Senior Lecturer Rebecca Sears and PhD candidate Ana Maria Ribeiro represented the John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics this week at the 2026 AIA/SCS Joint Annual Meeting, held in San Francisco. The annual conference of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies is one of the largest and most prestigious gatherings in the field, bringing together scholars from around the world to share new research and pedagogical innovations.
Rebecca Sears presented a paper in the Rethinking Pedagogical Practices category entitled Memento Romane Regere: A New Approach to Teaching Graduate Latin Prose Composition. In her talk, Sears explored a reimagined approach to advanced Latin composition that foregrounds stylistic awareness, historical context, and rhetorical purpose alongside technical mastery. Drawing on her extensive experience in the classroom, she discussed strategies that move beyond imitation alone, encouraging students to think critically about Latin prose as a living scholarly practice rather than a purely mechanical exercise.
Sears is well known among students for her innovative teaching methods, which integrate active learning, collaborative translation, and reflective writing into advanced language instruction. Her pedagogy emphasizes the development of scholarly voice and intellectual confidence, helping graduate students connect linguistic precision with broader questions of interpretation, genre, and authorial intent. The paper reflects her ongoing commitment to rethinking how Latin is taught at the graduate level in order to meet the needs of a changing discipline.
PhD student Ana Maria Ribeiro presented in the Commentary & Criticism category with a paper entitled From Margin to Text: the Case of Pediasimos’ scholion to Ptolemy’s Harmonics. Ribeiro’s research examines the movement of ancient and medieval scholia from marginal annotations into the main textual tradition, focusing on a scholion attributed to Pediasimos on Ptolemy’s Harmonics. Her paper highlighted the complex transmission history of technical texts and the interpretive challenges posed when commentary becomes embedded within the primary text itself.
Ribeiro’s work contributes to broader scholarly conversations on textual criticism, scholarly authority, and the intellectual afterlives of ancient scientific and musical writings. Her presentation demonstrated careful philological analysis alongside wide-ranging engagement with the history of commentary traditions.
The department congratulates both presenters on their contributions to this year’s meeting and is proud to see faculty and graduate students sharing innovative scholarship and pedagogy on a national stage.
