Q and A with Mary Sturgeon

The governance of the School sometimes seems confusing. How do you see the role of the Managing Committee and its Chair?

The Managing Committee is responsible for administering and exercising oversight of the programs, departments, and budget of the School, in accordance with the Regulations. Cooperating institutions of the School may contribute up to three representatives to the MC, and these people may sit for elections to the MC committees, which include the Executive Committee, the Committee on Admissions and Fellowships, on the Blegen Library, on the Gennadius Library, on Committees, Personnel, Publications, Summer School, the Wiener Lab, and Excavations and Survey. Roughly 80 people serve on these committees, all of which are time-consuming but essential supports for the work of the School.

I think of the MC Chair as a position analogous to the conductor of an orchestra. The MC Chair helps facilitate the work of the committees and sits on them ex officio. I work with Irene Romano, Administrative Director, and Jack Sproule, the CEO, on budgetary and administrative issues; sit on the Board of Trustees and reports to it on the work of the MC; and communicates many times each week with the Director of the School on compelling issues of the day. Heads of departments in Athens/Corinth report to the Director of the School, and the Director reports to the MC Chair. On all matters, I receive excellent support from the staff in the Princeton office, especially Mary Darlington, and on budgetary matters, Rich Rosolino.

What arguments for joining would you offer to any colleges and universities thinking about becoming Cooperative Institutions of the School?

Cooperative Institutions are entitled to nominate up to three representatives on the Managing Committee and thereby be involved in the governance of the School. Faculty, students and former students of Cooperating Institutions pay only one-half the fees for use of the School facilities. Faculty members at Cooperating Institutions are eligible to apply for the School’s special research fellowships known as Whitehead Professorships. Students applying to the ASCSA Summer Sessions are able to apply for the School’s scholarship awards that are restricted to students from Cooperating Institutions. In addition, the libraries of Cooperating Institutions receive a 10% discount on School publications.

I understand that you first arrived in Greece to study at the School in 1968. What were your first impressions of the School?

I first came to Greece in 1966 for a week to “scope things out” and stayed for 25 drachmas in a hotel that has been gone for years. Wanting to see more, I enrolled as a member of the Summer Session in 1967, and returned in 1968 for the regular program, planning to remain in Greece for one year, which I extended for two. Then, after completing my degree, I became Secretary/Curator of the Excavations in Ancient Corinth. I was always amazed by the people I met at the School—- their deep knowledge and love of Greece and their generosity in talking about their experiences in the country and their research. I was impressed with the library with its vast holdings, and the possibilities for studying directly from the monuments and sites (I worked at Nichoria with Bill McDonald). The School and the important contacts I made in Athens have had a major impact on my life and scholarly interests.

The site of your doctoral research was Ancient Corinth. How has the Corinthia changed since you first visited?

There have been a myriad changes in the village, but some things have remained the same. One used to hear donkeys braying and see them standing snoozing in fields or walking down a dirt path, resembling moving haystacks. No more. One used to be awakened at 4 a.m. by confused roosters; not so much nowadays. One used to hear the sound of the 3-wheeled mekanakis and the occasional borrowed tractor; now one hears the racing engine of a motor bike or the squeeling tires of a BMW. My first summer at Isthmia (1977) I lived with an older couple who spoke mostly Albanian and who served me a goat’s head swimming in oil as a farewell present. I can’t say I miss the heavy oil, and there is much less Albanian these days. Rather, elegant new houses abound and some even have grass! The plain below the village used to have storks and few lights; it has witnessed unimagined growth. Still, after traveling from Kolonaki down to Ancient Corinth, the plateia, despite a recent face lift, still feels much the same. Some of the men’s faces gathered for the daily “chit-chat” are gone, but new ones readily take their place, Tasso still carries bread to the Splendide on his bike, and the little owl still peeps at twilight.

What do you think are the major challenges and opportunities for the School over the next five years?

The next five years will see unprecedented activity at the School.

• New computer technologies will soon alter the ways we run the libraries and the way current and past excavation records and photographs are archived; more information will routinely be made available on-line.
• The School’s new, interactive website will make accessible everything from trip and lecture schedules to MC documents such as the Regulations, policies and procedures; student and fellowship applications can much more efficiently be handled on-line; even the elections of committee members should soon be possible through the use of this site.
• The Master Planning Committee is developing ways to renovate and expand the buildings on our select campus in Athens so as to make maximum use of the extraordinary green spot that we are so fortunate to occupy.
• We will all work to maintain the high quality of our programs which ultimately provide strong support for teaching programs in Classics, Classical Archaeology, Art History, and Ancient through Modern Greece in the US and Canada.

What are your top three ambitions for the School?

I would like to see the School develop a clear strategic plan for pursuing the next, major phase of renovation of older structures and construction of new ones in our primary buildings on Souidias Street and in the Athenian Agora and at Corinth. Also, we need to maintain and strengthen our winter and summer teaching programs, the lecture series, the holdings of the Blegen and Gennadius Libraries and the Archives, and facilitate the work of the Wiener Lab. In addition, we also must ensure that our archaeological and scientific projects lead the way in developing new archaeological methods and investigative techniques. 

Your research has bridged Greece and Rome. What do you think are the most interesting questions in the study of Roman Greece?

Times of historical change are very interesting. The interaction of east and west has long been a focus of study for the Bronze Age and Orientalizing periods. The onset and development of the Roman period in Greece offer a similar range of questions and issues.

• How does the gradual Roman conquest affect artistic production in Greece? How does “Romanization” here similar to Romanization elsewhere?
• How does the material culture of Greece compare with that of other provinces, especially to east and west in the Roman period, especially with regard to the observance of religious cults?
• Excavations in the museum storerooms of Ancient Corinth have yielded types of monuments previously unsuspected—- an arch with historical reliefs; a basilica with high relief figures personifying cities of Greece, a theater with a billboard-like façade filled with sculpture. Might similar monuments soon become known in other parts of Roman Greece?

What scholarly projects are you currently working on?

I am now working on a few short projects, which are a good counterpart to the last book. The first involves the reconstruction of two sculptures from the Sanctuary of Palaimon at Isthmia, with a discussion of their significance for the hero cult and their possible placement in the sanctuary.

The second focuses on two sculptures found at Stymphalos during excavations of the Canadian Institute under the direction of Hector Williams and Gerry Schaus. This group is especially interesting because the sculptures were found inside the cella of the 4th-century BC temple on the acropolis. One is a late-Archaic statue of a girl, unusual in that she holds a young hare. This Archaic sculpture was given new importance by its dedication in the 4th c. temple. Beside it was a life-size marble figure of a crawling baby of the so-called temple boy type. This statuary type was common among small votive terracottas, but few life-size examples are known from Greece.

And next is a marble base, the Corinth/Dodwell/Guilford Puteal, a base with archaistic relief figures which was seen at Corinth in the early 19th c, acquired by soon-to-be Lord Guilford and taken to England. Its whereabouts were unknown for over a century, but it has been recognized in garden in Leeds and is now in the British Museum.

There are always more projects to work on, but what I love is the ability to work on real objects, to make something out of what looks to most like a meaningless pile of broken stones, to bring to life these intriguing sculptures and gain a better understanding of the people who made them and commissioned them.