cephalonia
• Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi (New Directions)
• Patricia Storace’s Dinner with Persephone /Athens
• Austen Kark’s Attic in Greece /Nauplion
  

Curriculum Project

It is the responsibility of each Greek Fellow to develop a curriculum project — in the form of Study Guides — pertaining to the study of Greece, based on his/her discipline or area of interest. Serious consideration should be given to this project as the year progresses. The curriculum development project will be presented at the reception at Brandeis University held to welcome new Greek Study Fellows into The Examined Life program. Each project will be considered for publication on this website. Click here for a sample Study Guide.

The Curriculum project has three requirements:

• A preliminary proposal
• A final paper (3-5 pages or longer)
• A presentation of the final project at the Welcome Reception for new Fellows

Leadership Corps

The ExL Leadership Corps is committed to outreach activities aimed at strengthening the teaching of Greece in the schools. Students who successfully complete their tenure as Greek Study Fellows join a growing teacher and scholar corps of leaders in Greek studies to serve as mentors for others, to lead workshops, and to participate in aspects of outreach and dissemination.

Application Form and Costs

Application Form

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Please complete and submit the application form. Each registrant will receive a prompt registration confirmation and letter of welcome to the program as a Greek Study Fellow. In GreeceOnsite, ExL strives to create a sense of community and commonality in its efforts to strengthen Greek Studies in the schools and to raise public consciousness and knowledge of the importance of Greek ideas and achievements to the very fabric of American life.

Costs

Payment

Class size is limited. To hold a place, please send a $100 nonrefundable registration fee asap after you submit the online application.

Make checks and/or money orders payable to “Newton Public Schools: ExL Program.” Write “GreeceOnsite” on the memo line of your check. Send check or money order to:

Sandra Mangan
Office of Grants Management
Newton Public Schools
100 Walnut Street
Newton, MA, 02460

Program Leadership

The Examined Life: Greek Studies in the Schools (ExL) Program is administered by the Newton, MA school district (fiscal agent and primary school district partner) in cooperation with Brandeis University (primary university partner).

ExL Program Specialists comprise the administrative-advisory team responsible for the ExL program, including: graduate course; curriculum guides; study tour of Greece; dynamic teachgreece.org website; distance learning; evaluation; expansive outreach.

• Program Director: Barbara Harrison, PhD, Newton Public Schools
  
• Program Humanist: Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, PhD, Professor, Classics Department BrandeisUniversity
  
• Teacher Specialist and Liaison with School Districts: Constance Carven, MEd, Newton Public Schools
  
• Program Administrator: Judith Malone-Neville, PhD, Newton Public Schools
  
• Program Director of Media Production: Stephen Coren, Newton Public School

Funding Sources