solodow named csu professor

Mon., Dec 07

Joseph Solodow, professor of world languages and literatures and an internationally renowned scholar in the areas of classics and classical philology, has been named Connecticut State University Professor by the CSUS Board of Trustees. He was honored at a campus ceremony on Dec. 2.

Solodow, who is in his 18th year of teaching at Southern, has published three critically acclaimed books, 11 articles and nine book reviews and has delivered numerous conference papers. His fourth book, being published by Cambridge University Press, is due out this month. Unlike Solodow's previous books, the new book -- "Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages" -- is addressed to a general audience, rather than to a scholarly audience. 

His earlier books are "The Latin Particle Quidem" and "The World of Ovid's Metamorphoses." His translation into English of G. B. Conte's "Latin Literature: A History," was awarded the Modern Language Association's Scaglione Translation Prize.  

Solodow received the A.B. degree magna cum laude in Latin from Columbia University and the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in classical philology from Harvard University. He joined Southern's faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Languages (now World Languages and Literatures), where he was chairman from 1994 to 2000. He was also the founding chairperson of the Judaic Studies Program. He was a visiting research scholar at Yale University from 1985 to 1988 and has been a lecturer in classics there since 2000.

At Southern, he teaches the Spanish language and Spanish-American literature along with Latin. His research interests lie in Latin literature and philology and in ancient historiography. His latest book, is, he says, "for anyone who's interested in languages, but you only have to know English to read it." The book is based on a graduate course, "Latin and the Romance Languages," that Solodow has taught at Southern every other year for several years. He explains that his wife suggested he take the material from the course and adapt it into a book. "I resisted for a couple of years and then decided to do it," he says.

In "Latin Alive," Solodow tells the story of how Latin developed into modern French, Spanish, and Italian, as well as how it has deeply affected the English language. In the course the book is based upon, students are not required to know Latin but should know French, Spanish or Italian. 

Solodow was originally hired to teach Spanish at Southern, in spite of the fact that he had always been a professor of classics. "I have never taken a course in Spanish," he says, but he knows the language well, having learned it from his mother-in-law, who is Argentinian and lived with Solodow and his wife for a year.

President Cheryl Norton says Solodow's appointment is "an indicator of the Connecticut State University System's commitment to recognizing excellence in research, scholarship and teaching." She adds, "Professor Solodow is a first-rate teacher and consummate scholar, and I am delighted that such a fine member of our faculty has been chosen for this honor."

The title of Connecticut State University Professor was created in 1987 to recognize outstanding merit among the teaching faculty in the CSU system, which in addition to Southern, includes Eastern, Central, and Western Connecticut State universities. Each university is limited to three such designated scholars at any time. As Southern's newest CSU Professor, Solodow joins a select group of outstanding faculty members who continue to make significant contributions to their fields of research and study. He is the first member of Southern's World Languages and Literatures Department to be named a CSU professor. He joins English Professor Vivian Shipley as one of Southern's three CSU Professors. Nominations will soon be sought for the third professorship, formerly held by the recently retired History Professor Hugh Davis. The university's emeritus CSU Professors are Davis, Harriet Applewhite, John Iatrides, Geoffrey Martin and Martin Glassner.

Pictured above, in photo on right: Selase W. Williams, provost and vice president for student and university affairs; President Cheryl J. Norton; CSU Professor Joseph B. Solodow, and Troy R. Paddock, professor of history and chairman of the CSU Professorship Advisory Committee.