Professor of Classics (Brooklyn College,
1979-) & of Classical Studies & of Comparative Literature (Graduate
School), Faculty Fellow, Wolfe Institute for the Humanities, Brooklyn College (1998-1999).
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In lieu of a usual Curriculum Vitae, some memories of benchmarks along the way & of paradigms that emerged in the course of play Epos in two strains: Pastoral vs Bucolic —
inter densas umbrosa cacumina fagos |
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Seminar Associate, Columbia University: Classical Civilization (1975-), Theory of Literature (1977-), The Renaissance (1986-). |
Harvard College, A.B. c.l. 1958: Latin Literature. University of Illinois, M/A. Greek. 1959 |
Portrait of JVS by Michael Halsband |
ACLS Travel Grant (1981).
Scholar Incentive Award, Brooklyn College (1982).
Faculty Research Awards, CUNY (1993-1994, 1982-1983, 1981-1982, 1980-1981, 1978-1979, 1977-1978).
Summer Research Grant, University of Pennsylvania (1968).
Bowdoin Prize (Graduate, Latin Essay), Harvard University (1962).
CLASSICAL
LITERATURE & ITS TRADITION —
BOOKS
Virgil’s Book of Bucolics, the Ten Eclogues Translated Into English Verse: Framed by Cues for Reading Aloud and Clues for Threading Texts and Themes: The Illustrated Digital Edition [Kindle Edition]. (Brooklyn: Bare Knuckles Press, 2014).
The Design of Virgil's Bucolics (London: Duckworth, 2004 [Second Edition with review of scholarship & polemical preface]) [http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/jvsickle/05design.htm]
Giovanni della Casa's Poem Book : Ioannis Casae Carminum Liber Florence 1564, edited & translated with commentary. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1999].
A Reading of Virgil's Messianic Eclogue (New York: Garland 1992).
Anthropology and Roman Culture,by Maurizio Bettini (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 1991), edited and translated from Italian.
Poesia e potere. Il mito Virgilio(Roma: Laterza 1986).
Augustan Poetry Books, ed. (Arethusa 1980).
The Design of Virgil's Bucolics (Roma: Ateneo 1978).
The New Archilochus, ed.
(Arethusa 1978).
ARTICLES
rev. Paola Gagliardi, Commento Alla Decima Egloga Di Virgilio. Spudasmata 161. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2014.” Vergilius 62 (2016): 153–57
.
“Daphnis” In The Virgil Encyclopedia, 1.337–38. Wiley-Blackwell.(2014).
“Meliboeus.” Idem, 2.808–09..
“Menalcas.” Idem, 2.812–13.
“Mopsus.” Idem, 2.842.
“Tityrus.” Idem, 3.1275–77.
"Virgil, Bucolics 1.1-2 & Interpretive Tradition: A Latin
(Roman) Program for a Greek Genre," Classical Philology 99.4 (2004)
336-53
[http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?CP994003]
"Quali codici d'amore nella decima egloga di Virgilio? L'eloquio elegiaco contestualizzato nel Bucolicon liber" Giornate filologiche "F. Della Corte" III (Genova, 2003) 31-62. [also on line: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/jvsickle/bbground.htm]
"Virgil vs Cicero, Lucretius, Theocritus, Callimachus, Plato & Homer: Two Programmatic Plots in the First Bucolic" Vergilius 46 (2000) 21-58 [outline here] [part one here] [part two here]."Paris No Paradise for Pissaro in New Epic Poem," a review of Derek Walcott, Tiepolo's Hound, with Gail Levin, Art Journal Spring (2001) 107-09.
"The Design of Derek Walcott's Omeros," Classical World 93.1 (1999) 7-27.
"Elie Nadelman's New Classicism," Sculpture Review 46.4 (1998) 8-15, with Gail Levin.
"The Four Seasons of Greek Poetry. Manuscript Page in Theocritus
(Aldus 1495)
Transcribed & Translated with Glosses." Roma, Magistra Mundi
Itineraria Culturae Medievalis. Me'langes offerts au Pe`re L. E. Boyle
a` l'occasion de son 75e anniversaire, Vol. 2 (Louvain-la-neuve 1998) [965]-974.
"Eclogues in Receivership, Bucolics to Reread": shared between
Vergilius 44 (1998) 113-15 and
Bryn Mawr Classical
Review.
"Staging Vergil's Future and Past," Classical Journal 93 (1997) 211-216 reviewing True Names: Vergil and the Alexandrian Tradition of Etymological Wordplay, by James J. O'Hara (University of Michigan Press, 1996), and Extremus Labor: Vergils 10. Ekloge und die Poetik der Bucolica, by Lorenz Rumpf, Hypomnemata 112 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996).
"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies," by Jared Diamond (W. W. Norton 1997), reviewed on-line in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (1997).
"Remus A Roman Myth, by T. P. Wiseman (Cambridge, 1994)," reviewed on-line in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (1997).
"Towards Interculturalism in Class," Paedagogus, Classical World 91.1 (1997) 47-52.
"A Review Article: The End of the Eclogues," Vergilius 41 (1995) 1-25, concerning Wendell Clausen, A Commentary on Virgil's Eclogues (Oxford 1994).
"Cicero's First Biographer in America," Ciceroniana 7 (1992) 141-149.
"Poetry and Ancient City: The Case of Rome," by Nevio Zorzetti, Classical Journal 86 (1991) 311-329: edited and translated from Italian.
"Response to a Georgics Reader Bemused by the Bucolics," Vergilius 36 (1990) 56-64.
"Praise and Blame for a 'Full Commentary' on Archilochus, First Cologne Epode," Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies University of London (1989) 104-08.
"The Hellenistic Background," in Recent Structural Studies on the Augustan Poets, Augustan Age 9 (1989) 42-48.
"Riscoprendo una sequenza poetica
del cinquecento: Ioannis Casae Carminum liber," Res Publica Litterarum
12 (1989) 223-227.
"The First Hellenistic Epigrams At Rome," Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies University of London Supplement 51 (1988) 143-156, paper from the Colloquium in honor of the eightieth birthday of Otto Skutsch (December 1986).
"The Elogia of the Cornelii Scipiones and the Origins of Epigram at Rome," American Journal of Philology 108 (1987) 41-55.
"`Shepheard Slave': Civil Status & Bucolic Conceit in Virgil, Eclogue 2," Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 56 (1987) 127-29.
"Informatica e studi classici: didattica
e ricerca fra mito e mezzo," in Cultura e lingue classiche, Biagio Amata,
ed. (Roma 1986) 59-65.
"Dawn & Dusk as Motifs of Opening & Closure in Heroic & Bucolic Epos (Homer, Apollonius, Theocritus, Virgil)," Atti del Convegno di Studi Virgiliani, I (Milano 1984) 124-147.
"Le Bucoliche. 11. La Struttura," Enciclopedia
Virgiliana I (1984) 549-552.
"How Do We Read Ancient Texts? Codes & Critics in Virgil, Eclogue One," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 13 (1984) 107-128.
"Stile ellenistico romano e origini dell'epigramma a Roma," Dall'epigramma ellenistico all'elegia romana, ed. Enrico Flores (Naples 1984) 9-26.
"Strutture interne di singole egloghe nel libro bucolico di Virgilio," Maia 35 (1983) 205-212.
"Order in Callimachus & Virgil (Aitia III-IV / Liber Bucolicon)," Actes VII Congrés F.I.E.C., I (Budapest 1983) 289-292.
"Theocritus Vergilianus?," Rivista di
Filologia 110 (1982)245-46.
"Poetics of Opening & Closure in Meleager, Catullus & Gallus," Classical World 75 (1981) 65-75.
"Style & Imitation in the New Gallus," Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 38 (1981) 115-124.
"Neget quis carmina Gallo?" QUCC
38 (1981) 125-127.
"Commentaria in Maronem Commenticia:a Case History of Bucolics Misread," Arethusa 14 (1981) 17-34.
"Bucolic Variatio & Single-Minded
Reading," Liverpool Classical Monthly 6 (1981) 189-191.
"Catullus 68.73-78 in Context (vv. 67-80)," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 84 (1980) 91-95.
"The Bookroll & Some Conventions of the Poetic Book," Arethusa 3 (1980) 5-42.
"Reading Virgil's Eclogue Book," Aufsteig und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.31.1 (Berlin 1980) 576-603.
"Gallus & Callimachus: Parallel Texts,"
Liverpool Classical Monthly 5 (1980) 109.
"On the Cologne Epode's End Again: an Antinote," Classical Journal 75 (1980) 225-28.
Verse translation of the Cologne Epode, adopted for Archaic Greece by Anthony Snodgrass (London 1980) 171-172.
"Revising the Eclogue Tradition," Rivista di Cultura Classica e Medioevale 1977 (Rome 1979) 791-97.
"Archilochus: the Hasty Emendation," Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 15 (1978) 171-73.
"Virgil's Sixth Eclogue & the Poetics of Middle Style," LCM 2 (1977) 107-08.
Review of Ancient Pastoral, A. J. Boyle, ed., Rivista di Filologia 105 (1977) 195-201.
"ET GALLVS CANTAVIT: a Review Article," Classical Journal 72 (1976-1977) 327-333.
"The New Archilochus Texts, The Problem of Authorship, The Meaning of Line 10, Select Bibliography for the Cologne Epode," Arethusa 9 (1976) 129-150.
"Theocritus & the Development of the Conception of the Bucolic Genre," Ramus 5 (1976) 18-44.
"Archilochus: a New Fragment of an Epode," Classical Journal 71 (1975) 1-15.
"The New Erotic Fragment of Archilochus," Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 20 (1975) 123-156.
"Epic & Bucolic (Theocritus, Id. vii / Virgil, Ecl. i)," QUCC 19 (1975) 45-72.
"Propertius (uates): Augustan Ideology, Topography, & Poetics in Elegy, IV, 1," Dialoghi di Archaeologia 8 (1974) 116-145
Review of Th. Rosenmeyer, The Green Cabinet: Theocritus & the European Pastoral Lyric, in American Journal of Philology 93 (1972) 348-354.
"Dialectical Methodology in the Virgilian
Tradition," Modern Language Notes 85 (1970) 884-92.
"Poetica Teocritea," QUCC 9 (1970) 82-97.
"The Fourth Pastoral Poems of Virgil & Theocritus," Atti Arcadia 3.V.1 (Roma 1970) 82-97.
"Is Theocritus a Version of Pastoral?"
Modern Language Notes 84 (1969) 942-946.
"About Form & Feeling in Catullus 65," Transactions American Philological Association 99 (1968) 487-501.
"The Unity of the Eclogues: Arcadian Forest, Theocritean Trees," TAPA 98 (1967) 491-508.
Dissertation: The Unnamed Child: a Reading of Virgil's Messianic Eclogue, abstract: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 71 (1966) 350-351.
""Donald Hinkson's Watercolours," in Jackie Hinkson
Caribbean Vibrations Watercolours, oils and drawings (London: The Mall Galleries, 1999), with Gail Levin.
Sarah Plimpton New Paintings (New York: June Kelly Gallery, 1999), with Gail Levin.
The Painterly Visions of Derek Walcott & Donald Hinkson," Latino(a) Research Review 4.1 (Summer 1999) 46-48, with Gail Levin.
"CUNY Critics Should Blame Themselves," Letter to the Editor, New York Times (March 31, 1997, A 14).
"`Anything New to Show Me?' Visiting, Collecting, and Natural History's Roots," in The Nature of Collecting, Newsletter of the South Fork Natural History Society 7,1 (1996) 26-27.
SARAH PLIMPTON , "On first looking at these new canvases," essay for June Kelly Gallery (1994).
"The Tragedy in Translations,"review of the Broadway revival of Brian Friel's play, with brief barroom interview of the playwright, published on-line in Bryn Mawr Classical Review (1994).
Editorial Collaborator:Edward Hopper
An Intimate Biography, by Gail Levin (Alfred A. Knopf 1995):
"This
book is joyfully dedicated to my husband, John Babcock Van Sickle, who deserves
credit not only for his unflagging interest and enthusiasm, but for his
unique contributions which have been collaborative in the best sense. He
has supplied remarkable insights at every level, literary acumen, translations,
editorial improvements, and above all, good cheer at sharing our home with
the Hoppers for so many years."
Oral History: Taped interviews with Larry Penny, Director of Natural Resources, Town of East Hampton, for the South Fork Natural History Society.
Taped Interview witlh Cipriana Scelba, long-time head of Fulbright Program for Cultural Exchange between the United States and Italy.
Publisher: W. Antony (David
Mus, sc. David Kuhn), The Arminarm Eclogues With the Hexercises for the
Heclogues (Roma 1971).
"Adventure & Discovery Narrative": Humanities Seminar in the Epic Tradition -- Homer, Odyssey; Petronius, Satyricon; Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn; Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse; Derek Walcott, Omeros.
"Poetics of Nature & Culture": Humanities Seminar in the Pastoral Tradition -- Theocritus, Virgil, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickens, Frost.
"Landscape & Livelihood": Humanities Seminar in the Roots of Ecological Thinking -- Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Lucretius, Virgil, Pliny (Natural History), Augustine.
"Towards Interculturalism in Class,"
report of experiments with collaborative and interactive classroom procedures
to foster intellectual community while teaching Greco-Roman culture in the
Brooklyn College Core Curriculum (forthcoming in Classical World).
"CORE STUDIES 1: Classical Origins of Western Culture. INTER-ACTIVE WORKBOOK. A pedagogic weapon / tool: Inspired and provoked by student difficulties with reading, writing & general acculturation in the basic course in Brooklyn College's Core Curriculum; part of an approach gradually worked out in class, which combines a WORKBOOK with the use of SMALL DISCUSSION GROUPS. The approach also seeks to place the classical experience in an interdisciplinary perspective, making connections "across the Core."
"Roots of Style: Greek & Latin Elements in English": taught on occasion as a separate course but also woven into the fabric of all my teaching, to share information about etymology and word formation, instill methods of analysis, encourage practice, and develop awareness of language as a document and instrument of historical change.
"Informatica e Studi Classici: Didattica
e Ricerca Fra Mito e Mezzo," Pontifical Salesian University, Rome (Conference
for teachers), University of Genoa (Conference for teachers), University
of Torino, University of Palermo.
"Heroic Identity Recast: Epic & Pastoral Tradition in Derek Walcott's Omeros"
"Epic Crossings: Echoes of Homer, Virgil, Dante, Joyce, & The African Queen in Derek Walcott' Omeros,"
"Derek Walcott's Omeros & Its Island Background--St Lucia (with slides),"
"Classic Reverberations in Modern America (with slides),"
"Poetry & Prophecy in the Virgil Myth,"
"Poetics of Empowerment in Pastoral: Moses, Hesiod, Theocritus, Virgil, Frost,"
Recent venues include The University of California (Los Angeles & San Diego, 1999), University of Havana (1999), CUNY Academy of Arts & Sciences, American Philological Association Annual Meeting (Chicago 1997), Speakers in the Humanities (New York Council for the Humanities), Classical Association of the Atlantic States, & the following institutions: Emory University, 1992, University of Washington (Seattle), Yale University, Nassau Community College; also University of British Columbia & in Italy, the Universities of Padova, Trieste, Bologna, Roma, Salerno, Genova, & Torino.
"Pastoral Ideology & Some Pitfalls in Deconstructing Tradition," International Society for the Classical Tradition, Tübingen, Germany (August 1992).
"Riprese classiche nel modernismo americano," Conference on the Machine Age and Classical Culture, sponsored by the University of Siena and Associazione Nuova Civiltà delle Macchine, Forlì, Italy (November 1991).
"Cicero's First Biographer in America," Colloquium Tullianum 'Cicero in America', New York (May 1991).
"Response to a Georgics Reader Bemused
by the Bucolics," Vergilian Society of America (San Francisco 1990).
"Crisis of Life and Genre in the Late Renaissance: the Poem Book of Giovanni della Casa," Renaissance Society of America (Boston 1989).
"Una nuova sequenza poetica del cinquecento: il Carminum Liber di Giovanni della Casa," Catalan Institute of Classics, Barcelona, 1990.
"IOANNIS CASAE CARMINVM LIBER: Catullan Theory & Horatian Practice in a Cinquecento Poetic Sequence," 8o Congresso Internazionale di Studi Umanistici, Sassoferrato (June 1987).
"The First Hellenistic Epigrams At Rome,"
University College, London, Colloquium in Honor of O. Skutsch (December
1986).
"The myth of Virgil as poet-prophet in Western tradition": American Academy in Rome (part of a conference on New Approaches To Latin Literature), University of Pisa, University of Pavia, University of Padua, also with consultation on computer use, University of Trieste, also with computer consultation, University of Naples, University of Palermo.
"Il computer nell'area umanistica," June 1984, at the Universities of Rome & Urbino & IBM Instructional Centers in Novedrate (Milan) & Rome; also in December 1984, for Conference, MONDO CLASSICO: Itinerari di lettura e proposte didattiche, University of Bari.
Invited Member of Panel Proposed for the 1997 American Philological Association Annual Meeting (Chicago): "From Homer to Omeros: Approaches to Derek Walcott's Omeros and The Odyssey: A Stage Version."
Invited Moderator for panel, "Hellenistic Poetry," annual meeting of the American Philological Association, New York 1996.
Invited Panelist, Convegno, Dall'epigramma ellenistico all'elegia romana, Società italiana per lo studio dell'antichità classica, Naples, November 1981.
Invited Member of US Delegation to the Convegno Mondiale Scientifico di Studi su Virgilio, Mantua-Rome-Naples, 19-24 September, 1981.
Invited Panelist for Arethusa Symposium on Virgil, 1980.
Seventh International Congress, International Federation of Classical Studies, Budapest, 1979.
Principal speaker & discussant, Virgil Conference, Classical Association of the Southwest, 1977.
Organizer & participant in panels at annual meetings of the American Philological Association: 1971 (pastoral tradition), 1975 (the new Archilochus papyrus), 1977 (Book Rolls & the Structure of the Poetic Book), 1979 (the new Gallus papyrus).
Referee for American Journal of Philology, Classical Journal, Classical World, Glyph, Greek, Roman & Byzantine Studies, Modern Language Notes, Text, Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vergilius, Oxford University Press, University of Wisconsin Press.
Editor of a monograph series, "INSTRVMENTVM LITTERARVM: Latin Literature & its Tradition": [* publication aided by computer]
Gregson Davis, The Death of Procris: 'Amor' and the Hunt in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Colin Macleod, Horace. The Epistles: Translated into English Verse with Brief Introductions and Notes. Foreword by R. G. M. Nisbet.
* Thomas Curley, Senecan Tragedy.
David Mus, Critical Essays. Encounters of Poets: Eliot & Pound, Shakespeare & Bonnefoy, Homer & Jacotet, Coleridge & Wordsworth, Virgil & Milton.
Corresponding Editor, Quaderni Urbinati
di Cultura Classica.
Regional Editor, Classical Journal (1978-1983).
Memberships: American Philological Association (life), Society for Textual Scholarship (Executive Committee, 1980-85), Classical Association of the Atlantic States, New York Classical Club.
Latin Reading Group (voluntary) for graduate
students in Medieval Studies & Comparative Literature (CUNY-NYU): Seneca,
Tacitus, Ovid, Horace, Virgil, etc. (1979-1985)
Brooklyn College: Humanities Division,
Promotion & tenure, 2003.
departmental committees -- Appointments (elected 1983-1985, 1994-), Costas
Library, Curricular Revision under NEH grant.
Taskforces: Dean of the College's on the Freshman Year; President's on English as a Second Language; Provost's on Information Technology.
Graduate School: committee service -- Computer Policy, DoctoralFaculty Policy, President's Advisory, Graduate Council, Classical Studies executive.
CUNY: committees -- University Research (1984-1987), Vice-Chancellor's Advisory for Exchange with Council on Foreign Relations. University Faculty Senate (Graduate School, 1985-1986).
Horticultural Society of the Hamptons,
South Fork Natural History Society, St. Lucia National Trust (Life Member),
Nature Conservancy, Union of Concerned Scientists, Worldwatch Institute,
Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Sierra Club.
University of the South, Sewanee: Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature (1996).
University of Tennessee, Chattanooga: Visiting Professor of Humanities (1996).
Brooklyn College: Director, The Ford Colloquium (1989-1992).
Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies, Rome: Professor-in-Charge, Visiting Professor (1972-1974).
Brown University: Visiting Associate Professor (1971-1972).
University of Pennsylvania: Instructor, Assistant Professor (1965-1971).
Harvard University: Teaching Fellow (1960-1963).
University of Illinois: Graduate Assistant
(1958-1959).