Latin has held a steadfast presence far beyond the reaches of memory — no technology, war or revolution could wipe it off the map. Many would argue it to be a dead language, its culture no longer existent or applicable to life today. But anyone who has dipped a toe into the classics scene at the University would strongly disagree.
“There has never been a period — ever — where the language has not been spoken,” said LSA Prof. Gina Soter, who founded the Residential College’s department. “It may not have been a first language, but the language has a history from antiquity through the Middle Ages — through everything — up until the current day.”
Within the RC, students and faculty have created a cozy atmosphere in their own department that brings Latin to life through cultural activities outside the classroom.
Soter founded the Residential College’s Intensive Latin program when she joined the University in 2000. She discovered that teaching students to speak the language (as opposed to just reading and writing) almost instantaneously improved their understanding of Latin. Before Soter came to the University, Latin existed solely in LSA, and there, speaking wasn’t a priority. The RC program continues to challenge that.
“We finally added our fifth semester readings class, which is a class that culminates in a Latin play done in Latin,” Soter said.
This 300-level class is limited to students who have taken Latin 195 and 295 and then passed a Latin proficiency test. The play selected this year was written by Plautus in 200 B.C., and students designed the costumes and the set, besides acting in the production.
“We work with the play and figure out how we can make something that was written two thousand years ago accessible to people today and keep it in Latin,” Soter said.
“The problem for many students and people is that they don’t have any idea what kind of life the Latin language has had outside of classroom authors,” she added.
Every two years, Soter organizes a trip to the Vatican in Italy, during which students in the RC Latin program have a chance to communicate with a monsignor — a native who only speaks Latin. It is this type of experience that Soter hopes will help get the language off the page and alive in the minds of students.
The RC’s classical department is part of a larger group of just over 150 students who are working toward classical majors and minors under the close instruction of 29 faculty members, with classes that often have fewer than ten students. Many of these students may not have originally planned to be a part of this small department when they enrolled at the University — students in the field come from concentrations like classical archaeology and modern Greek.
According to Soter, many of her students didn’t expect to study Latin. Some intend to pursue careers in medicine, law or education, but others simply had no idea what they wanted to study.
“I’ve had some of the most wonderful students come in with no clue why they want to do it,” Soter said. “I think it’s because they wanted to do something different.”
This was the case for Chris Ostro, a ‘U’ alum who triple majored in history, comparative literature and classical language and literature.
“I didn’t expect to go into classics as a freshman,” Ostro said, “but I thought Latin would be the hipster language to learn, so I took it as my language requirement and I really liked it.”
After reading the Latin poet Catullus, he was hooked.
“I couldn’t believe how relatable it was — it was weird that there was a difference of a two thousand year period, but I totally got this guy,” Ostro said. “It’s insane, I wish I had been introduced to Latin when I was younger.”
Ostro is now in grad school with the intent of becoming a late-ancient historian. But he didn’t get to where he is now without running into skepticism about Latin along the way.
“It’s really weird to be in a field where you spend half of your time defending its existence — there’s no other field that is so heavily scrutinized,” Ostro noted.
Ostro hypothesized that continuous scrutiny and skepticism form one of the reasons the Classics department is so strong and close-knit.
“U of M’s department is so great because you have the older professors who come from the old guard of academia — pre-World War II guys — and then you also have a lot of younger classics professors too,” he said.
Though they may come from completely different places, Latin professors at the University can be characterized by dedication.
“Everyone in the classics program is wholeheartedly dedicated to what they’re doing, which gives it an unusual feel,” he said. “It’s something that really means a lot to them, they’ve sacrificed a lot and they’re giving everything they can to this field. It creates a really nice community — everyone’s really supportive.”
LSA senior Erich Heiden, who is majoring in Latin language and literature and minoring in European history, was first introduced to classical culture in a high school Greek mythology class. He set a goal for himself — to read Homer in the ancient language — and decided to pursue it in college.
After taking Greek 101, professors within the department suggested that Heiden should take Latin too. Now he plans to become a Latin high school teacher.
“It’s great because it’s close-knit,” Heiden said of the program. “It’s cool going to our own library and only seeing familiar faces.”
The Classics department’s library is open only to students concentrating in the program, located on the second floor of Angell Hall.
The feeling of closeness within the Latin-learning community extends outside the classroom as well.
Heiden is the president, or “Prytanis,” of the honors fraternity Eta Sigma Phi, which provides opportunities for students and faculty to mingle when they’re not in class. Facing dwindling membership in recent years, Heiden made it his goal to improve recruitment and revitalize the program’s social life.
Latin Scrabble, Jeopardy and translating exercises are a few activities the group does at weekly meetings. Larger events include a traditional Roman feast, which was held in December.
“It was at my house and each of the students were each responsible for part of the meal,” said Robin Axelrod, the Classics department’s program coordinator.
Students found the recipes for each dish in an ancient Roman cookbook.
“The banquet was a really cool way to experience the ancient culture, the classical way of life,” Heiden said.
Events like this give the department character and allow faculty and students to get to know one another.
“It’s a great combination of class and experiences because you have this mix of students who would never meet each other otherwise and they end up forming these incredible bonds,” Soter said.
According to Heiden, professors know their students well in the LSA Classics department. In contrast to other LSA lectures, courses within the Classics department have no more than 20 students — a characteristic that lends itself to one-on-one contact between students and professors.
“It’s such a small department, so if you’re talking with a professor about your interests, they’ll suggest other faculty you should interface with,” said Malcolm MacLachlan, an LSA junior majoring in classical language and literature. “You never have trouble getting recommendations — there’s an entirely different mindset to it.”
It’s this mindset that continues to breathe life into the Latin language and distinguishes the program from others. Soter noted that although the language has remained static over the years, its value has never diminished.
“I don’t think you can say (Latin is) artificially constructed or used, because people have spoken in this language and written it constantly,” she said. “Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the New World was written in this language.”
Within the University of Michigan, Latin isn’t bound to the page. It’s alive in games, feasts, plays and travels. And most importantly, it’s alive in the minds of young students.