Alan van den Arend | University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences

Alan van den Arend

Graduate Student, MA in Classics

I completed my undergraduate coursework at Cornell University in 2010, earning a BA in Latin and Ancient Greek. There I was a re-founding president of the Classics club, an active member in a number of campus and volunteer organizations, and the recipient of both an Urkunde Award from the German Consulate and, upon graduation, a Classics Department Book Award for excellence in Classics. After graduation, I spent several years teaching as both a private tutor and a faculty member at South Brunswick High School in New Jersey. From 2013-2014 I was a student and fellow at the Accademia Vivarium Novum - a small private college in Rome, Italy where all of the students study Latin and Ancient Greek in an immersive environment - after which I returned to teaching high school in New Jersey at the Lenape Regional District for the subsequent academic year. The 2015-2016 recipient of the generous Graduate School Academic Year Fellowship in Classics, I have come to UK to pursue my MA in Classics as well as a certificates in Latin Studies (in the Institutum Studiis Latinis Provehendis) and the Committee on Social Theory. Upon graduation, I would like to continue my academic work and pursue a PhD in Classics, History, or Social Thought. In my free time I enjoy volunteering with my college Fraternity (I teach international courses on Leadership & Organizational Development), playing classical guitar, and being involved with the Jewish community here in Lexington, KY.

Contact Information

alan.vandenarend@uky.edu

1022 Patterson Office Tower

(859)-257-7014

Education

Graduate Student Teaching Assistant, the University of Kentucky (2015-2016)

Graduate School Academic Year Fellow, the University of Kentucky (2015-2016)

Fellow, Accademia Vivarium Novum (2013-2014)

BA, Latin and Ancient Greek, Cornell University 2010

Research Interests

History of Classics
Reception Studies (Classics)
Intellectual History
Early Modern Europe
Social Theory
Educational Philosophy
political economy
Marxian Criticism

Affiliations

Social Theory
Accademia Vivarium Novum
Cornell University
American Classical League
Classical Association of the Midwest and South (CAMWS)
Classical Association of the Atlantic States (CAAS)
New Jersey Classical Association
Institutum Humanitati Provehendae Amygdala

LinkedIn Profile

Research Interests

My research interests in Classics broadly focus on issues of intellectual history, genre formation, reception, and the history of Classics and Latin didactics. In particular, I am interested in exploring the ways that the social systems of education, politics, and economics influence and impact one another throughout Western history, using Classical languages and texts as my primary tool for investigating. To that end, my work in Classics centers primarily on texts that were either explicitly published as educational (didactic or theoretic texts) or were received as such in later educational traditions.

For my PhD, my proposals seek to explore the human/animal dichotomy in NeoLatin sources (esp. Erasmus) with an eye toward the importance of ratio/oratio (sc. education) for constituting the bounds of 'human' and 'humanity' as a foundational component of early modern social thought. The basis of this concern is the interrelatedness of educational and political philosophy during the Enlightenment and the influence of both on conceptions of natural law/rights discourse.

Outside of Classics, I maintain an amateur interest in fields such as Social Theory, Second Language Acquisition, Jewish Studies (especially interactions between ancient Jewish and Classical sources), and Educational theory broadly speaking. I am a member of the 2016-2017 editorial board for disClosure: a Journal of Social Theory here at the University of Kentucky. The volume's theme for this edition is "Justice."

Publications and Conference Papers

Publications

with Eric Huntley “Capitalism vs. Democracy: Facing/Solving the Contradiction. An Interview with Richard Wolff” in disClosure: a Journal of Social Theory, vol. 26 “Justice.” (forthcoming, Spring 2017)
with Olivia Spradlin “What Does Innocence Have to Do with Justice? An Interview with Miriam Ticktin” in disClosure: a Journal of Social Theory, vol. 26 “Justice.” (forthcoming, Spring 2017)

“Something Old, Something New: Marrying Early Modern Latin Pedagogy and Modern Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Theory” in Teaching Classical Languages. (forthcoming)

Conference Papers

Dumb as a... Tree? Latin Ecological Vocabulary, the Rational Subject, and the Borders of Humanity October 22, 2016 (UCLA Graduate Conference, forthcoming 10/22/16)
At the Borders of Classics: Neo-Latin Historiae Litterariae and the Politics of Relevance (CAAS, forthcoming 10/22/16)
Something Old, Something New: the Marriage of Renaissance Latin Pedagogy and Modern Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Theory (ACL 6/27/16)
Textual Relations: Spicing up the Latin Classroom with Authentic Materials (ACL, panel session, 6/26/16)

Ante Retroque Prospiciens: Neo-Latin and the Fate of the Classics in the Modern World (KFLC 4/15/16)
Veios Habitare: Philologia inter Vallam ac Iohannem Walchium (KFLC 4/14/16)

Courses Taught

CLA 131: Medical Terminology (Fall 2016)

CLA 151: Elementary Greek I (Fall 2016)