NCLG Recent News

NCLG urges personal participation in contacting Congress members to ask them to promote language education support funded and/or endorsed by the federal government. Cutbacks will harm or disrupt educational programs, present and future, unless we focus on designing new bills and maintain current funding that support language teachers and students.

You can use

LINKS HERE TO SEND YOUR MESSAGES TO CONGRESS

ABOUT CUTS TO EDUCATION AND RELATED FUNDING

NCLG Member Participates in Joint ACL-SCS Roundtable: Teaching Classical Studies Across Curricula, October 22, 2025

NCLG member Maureen Gassert Lamb joined 10 colleagues participating in a Roundtable Webinar. She spoke about AI in the classical language classroom.

Please take a look at the excellent roster of speakers and topics. Check out the flier HERE.

NCLG Attended AAD 25 to Meet with Congress Members in September

We advocated for Latin and our sister language programs at AAD25.

Together we are stronger in our messaging about the value of languages.

Check out our 6 advocacy pages: Start by clicking here!

NCLG has a whole folder of 2024-2025 one-pagers about current legislative needs. Take a look and use these to guide your messaging.

JNCL also provided a similar folder for LAD25 attendees that our Advocacy Chair has shared.

New SYL Grant Recipient

Congratulations to Matthew Dracoules, who became our latest NCLG SYL (Supporting Young Learners) Grant awardee this year! A Latin teacher at Pennridge High School in PA, Matthew will be using funds for classroom materials that will also become a visual bridge to the greater student body through interdisciplinary activities. Students will research content and become ‘gallery guides’ as other classes are invited to tour their classroom ‘gallery’ and learn about connections with the stories, the content and the media.

We look forward to more information and photos from Magister Dracoules soon!

NCLG at ACL Institute 2025 in Chicago; NCLG Hosts Two Sessions and Information Booth

1) Re-envisioning the Future; Engaging with Diverse Global Perspectives on Classics. (Prerecorded)

Guest panelists (in order of appearance): Joy Connolly, Steven Hunt, Paul Allen Miller and Mary Beard, hosted by NCLG's Global Perspectives in Classics Committee Chair Daniel McGlathery. This was a virtual session. The recording is available here. It is 3 hours and contains 4 great presentations plus ample time devoted to very relevant live discussions. Topics discussed were the actual state of Classics education around the world, the role of the Humanities in our current American society, seeing the need and value of interconnection, and opinions on the impact of world politics, the effects of the public perceptions, and the real value of classical education.

2) Unlocking the Legacy of Memnon: Creating Resources for Teaching the Aithiopian Hero. This is a follow-up to our Memnon Webinar in January (see post below) to discuss current web resources and how we can collaborate to create further classroom-ready materials. Hosted in memory of her collaborator, ACL's Andrea Craig Sansone, NCLG's Katie Robinson created

two key webpages on Memnon Resources and Memnon in Art; A Gallery Walk on our Teacher Resources Site. A recording of the presenter's screen with live commentary is also available here. (90 minutes)

NB: NCLG always hosts an information table in the Exhibitor Hall. We have fliers and info on our current work and would like to chat about how you can help locally and nationally to support Latin and Greek Studies programming and all 2nd language educators needs to work together on.

Announcing Hannah Coldwell 2025 Goldman Winner!

Don't Forget to Enter the New 2025-2026

NCLG Norma Goldman Memorial Ancient Attire Contest !

Yay! The 2025-2026 Contest is OPEN NOW DURING THE WHOLE YEAR.

Awardees win a replica bronze fibula pin and $25 certificate!

Before you close the year, don’t forget to click this link and enter the NCLG

2026 NORMA GOLDMAN CONTEST PADLET LINK

Submit a photo of yourself in any ancient attire on our Padlet!

Enter by midnight, June 30, 2026. Any ACL member can enter.

Kelly McArdle | 2025 Supporting Young Learners Grant

Kelly McArdle, Durham, North Carolina

Kelly is establishing a new Latin reading section in the school Media Center for all-school Sustained Reading time!

Kelly McArdle, Latin teacher at Excelsior Classical Academy in Durham, NC is another 2025 NCLG Supporting Young Learners Grant recipient! She has been developing a strong program at this new school and there is strong administrative support to grow the Latin program through the grade levels! To augment her redesigned curriculum and many self-authored supplementary reading stories, she will use the NCLG grant funds to build a large Latin novella library in their media center for Voluntary and Sustained Silent Reading, an all-school curricular element. Next year, Latin will be a graduation requirement in Grades 8-10. Latin and Greek roots as well as ancient history will be taught in grades 5-7 as part of CK Language Arts and CK History & Geography. Therefore, this Latin library will enrich the curriculum for all 270 students in Grades 8-10 and for 300 more in Grades 5-7 who will also have full access to it.

Check out our Recent NCLG Grant Recipients page to learn more about Kelly!

Playwright Will Power and Director Carl Cofield - 2025 Keely Lake Advocacy Award Recipients

We congratulate the 2025 recipients, Professor Will Power of Occidental College and Professor Carl Cofield of New York University and a Director at the Classical Theater of Harlem. Their new play ran at California's Getty Villa Museum in 2024 and will run again in NYC in 2025 and was the focus of a 2025 Joint NCLG-ACL webinar.

They collaborated together to create a dramatic experience that elevates the story of the Ethiopian King Memnon and his role in the Trojan War saga and in the culture of his time. Both Power and Cofield took it upon themselves to bring a long-forgotten story back to life and to give an African figure a rightful place in modern considerations, teaching, and treatment of the Trojan War and of the complexities of ancient Afro-Mediterranean culture and history. This story was very popular in ancient Greek and Roman literature and art. More recently such stories have been less prominent in curricula or missing altogether from discussions. The nominees saw the reasons for this phenomenon to be complex, but the solution to it was clear: bring this great story back to life and into the classroom with a powerful new play!

Power and Cofield dedicated themselves to a project that we feel is destined to have lasting impact on expanding the study of literature and providing teachers with opportunities to redesign classroom curricula to allow broader perspectives. Their work will help more students see themselves reflected in the content of their classes. The dialogues in the play and the masterful portrayal of the characters by director and actors, also bring to the forefront discussions about several themes that are “timeless,” as relevant today as in ancient times. This portrayal of Memnon also brings forward the interconnectedness of the ancient nations, cultures, and families. Memnon and his allies were not on the fringe of ancient Afro-Mediterranean life, as often described. They were an integral part of the dynamics and were making significant contributions. This story, this play, and the resources they generously offered in response to it, will be impactful to the profession for years to come!

US Representative Mike Levin of CA reissues his video congratulating graduates earning the Seal of Biliteracy; praises bilingual and dual language programs

Great motivator to show your students! VIEW IT on our NCLG server HERE.(2min)

Past NCLG Guest Stephanie McCarter Awarded Guggenheim

McCarter discussed her new book in our 2023 NCLG panel, "Rethinking the Canon, New Voices Reassess Traditional Content."

University of the South announced: "Classics Professor Stephanie McCarter has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on a new translation of Ovid’s Art of Love, Cures for Love, and On Women’s Cosmetics. The fellowship will provide McCarter with the opportunity to produce a metrically formal translation that explores the cultural, historical, and literary significance of these works.

McCarter’s award-winning translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses into iambic pentameter made waves when it was published in 2022, as she became the first woman to translate the ancient epic into English verse. In her approach, McCarter integrates a gender-conscious perspective, particularly on themes of power, transformation, and agency, which has earned her significant recognition in the field. The Guggenheim Fellowship will allow her to build on this body of work with new translations that will bring ancient texts into conversation with modern audiences."

Leigh Ann Johnson | 2025 Supporting Young Learners Grant Recipient

Check out our Recent NCLG Grant Recipients page to learn more about the reading and speaking enrichment Magistra Johnson is adding to her middle school program for gifted students at Hanes Magnet in Winston-Salem Public School District in North Carolina with her NCLG funds. Congratulations to Leigh Ann Johnson!

Judy Holtzman and James Bloom | 2025 DEI Outreach Grant Recipients

Check out our Recent NCLG Grant Recipients page to learn more about James Bloom, a high school student and volunteer instructor has been working with Judy Holtzman, the Director of Special Projects at the Association to Benefit Children, to offer a creative and popular Mythic Makers class for elementary aged kids at the Washington Heights Y Community Center in East Harlem.

LAD25 - NCLG Advocacy Chair Will Nifong Visited Congressional Leaders on Language Advocacy Days.

The Next September 29 Advocacy Action Day is Virtual. Register now. See more information on our JNCL Advocacy page!

March 3-4, 2025, our NCLG Advocacy Chair Will Nifong travelled to Washington, DC to join a large group of educators hosted by JNCL-NCLIS to meet with Congressional members. They met to discuss and promote current and future legislation that supports the need for, value of, and federal funding for strong world language education for all US students. Language skills are life skills and career skills and many schools and colleges offer only narrow opportunities for the study of a few languages and state graduation requirements do not include a valid language competency component. In some states there is no requirement to be proficient in any language other than English. Many grants to schools and districts for students, for teachers, and for resources, are tied to federal support. Every year, these grants for program support and program expansion must be reaffirmed for funding and at what level of funding. Therefore, advocacy is a vital, ongoing effort.

Can't participate? You can donate to help support our NCLG efforts. In turn, we can help JNCL sponsor these events and Congressional meetings and continue to offer our own small grants.

Some proposed bills and current needs for funding are on our JNCL-NCLIS Advocacy section. One-pagers are also available in a linked folder each year.

Video: Mr. Mike Levin, a California House Representative congratulate Seal of Biliteracy recipients in his CA-49 District and speak about the value of dual language proficiency.

View it on our NCLG server HERE.(2min) Or go to: tinyurl.com/RepLevinSealofBiliteracy, (2024, 2025)

NCLG Webinar: "Memnon: New Play Revitalizes Ancient Story"

New Perspectives on This Ethiopian King and His Role in the Trojan War

Playwright Will Power and Director Carl Cofield worked to write and bring to life an amazing new play, Memnon. It premiered at The Getty Villa Museum Greek Theater in California in summer 2024 and they hope to offer it free to New Yorkers in 2025.

On January 12, 2025 NCLG Vice Chair Katie Robinson and ACL DEI Committee member Andrea Craig Sansone teamed up to organize a webinar to highlight a Trojan hero, Ethiopian king Memnon, a member of the Trojan family lineage who has been sidelined in modern studies of the Trojan epic cycle. They conducted live interviews of Power and Cofield and also presented classroom teaching ideas. This was part of an NCLG series: Receptions of Mythology; Adjusting the Lens.

They will be hosting a follow-up Round Table to discuss currently available resources and the development of future collaborative teaching resources at the ACL Institute '25 in Chicago.

Teaching links and resources are provided. See our Webinar page HERE (with recording link et al), which is part of our NCLG DEI Resources, in Intersections of Classics and African American Studies; African Origins.

Calendar Planning? YOU CAN CREATE MORE INCLUSIVE LESSONS WITH THESE!

Need a good class starter? For classroom use and further searching, these are 2 good resources for increasing inclusion of Classicists of Color:

NCLG slideshow of calendar dates to start celebrating important days, like birth dates, death dates, events, involving Black classicists, to introduce important persons of color to your students. (also in PDF, 8/24)

These are all located in our DEI Resources and the Calendar is specifically HERE.

Also check out our DEI Resources pages for more materials for personal study and lesson planning.

NCLG Semi-Annual Meeting at AIASCS Meeting.

Thank you to attendees at our attendees! We always meet at SCS in January and ACL Institute in June/July. These are open meetings where we summarize our recent work and help design future projects and directions. Please join us and share your thoughts or consider volunteering to help in even a small way that aligns with your interests.

Fulbright-Hays IFLE grant program applications are open. Deadline is Jan 21, 2025.

Their IFLE Newsletter is here. Or see more HERE on our site page on many funding opportunities.

WLARA Federal World Language Programs Grant Deadline April 7th

See details on our JNCL information page.

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