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During the summers of 1999 and 2000, incoming first-year students were preparing for orientation by reading Homer’s Odyssey. Helping them in their own odysseys of understanding the ancient text was Howard J. Marblestone, professor of foreign languages and literatures.
Marblestone, coordinator of the interdisciplinary minor in classical civilization, offered the students a list of study questions and patiently, carefully answered the questions they posed — all online.
For Marblestone, it was a chance to share his love of classical literature with a broad and eager young audience. For the students, it was a chance to learn that past and present have much in common.
“Our society has established an artificial barrier between ancient and modern that we really shouldn’t have,” Marblestone says. “Once students really get involved in the classics, they’re just fascinated. There’s so much that comes to them directly from the ancient sources, and they appreciate that there doesn’t have to be this barrier.”
In nearly three decades at Lafayette, Marblestone has also found time to conduct research, primarily in Greek and Hebrew literature, and teach a First-Year Seminar, “Of Males and Men: Myths of Masculinity.” In 1993, he taught his first January interim session course, entitled “Back to the Roots of Western Civilization,” in Egypt, Israel, and Greece. In 1995, he taught the course in Israel, Greece, and Italy, and in 1999, in Greece and Italy. In January of 2000, Marblestone joined Ilan Peleg, Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, in teaching an interim course in Israel.
Heather Badamo ’03, a first-year doctoral candidate in art history at the University of Michigan, became interested in Byzantine art during a summer internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and took Marblestone’s beginning Greek course in preparation for her graduate work.
“I was delighted to find that Dr. Marblestone is a highly gifted teacher, capable of conveying with ease the subtleties of a highly complex language and culture,” she says.“He was generous with his time and committed to seeing his students succeed. There is no doubt in my mind that Dr. Marblestone was instrumental in getting me to where I am today.It was truly a pleasure to work with him, and I only wish that I had gotten to know him earlier during my time at Lafayette.”
Highlights
Publications: “The Great Archaeological Debate,” Bulletin of the Israel Studies Association, Volume 16, No. 1, pp. 23-29, Fall 2000; “In Memoriam Cyrus H. Gordon,” Ugarit-Forschungen 32, pp. xi-xxxiv, 2000.
Honors: Lindback Teaching Award, 2001; Jones Lecturer, 1978.
Achievements: Coordinator of online discussion for The Odyssey, 1999 and 2000; leader of four interim semester study-abroad courses.
Contact: (610) 330-5256, marblesh@lafayette.edu