The Shape of Things to Come
salvete amici, χαίρετε φίλαι
It's been far too long since one of these emails, but here is one at last, and here is also a pivot in what these emails are going to be about. I thought that I would start a somewhat generic newsletter about projects I'm working on, but I'm going to shift this to being more explicitly about Greek and Latin teaching (courses, etc), projects (LGPSI, etc), and endeavours related to The Patrologist.
That might make it more commercial than you'd like, and if that's how you're feeling, feel free to unsubscribe.
What I've been up to
We're now in May, right? Sigh, time goes so quick. And then, of course, there's the Pandemic. The start of this year saw a bit of a blow with one college not having enough students to offer my course, and another college shifting significant amounts of work to their salaried staff and away from adjuncts like me.
Instead I have moved to offer more significant online language teaching. This is my second year of doing small-group classes, and the principle of Latin through Latin, Greek through Greek, is at the core of my teaching.
And I'm pleased to report that it's going well. I've been really pleased to have new students starting at various levels, filling up beginner courses, but also being able to launch some intermediate read-and-discuss survey courses courses in Latin and Greek.
What I'm working on
Apart from teaching, I've been slowly working on a number of (too many, let's be honest) side projects. Those I'm most committed to:
LGPSI - currently undergoing slow revision. It's actually my hardest to work on consistently
Developing an asynchronous video course - This is now in a very early alpha stage. I'm hoping this will provide a non-contact option for Greek and support a bit more freedom of time for myself.
Writing a book - I have a contract for a short non-academic book which is underway.
Greek Learner Texts Project - there's a lot going on with this, but it's also a kind of slow burn. But it's good stuff.
I wish I could report that I was getting some academic writing done, but between working and parenting and the pandemic, research has practically dropped to zero.
Vision for second half of 2020
I've bandied this about on twitter about, because it's been much on my mind. Apart from attempting to launch this video course, I'm looking to try to offer a kind of 'full-suite' of language class options. That means:
(a) rolling beginner options (a 4 course sequence) for Latin and Greek
(b) alternative Intensive Greek and Intensive Latin (i.e. one or the other, 4hrs a week)
(c) a range of intermediate text-based classes: including Latin and Greek patristics; some post-classical survey courses (late antiquity, medieval) in both language; biblical material;
I think I'm at the point where this is at least viable to try, and it will give me a reason/excuse/opportunity to do a lot more spoken Latin and Greek and read texts that others do not. The more this develops, the more stable it becomes, and the more attention I can also turn to developing learner resources, developing some advanced options, and even getting some writing done.
And you?
I'm always happy to hear from people, including current students (feedback welcome), past students (I like to hear what you're up to), interested observers (is there something you wish existed that I could make).
Seumas