tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017234.post111805259819602800..comments2023-11-16T07:12:40.867-05:00Comments on Dissoi Blogoi: First QuestionsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017234.post-1118147811507269412005-06-07T08:36:00.000-04:002005-06-07T08:36:00.000-04:00Dear Thornton,Thanks for writing in about this. Yo...Dear Thornton,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for writing in about this. Your question allows me to clarify what perhaps was made unclear by some previous posts of mine.<BR/><BR/>The May Week Seminar is a week-long study of a particular text (or, as in this case, a group of closely related texts) hosted by the Classics Faculty of Cambridge University. It's not a public event but something internal to the university. Scholars from outside the university, such as myself, attend or even give a presentation by invitation.<BR/><BR/>I don't know the history of it. I've heard it referred to as the Laurence Seminar, from which I've inferred that it is connected with the Laurence Chair in Ancient Philosophy, which David Sedley occupies. <BR/><BR/>It's basically a week-long, intensive reading group. The text under consideration gets translated from start to finish. Whoever is responsible for leading a session will translate some stretch of text and raise issues--philosophical, philological, textual--as appropriate. Naturally participants will have their own questions to raise as well.<BR/><BR/>The meetings are informal in the sense that there have are no minutes or proceedings; the discussions too tend to be unstructured in a good way.<BR/><BR/>My participation in the seminar stems from the happy accident that I spent a month of my sabbatical two years ago as a visitor in Cambridge, during the time when the seminar would be meeting, and was asked if I would participate. By some mistake-- which however I was quite happy to take advantage of!--I was invited to participate this year once more.<BR/><BR/>I have been wary of seeming to make a private event public by posting about it on a blog. I did not begin to post without first consulting with David Sedley and Malcolm Schofield. Also, I intend to be very cautious about using names and will avoid lifting up, for broad circulation, remarks that were formulated ex tempore and for use, so to speak, 'within the household'. I'll probably for that reason restrict myself largely to my own reflections and reactions, even at the risk of appearing to be as a consequence egoistic.Michael Pakalukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00233648836210188722noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11017234.post-1118112566772700672005-06-06T22:49:00.000-04:002005-06-06T22:49:00.000-04:00MP,At the risk of showing my ignorance and youth, ...MP,<BR/><BR/>At the risk of showing my ignorance and youth, could you explain the structure of May Week a bit more? I understand that this past series of sessions were on writings in Aristotle's Parva Naturalia, but do different topics/authors get chosen in different years? Are these sessions annual? Are the sessions seminars where the identified person (on the program you listed below) serves as the expositor of the text? Are these public events with large groups of scholars or invitation only study groups? Are there records or proceedings from the meetings that account for the presentations or do the expositors (if that is the right term) circulate drafts or notes? Have these sessions been going on for a long period (years, decades, centuries)? I find the existence of a week-long seminar amidst all the Oxbridge folks a lovely thing to contemplate, but am just curious about more of the institutional structure and history of May Week.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com