Discussion boards or mailing lists for ancient history
January 14, 2015 12:33 PM Subscribe
Are there any good discussion boards or email lists for an amateur ancient history enthusiast?
Back in the before times, my father was a student of ancient history (Greece and Rome, primarily) and although he ultimately abandoned his first love for a career in government service, he still maintains a robust interest in the subject. He reads the originals (in Latin!), he reads commentaries, he buys new books as they become available, etc. Unfortunately, the one thing he misses most about academia are the vibrant conversations with his colleagues. Although he is still in email contact with some of his old classics buddies, it isn't enough.
In short: is there a good discussion board or maybe an active mailing list or (does this still exist?) newsgroup that he could join to talk about Greek and Roman history?
Thanks in advance!
Back in the before times, my father was a student of ancient history (Greece and Rome, primarily) and although he ultimately abandoned his first love for a career in government service, he still maintains a robust interest in the subject. He reads the originals (in Latin!), he reads commentaries, he buys new books as they become available, etc. Unfortunately, the one thing he misses most about academia are the vibrant conversations with his colleagues. Although he is still in email contact with some of his old classics buddies, it isn't enough.
In short: is there a good discussion board or maybe an active mailing list or (does this still exist?) newsgroup that he could join to talk about Greek and Roman history?
Thanks in advance!
I had a similar request at work today about email discussion lists. There are lots that are still active in academia, but there are no great up-to-date go-to resources for finding the one for you if you don't already know its name. It looks like ANCIEN-L was a listserv that would have been a good thing to recommend but has wound up.
This wikipedia page suggests some other things to explore.
There's CLASSICS-L here - take a look through the archives to see if it's at around the right level (note that the archives are sorted alphabetically, so there's quite a lot of CFPs 'calls for papers' all bunched together, which might make it look less discussion-y).
I'd happily dig around some more for you, but since I'm not speaking from the perspective of a subscriber to these lists, I'm probably not responding to your request in the appropriate speak-from-experience kinda way. What is clear to me though: email discussion lists are alive and, I think, well.
posted by Joeruckus at 1:28 PM on January 14, 2015
This wikipedia page suggests some other things to explore.
There's CLASSICS-L here - take a look through the archives to see if it's at around the right level (note that the archives are sorted alphabetically, so there's quite a lot of CFPs 'calls for papers' all bunched together, which might make it look less discussion-y).
I'd happily dig around some more for you, but since I'm not speaking from the perspective of a subscriber to these lists, I'm probably not responding to your request in the appropriate speak-from-experience kinda way. What is clear to me though: email discussion lists are alive and, I think, well.
posted by Joeruckus at 1:28 PM on January 14, 2015
Explorator posts a solid link roundup, but it's not really a discussion list--still, might be of interest.
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 1:31 PM on January 14, 2015
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 1:31 PM on January 14, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I don't think the military/warfare boards are quite right, but all of the links look like good places to start.
One thing I came up with thinking about this was that he should start writing and reading reviews of these books (commentaries, new translations, etc) on Amazon as that would probably introduce him to a very similarly minded community of people. We shall see how that goes.
posted by artichoke_enthusiast at 7:31 AM on January 15, 2015
One thing I came up with thinking about this was that he should start writing and reading reviews of these books (commentaries, new translations, etc) on Amazon as that would probably introduce him to a very similarly minded community of people. We shall see how that goes.
posted by artichoke_enthusiast at 7:31 AM on January 15, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:04 PM on January 14, 2015