Classics, Humanities and Italian Studies

Find out more about the CHI major at: https://cola.unh.edu/classics-humanities-italian-studies

"Capitolium" Capstone Project
A.J. O'Neil with Professor Scott Smith

UNH CHI Student A.J. O’Neil’s Capitolium Project reconstructs, with exacting precision, the central temple in Ostia, the port city of ancient Rome in order to create a powerful viewer experience through 3-D technology. Visitors to Ostia can see the partial ruins today, but with the power of technology, anyone anywhere on earth can see the full temple, its decorations, and its original context in the Ostia forum. https://mypages.unh.edu/hugemanities/aj-oneil-rome?admin_panel=1

"Dante and Social Justice"
Erin Dawson with Professor Anna Marra

From the GRSL Project: Taking an interdisciplinary, but historically centered perspective, the course Ancient and Medieval Italy examines Dante’s Divine Comedy as meditative text to explore the most basic truths about human nature. Selections from the three canticles that form the Comedy -Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso –will be read in dialogue with contemporary political, ethical, and philosophical topics, such as free speech, democracy, personal and civic responsibilities, and social justice. Special attention will be given to Dante's poetic vision of sins and virtues as a collective consciousness, the weakness of human nature, and its endless possibility for redemption. For “We Hold These Truths,” I intend to apply “integrative contemplative pedagogy,” which focuses on a “critical first-person approach” to the study of the Divine Comedy in order to explore the fundamental relation between poetic texts and reality. How does literature contribute to the search for truth? How does Dante’s text relate to both Medieval and Contemporary truths? How can the Divine Comedy contribute to our understanding of equality and justice?

Student Description - Students read Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy" and responded in the medium they decided was best suited to their abilities. For my project, I decided to represent the thoughts and feelings of someone who deals with social inequality through an art piece. The woman has her mouth taped shut reflecting the idea that the victims of inequality are not able to speak up on certain issues because they are viewed as “less than” compared to others in society.

We Hold These Truths

The concept of truth is one of great complexity. By definition, the word truth means “the property of sentences, assertions, beliefs, thoughts, or propositions that are said, in ordinary discourse, to agree with the facts or to state what is the case,” (Truth | Definition, Importance, Theories, & Facts, 2009). In a philosophical sense, truth is beneath the surface of every situation, person, etc. Everyone has their own personal truths, as well as every situation having one ultimate truth. In the essence of social inequality, it is these situational and personal truths that allow and progress inequality within our society. When thinking about the inequality sustained within modern society, the quote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” written into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson comes to mind. The quote is quite ironic, being that many American citizens are not truly free. Social inequality is quite literally ingrained in our society. Based on personalized truths of the founders of modern society, different ethnic groups within America and around the world are victimized because of their decent. For my project, I decided to create the thoughts and feelings of someone who deals with social inequality through an art piece. The woman has her mouth taped shut reflecting the idea that the victims of inequality are not able to speak up on certain issues because they are viewed as “less than” compared to others in society. She is asking herself questions like “Why must I live in Hell during my time on Earth?” and “Why must I live in Hell for sins I did not commit?” as a parallel to “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri. As we learned throughout the semester, Dante’s book “Inferno” portrays Dante being guided through Hell and visiting those who have committed sins that lead them to Hell. In my piece, the woman wonders what she has done to live through Hell, but not during her afterlife, but during her time on Earth. In the words of Dante Alighieri, “Those who are here [Hell] can place no hope in death, and their blind life is so abject that they are envious of every other fate. The world will let no fame of theirs endure; both justice and compassion must disdain them; let us not talk of them, but look and pass.” These words said by Virgil to Dante in the third canto of “Inferno” explain that the sinners who are placed in that level of Hell are one’s of envy. They were blinded by wanting what they did not have and are now being punished. I wanted to include it with my piece because it explains what I imagine people who face inequality feel like. They envy a life that can be lived without discrimination or prejudice. They envy a life where they are equal. Truth is powerful, but many “truths” silence those that already face scrutiny for being human. These truths are a collection of the unfair, and directly correlate with the importance and capability of truth.

References

truth | Definition, Importance, Theories, & Facts. (2009). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/truth-philosophy-and-logic

MANTO Greek Myth Database
with Professor Scott Smith

MANTO is an international collaboration to create a comprehensive Greek Myth database with visualization tools. The team includes UNH Professor Scott Smith, a scholar of myth in Australia, and a lot of students who are crucial to the development of the project. The principal contributing students are: Ari Toumpas (Classics 2019), Kennis Barker (PSYC and CLAS 2021), Audrey Coleman (Astrophysics 2021). http://manto.nodegoat.net/viewer.p/60/2616/scenario/1/geo/

UNH Classics
with Professor Anna Marra

Italian American Roots is a multimedia e-magazine. 12 students pursued passion projects exploring diverse and underrepresented facets of Italian-American identity to create a cohesive e-magazine. All independent projects illustrated the theme of Italian-American identity in New England, inspired by the semester’s coursework. In studying local Italian American identity students gained a better understanding of how culture intersects with other areas of lived experience. This is the inaugural issue of an anticipated multi-year project. https://www.flipsnack.com/potpourri733/italian-roots-spring-2021-issue.html

Classic
with Professor Scott Smith

A featured podcast on Greek Myth, written and produced by the Classics Program and their crack team of UNH undergraduate students!

"The Making of Clorilli"

The short documentary “The Making of Clorilli”, directed and produced by Sophia Kurzius (Journalism, ’20), brings to life the North American premiere of the long-lost Renaissance pastoral play Clorilli by Leonora Bernardi, starring UNH CHI students and featuring the talents of students from the Department of Music. The production, directed by Anna Newman in a translation by Anna Wainwright, was the latest iteration of a beloved tradition, the annual CHI play. Performances took place in May of 2019—the show will go on in Fall 2020 in Murkland Hall, with the delayed but spectacular production of Plautus’Menaechmi.

"The Greek Myth Files"

“The Greek Myth Files” a smart but accessible podcast on Greek myths written and developed by UNH students taking INCO 590, in collaboration with the greek myth lab.

"The Biblical Origins of Satan"

Julia Paquette is a Biomedical Sciences major in HUMA 527(H): Humanities and Religion: Followers of the One God: an Introduction to Judaism, Christianity and Islam and presented her research on “The Biblical Origins of Satan"

Camryn Luby, Humanities Senior Thesis

Camryn Luby summarizes her senior thesis in the humanities in this video. Congratulations on completing her senior year!