Classics professor profile

Classics professor keeps Athens in mind while globe-trotting

by Dwayne Steward
Speakeasy
Staff Writer
Mon, Sep. 25, 2006

Tom Carpenter hasn’t made it around the world in 80 days like the famous Nellie Bly, but he’s definitely gone around the world, studying in England, living in Paris and teaching in Rome, just to name a few.

Yet, Carpenter, an Ohio University Classics and World Religion professor, yearns for the comforting Athens atmosphere when he’s away and always coming back for more.

“I have three homes,” he said. “One’s at Oxford where I went to get my doctorate, one’s in Rome, where I do most of my research, and then there’s Athens.”

Carpenter, a nationally prominent author on classical Rome, spent his summer finishing up his research on southern Italy. He’s even received international fame with his book¸ “Arts and Myth in Ancient Greece” (1991) which is printed in French, Spanish, Korean and most recently Greek and Turkish.

He’s been published in classics research magazines all over the world, including the “American Journal of Archeology,” the “Oxford Journal of Archeology,” and “Classical Philology.” Carpenter’s research on south Italy should be published in 2007.

International travel is as much a part of Carpenter’s life as his wife is. Lynne Lancaster, who travels just as much as her husband, is also a Classics and World Religion professor at OU, focusing her research on ancient Roman architecture.

Lancaster received her bachelor’s in architecture and had planned on working on blue prints during the school year and researching in Rome during the summers; however, the tight job market and unemployment guided her into her new passion.

In the summer 2005, Lancaster published “Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome.” Like her husband, her many publications have recognized her in the field of classical archeology.

“We met when I was studying to be an architect in Virginia,” she said. “Because of traveling, we spent the first year of our marriage apart, because I went to study at Oxford, but the next year he took a sabbatical and came to England.”

Opposite traveling schedules has made things somewhat difficult, Lancaster admits, but the benefits are often extraordinary.

“Whenever one of us is off researching overseas the other has an excuse to go back to Rome, so they definitely benefit,” she said, laughing.

The couple came to Ohio University 10 years ago to take on a somewhat new initiative; The Charles J. Ping Institute for the Teaching of the Humanities. Carpenter became one of the three Charles J. Ping Professor of Humanities at OU and the director of the institute.

“Our charge is to promote teaching humanities at the secondary and collegiate level,” Carpenter said. The organization coordinates workshops and conferences where humanities teachers from all over Ohio can network, hone their craft and discuss ways to better teach humanities.

“The Classics and World Religion department collaborates, cooperates and participates in many of the programs the Ping Institute provides,” said William Owens, Classics and World Religions department chair. “Tom is a really great guy, he’s nationally recognized; people overseas know of OU’s classics department because they know of Tom Carpenter.”

Carpenter said his research helps to bring new ideas to his teaching strategy. Pictures of his and his wife’s research in Rome and stories from his digs in Italy help bring the subject to life.

“He’s an extremely sought after professor, yet he chooses to work with us at OU,” Owens said. “He pushes the students, making them achieve more then they ever thought they could.”

Carpenter can’t imagine his life any differently or better.

“I couldn’t stay in Athens year round, that might be to daunting,” he said laughing. “But the fact that I can be in Rome part of the year and Oxford the next, makes Athens a great place to come home to. It’s safe and quiet, and I love coming back to my students.”