Day 24 (9/18 - Fri)

Today was deadline day. For what, you ask? Why, today was the submission deadline for individual abstracts for possible inclusion in the program of the 106th meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, to be held next spring in Oklahoma City. I've attended this Classics conference every year since 2001 (my first year in grad school when it was held in lovely Provo, UT and where I made the sudden realization that good BYU students don't wear bushy beards like the one I had at the time...) and I hope to have my abstract accepted this year. For those who don't know how this sort of thing works: 1) in the course of your academic research you land upon an idea or insight you'd like to share with others in the profession, 2) you write a one-page summary of your idea/argument and send it in by the deadline, 3) you find out later in the fall if you are accepted onto the program as a presenter or not.

My research basically involves me reading ancient books (in nice, modern type-set editions) whence I get my head full of ideas, followed by modern books about those ancient books, followed by more books... you get the idea. Here's one I read in tonight while writing my abstract:



My main research is on the extremely fascinating Roman epic poet Lucan. Now this guy lived a crazy life. Maybe I'll write a bit more about him some time.

Oh, the title I proposed for my paper?
Dueling Memories: Augustus’s Res Gestae vs. Lucan’s Bellum Civile

Epic. (literally)