Invitation to Form a Digital Classics Association

Invitation to Form a Digital Classics Association

Dear Colleagues,

We write to ask your support in an effort to promote digital classics.

We are in the process of forming a Digital Classics Association (DCA) to foster digital approaches to understanding classical antiquity, its legacy, and associated cultures.

The immediate goal of the DCA is the creation of a dedicated session for digital classics at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association (APA). This session will complement existing online and offline venues for digital humanities and digital classics collaboration. To this end, we are applying for recognition as an APA Type II Affiliated Group. Recognition as a Type II Affiliated Group will permit the DCA to host a combined poster session / informal reception at the APA Annual Meeting for the next five years. Creation of such a venue will bring sustained discussion of digital methods to the largest North American meeting of classical scholars.

The application deadline for APA Affiliated Group status is March 23, 2012. If successful, the first DCA group meeting and sponsored session will take place at the January, 2014 APA meeting in Chicago.

We invite you to support this effort by becoming a member of the fledgling DCA at your earliest convenience. Membership is open to anyone with interests in digital classics, requires no fee, and imposes no obligation.

To become a member, please go to the pilot DCA website (http://dca.drupalgardens.com/) and enter your name and email address into the DCA mailing list. We will compile all the names we receive before the APA deadline into a membership list to submit with the application. Your name and email address will be used only for the purpose of supporting the APA application and for occasional updates on future DCA activities. (You can remove your information from the list at any time by emailing the DCA Secretary-Treasurer.)

Your membership will advance no agenda other than broad support for all forms of digital classics as outlined above. If we are successful, all aspects of the organization, including mission, structure, activities, and personnel, will be open to full revision by the membership at the first DCA business meeting at the 2014 APA conference.

For the purposes of the APA application, we have created an organizational structure, embodied in the attached set of bylaws. In accord with these bylaws, we have formed an Interim Steering Committee with five members:

Co-Chairs: Neil Coffee (University at Buffalo) and Gregory Crane (Perseus, Tufts University)
Secretary-Treasurer: Allen Romano (Florida State University)
Steering Committee Member: Charlotte Roueché (King’s College London)
Steering Committee Member: Christopher Blackwell (Furman University, Center for Hellenic Studies)

Open elections for all of these positions are planned for the 2014 APA Meeting.

We would like to extend this invitation as widely as possible, so please forward this email to anyone who might be interested. With your support, we hope to create a highly productive venue for formal and informal discussions for years to come, and to found an organization that will foster the development of digital approaches to classical antiquity by a variety of other means as well.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration. We hope to hear from you!

Yours sincerely,

Neil Coffee               Gregory Crane