Second Contact Session

May 02-06, sofia, Bulgaria

After the successful First Contact Session of the “Contextualizing Classics” OSI-HESP Regional Seminar which took place last September, the University of Sofia once again hosted a Second Contact Session this spring (2-6 May 2006). The meeting was on a smaller regional scale than the previous one and included Seminar Participants from Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. On the other hand, it enhanced significantly the cooperation on several of the Seminar’s Intersession Activities through a series of coordination meetings.

One of the other major goals during the five days of the Session was the opening of the Seminar towards academic institutions in Bulgaria other than the University of Sofia. The Contact Session included representatives of the Universities of Veliko Turnovo, Blagoevgrad, and the Medical Academy of Sofia. Scholars from all around Bulgaria got acquainted with the philosophy, the strategy and the aims of the “Contextualizing Classics” Regional Seminar and were given the opportunity to actively promote them in their home institutions. The organizers hope that this practice will serve as a model for the promotion of the Seminar in other countries from which Seminar Participants come.

The third main emphasis of the event was getting students involved in the activities of the Regional Seminar. Two of the guest-speakers conducted open lessons with the students from the Department of Classics at Sofia University. This exchange of teaching methods and practices between representatives of different countries helped Bulgarian students open their minds towards the multiplicity of different possible learning experiences and, at the same time, gave useful hints and insights to the teachers in Classics which methods and forms of education can be successfully transferred in a foreign context.

The activities in which the participants engaged were the following:

Open lessons

Vesna Dimovska
Adjective Degrees in Latin

Octavian Gordon
From Manuscript to Critical Edition

Lectures and Presentations

Dragana Dimitrijevich
Could Cicero's Conception of 'Humanitas' Be Applied to the Current Reforms of University Courses in Humanities?

Vesna Dimovska
Humanistic Education in Macedonia

Elena Dzukeska
The Position of Historical Grammar in the Previous and in the Current BA Curriculum of the Institute of Classical Studies in Skopje

Violeta Gerjikova
Why Classics, or How Do Classics  Departments  Advertise What They Sell on the Internet

Octavian Gordon
The Classic Curricula in Romanian Faculties of Theology

Dimitar Iliev
Teaching Greek Poetry with  TLG

Elia Marinova
Textual Criticism as a University Discipline: Limits and Perspectives

Nevena Panova
Plato's Attitude to Poetry and Poets and the Possible Interpretative Approaches towards It

Nicolay Sharankov
Ancient Heritage and Classical Education in Bulgaria

Gorana Stepanich
In epigrammata priscorum commentarius: a Humanist Way of Contextualising Classics