Mizzou: Classics, Archaeology, and Religion

Congratualtions to Audie Ballew, who has earned his BA in English, Religious Studies, and Ancient Mediterranean Studies with a minor in Journalism and a certificate in Multicultural Studies!

Audie's favorite classes were Dr. Signe Cohen's Robots and Religion and Dr. Kate Kelley's Monsters in Religion and Folklore. Especially exciting for Audie was applying concepts from Religious Studies to readings of popular media, and he hopes to continue to do this in the future.

Audie will be applying for graduate programs with an interest in focusing on English literature and creative writing, but he also hopes to continue working in Religious Studies, which enriches his reading and writing experiences.

No doubt about it: the CAR Department is home to some highly hilarious comedic actors! This year's Homerathon was another hoot (this is the second of 2 batches of photos of our entertainers in action). A delightful breather before we plunge into preparation for the final exam week!

No doubt about it: the CAR Department is home to some highly hilarious comedic actors! This year's Homerathon was another hoot (this is 1 of 2 batches of photos of our entertainers in action). A delightful breather before we plunge into preparation for the final exam week!

Congratulations to this year's undergraduate Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Religious Studies award recipients, some of them seen in these photos (batch 2 of 2): William Wicks (Chapman Scholars in Religion and Excellence in Religious Studies), Colin Claybrook (LaBrunerie Prize in Ancient Greek), Grace Kottmeyer (Chapman Scholars in Religion), Grace Rieder (CAMWS Outstanding Achievement), Ryan Wentzel (Excellence in Classical Studies), Fisher Moore (Excellence in Classical Studies), Silas Bloch (Tarkow New Major Award), Elijah Coats (Wake Foster Latin Prize), Maile Stansberry (Chapman Scholars in Religion, Excellence in Religious Studies), Amber Macadam (Community Service Award), Kale Rollins (Kill Raitt Opportunity Award), and Caitlyn Dresser (Excellence in Archaeology).

Congratulations to this year's undergraduate Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Religious Studies award recipients, some of them seen in these photos (batch 1 of 2): William Wicks (Chapman Scholars in Religion and Excellence in Religious Studies), Colin Claybrook (LaBrunerie Prize in Ancient Greek), Grace Kottmeyer (Chapman Scholars in Religion), Grace Rieder (CAMWS Outstanding Achievement), Ryan Wentzel (Excellence in Classical Studies), Fisher Moore (Excellence in Classical Studies), Silas Bloch (Tarkow New Major Award), Elijah Coats (Wake Foster Latin Prize), Maile Stansberry (Chapman Scholars in Religion, Excellence in Religious Studies), Amber Macadam (Community Service Award), Kale Rollins (Kill Raitt Opportunity Award), and Caitlyn Dresser (Excellence in Archaeology).

Security in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean:
Theory, Ex*****on, and Materiality

University of Missouri, Columbia, April 9-10, 2027

Call for Papers

In 1981, the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas opened its exhibition, Security in Byzantium: Locking, Sealing, Weighing. The exhibition featured Byzantine objects centered around three “genres” of security, as defined by Gary Vikan and John Nesbitt, including, “locks and keys, sealing and stamping implements, and official weights”. It was a groundbreaking initiative that opened the door to new questions dealing with the materiality of security in Byzantium. Currently, a new exhibition, Byzantine Security: How to Protect an Empire in the Palm of your Hand, is being prepared for the spring of 2027 at the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology. It aims to build upon questions raised by the Menil Collection exhibition and expand its scope. It will feature objects from both the Byzantine collection and from earlier Mediterranean cultures, and it will combine objects from the three “genres” established by the Vikan and Nesbitt, with other objects used to protect their owners from harmful forces through metaphysical processes, such as amulettes and objects of veneration or ritual that could induce miraculous intervention by gods or saints.

The symposium, “Security in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean: Theory, Ex*****on, and Materiality” will accompany the exhibit, with the goal of generating scholarly discussion pertaining to the idea of security from a wider vantage point. In addition to the study of small objects, such as those exhibited in the museum, the symposium will call on the examination of textual sources and large-scale material sources such as architecture and monumental decoration.

During the symposium, scholars will reflect on the different ways in which ancient and medieval people protected themselves, their property, and the broader social structures on which they depended. To begin, we will ask what defined security in the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world, and, consequently, against what forces people sought to be protected. How do authors describe security and protection? Are they linked to individual property and well-being or collective concerns? Do authors associate security and protection with negative emotions, like fear, or with more positive ones, like comfort? In writing about protection and security, are authors concerned with natural or spiritual forces?

Then, we will study the mechanisms and materials used to ensure security and how they were implemented. What objects and structures did medieval and ancient people use to protect themselves? Were there distinct private and public mechanisms devised to protect individuals and the state? Were there differences in the ways people protected their bodies and their souls?

Throughout our discussions, we will reflect on whether preoccupations with security and protection hindered or nurtured technological and artistic advancements and if they tended to promote fear and division or to strengthen communal bonds.

Some topics that could be addressed are:
Mechanisms for protecting states from foreign enemies, such as fortifications, military strategies, and diplomacy.
Questions concerning the use of violence and force for protection and how those in power justified it.
Legal mechanisms for protecting oneself from violence within one's own community or for protecting personal property, such as legal procedures or prescriptions dealing with ownership and violent acts.
Material mechanisms for protecting property such as locks, keys, caskets, and seals.
Architectural mechanisms and clothing used for protecting people from the elements.
Spiritual or metaphysical ways of protecting oneself from sickness, harm, and other evil forces, such as devotion to particular gods or saints and the performance of magic.
Individual and collective understandings of security.
Protection of the body vs. protection of the soul.

The symposium’s topics will be related to ancient and medieval cultures from the broader Mediterranean, so that we can consider questions of both change and continuity over time.

Keynote Speaker
George Demacopoulos, Fordham University

Please send abstracts of up to 400 words to Elizabeth Zanghi at [email protected] by July 31, 2026. Partial funding can be made available for speakers as needed.

Reminder! Join us TOMORROW, May 8th for the 32nd Annual Homerathon featuring Book 2 of the Iliad, along with a celebration honoring this year’s CAR student award recipients!

Lunch will be provided — we hope to see you there 🤩

On Wednesday afternoon, April 22, five AMS graduate students and two faculty members took part in the Columbia Independent School Toga Day festivities. Steve Rector displayed one of his drones and explained its archaeological use. Erica Hampton, Astrid Weisend, Phoebe Henricks, and Chris Simonson helped students make clay votive offerings and learn their future through Latin and Greek oracular pronouncements. Ted Tarkow served as greeter, and David Schenker drove the van. It was great fun for all, supporting the Latin teachers, Lauren Woodruff and Chris Dodig, both of them graduates of our department.

Are you interested in Religious Studies? Looking for Humanities classes in the fall? Student involvement opportunities? Want to know more about your Religious Studies professors and what they do? Or just looking forward to some free pizza?

If so, then please join the Religious Studies club for our first-ever Religious Studies faculty panel! On May 1st from 5:30 to 7:30 pm in Swallow 101.

If you have any questions this semester please reach out to the current president Christian Jones at [email protected]. If you are interested in joining in the fall semester please reach out to our incoming president Amber McAdam at [email protected].

Congratulations to Caitlyn Pallas, PhD candidate in Classical Archaeology, who was awarded the Fulbright’s Open Study/Research Award for Italy next academic year! She will spend next year continuing her dissertation research on Roman mortar, and she will be working with Padova University and its laboratories to conduct microscopic analyses on Roman mortar samples.