Classics Professor Vermeule To Deliver Jefferson Lecture

Emily D.T. Vermeule. Stone-Radcliffe Professor of Classics and Fine Arts, was named Friday to deliver the 11th annual Jefferson Lecture, the most prestigious award given by the federal government for academic achievement.

Vermeule will speak on "Greeks and Barbarian: the Classical Experience in the Larger World" in Washington on May 5 The lecture, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is accompanied by a $10,000 prize.

Baffled

"I felt baffled. I couldn't understand why they wanted me to do it." Vermeule said yesterday.

She is widely known for her work with her husband, archaeologist Cornelius C. Vermeule III, on excavations in Greece. Turkey and Cyprus. Her latest book, "Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry," won the 1980 Philological Association's Charles J. Good win Award of Merit.

She said she will discuss in her lectures how the ancient Greeks interacted with the less-civilized peoples around them, the subject of a course she gave last year. Classical Archaeology 137, "Greeks and Barbarians."

Greek to Me

Greek ideas in politics are still applicable in today's society. Vermeule said, adding that "Jeffersonian democracy is entirely based on his perceptions of Greek ideals."

The criteria used in selecting the Jefferson Lecturer are that he or she be a "distinguished humanist," he able to communicate his or her ideas to a broad public, and he able to relate these ideas to public issues and affairs." Leonard Oliver, an NEH official, said yesterday.

Oliver said that the program is devoted to the Jeffersonian ideal of a link between "the world of ideas and the world of affairs. The idea here is to show that humanities indeed have some thing to contribute" to public affairs."

Splendid

Gerald Hilton. Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Professor of the History of Science, who delivered the Jefferson Lecture last year, called Vermule "a splendid choice" and described the lecture as "a rather grand occasion by the standards of an academic."

Zeph Stewart, Professor of Greek and Latin and head of the Classics Department, said Vermeule is "a marvelous lecturer and a fine scholar and deserves the honor."

Vermeule said that she would spend the cash award on "tuition for my children, who both attend private secondary schools."

Predecessors

Some of the previous lectures have been writer and poet Robert Penn Warren. Paul Freund, Loeb University Professor Emeritus, novelist Saul Bellow, and historian Barbara Tuchman.