As a fourth-year undergraduate in the Classical Studies Department at
the University of Waterloo, I have put due thought into what my next
steps will be, when to take them, and where they will lead me. I set my
courses, semester by semester, checking off graduation requirements and
making quite certain that those necessary courses jibe well with my
ever-changing and evolving interests in the world of classical
antiquity. Each paper I submit, each exam I take, and all the readings
and translations I grind out are a stepping stone on the
cursus honorum that
I have planned out for myself—and as such are means to an end—or at
least to the next, next step. I have been certain that I would like to
move on to a Master’s degree and eventually a PhD in Classical studies
for the entirety of my university career to this point, and so each of
those steps are taken with that in mind. And with my internship at the
Canadian Institute in Greece soon coming to an end, it seems, now more
than ever, to be a most appropriate time to reflect on where I am going
and how this trip has affected that decision.
As those who have been to Greece will know, everything is slower here:
the pace of passerby on the sidewalk, the speed with which the sun
travels from one horizon to the other, even dinner is a decidedly
lengthy affair. As such, I have found plenty of time for contemplation
to this end—whether it was looking out over the city from high on
Lykavittos, walking along the babbling harbour at Piraeus, or sitting in
the sun on the patio of the Institute’s hostel. Most of my work at the
Institute was in the expansion of its current Social Media presence and
in the inventory of the 6,000+ volume library, and so in this way, I was
introduced to sides of the academic world which, through regular course
work, would normally be invisible or inaccessible to an undergraduate
student (i.e., academic marketing and information systems organization).
Katy Lamb, who also served as an intern during my stay at the Institute
headed up the inventory project, while I got the team lead on Social
Media. Working with Katy, the Fellow, Chris Cornthwaite, the Assistant
Director, Jonathan Tomlinson, and the Director, David Rupp, has been a
pleasure all term long, and their help, advice, and opinions have
certainly made me a better worker and organizer on both projects I
worked.
This internship has also given me the unique opportunity to appreciate
how the fields of Classics and Archaeology are approached all over the
world, as the Canadian Institute is but one of nineteen foreign
archaeological schools in Athens. Through exchanges, internships,
fellowships, regular membership, and post-doctoral work, new faces were
always cycling in and out of Athens, and it was my pleasure to live,
learn, and travel with students from all over the world, most especially
those students at the Norwegian, Swedish, American, Finnish, and
British schools. One excursion to Eleusis I remember as particularly
memorable as I, an art historian and philologist, was accompanied by an
archaeologist, an osteologist, and a modern European historian, which
made for a rather rewarding interdisciplinary visit. Of course, I came
nowhere close to visiting all of the sites I set out to, with so much to
do in Athens and Attica alone but I am feeling both accomplished and
satisfied in what I have seen and the places I have yet to go.
As it happens, during my stay at the CIG I have both applied for and
been accepted to the MA program in Classical Studies at the University
of Waterloo in which I will be pursuing a thesis tentatively focused on
the reception of Hellenistic Art in the collections of Renaissance
Italy. Naturally, this thesis will have much to do with the
archaeological record and display contexts of Greece and the broader
Mediterranean world, and so my research and preparation for this study
in Greece, has been incredibly rewarding. I have visited the Piraeus,
New Acropolis, National Archaeological, and countless other museums
whose collections of Hellenistic Art are integral pieces of the wider
Hellenistic perspective on art. After this internship I will also spend a
short amount of time in Rome, before travelling the Cyclades with my
family and ending my stay in the Mediterranean there.
The chance to live in Greece spelt a return to my roots, as my
father’s family is of Hellenic descent – hailing from Santorini and
Syros – and so Hellenic culture has always been a part of my life, and
for this internship I am incredibly grateful. In academia I have always
felt a particular interest in the Greece of antiquity, but the Greece of
today holds a special place in my heart as well and for all its
culture, its people, its art, music, food, language, and its
hospitality, I found it a beautiful lens through which I could reflect
on my goals and found all of my academic aspirations completely
justified.
Matt Coleman
University of Waterloo Intern, Spring 2018
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