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Michele Valerie Ronnick
Mayor Jack Ellis presents Ronnick with the key to the city of Macon, Georgia. November, 2006.
Born1955
OccupationProfessor of Classics
Known forThe Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough
Academic background
Alma materBoston University (Ph.D)
Doctoral advisorMeyer Reinhold
Academic work
DisciplineClassics
Sub-disciplineBlack Classicism
InstitutionsWayne State University
Notable worksThe Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough

Michele Valerie Ronnick

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Michele Valerie Ronnick (born 1955) is an American classicist. She is a Distinguished Service Professor[1] in the Department of Classical & Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Ronnick pioneered the study of Black Classicism, a subfield of Classical Studies, having published the first definition of Black Classicism in the 1999 edition of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience.[2]

Early life and education

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Ronnick was born in Westerly, Rhode Island and raised in Florida. She graduated from Sarasota High School in 1972. In 1975, Ronnick earned her undergraduate degree from the University of South Florida, with a double major in Greek & Latin and Sociology. She holds a Master of Science in Library Science degree from Florida State University, Tallahassee (1977) and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Florida, Gainesville (1986).[3]

Ronnick earned her Ph.D from Boston University in 1990 with her dissertation, Cicero's Paradoxa Stoicorum: A Commentary, an Interpretation, and a Study of Its Influence, under the supervision of Meyer Reinhold.[3]

Career

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From 1990 to 1992, Ronnick was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University, and between 1992 and 1993, a Visiting Assistant Professor at Iowa State University.[4]

Ronnick joined the faculty of the Classics Department at Wayne State University in 1993 as an Assistant Professor. In 1996 she received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor.[3]

In 2007, Ronnick was appointed Professor at Wayne State and in 2021 named a Distinguished Service Professor.[4]

Traditional Philological Work

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Ronnick's early work featured research on John Milton and Tom Stoppard.


Cicero, Juvenal, Petronius, Livy, Horace, Seneca, Augustus

The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough

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William Sanders Scarborough (date of photo?)

Ronnick is the leading expert on the life and work of 19th Century American Classicist, Willam Sanders Scarborough.[5]

Ronnick rediscovered and edited the unpublished Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough. {Say something about finding and editing the autobiography}

William Sanders Scarborough died in 1926, leaving behind his unpublished autobiography.[6] Henry Louis Gates Jr. praised Ronnick's "herculean labors to bring her fellow classicist 'back to life'..."[6]

Ronnick also discovered that Scarborough was the first African American member of the Modern Language Association (MLA)[7]. In honor of Scarborough, the MLA instituted the Willam Sanders Scarborough Prize in 2001, awarded for "an outstanding scholarly work of black American literature or culture published the previous year."[8]

In 2019, Ronnick published a facsimile of Scarborough's First Lessons in Greek, originally published in 1881.[9]

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens established a fellowship in honor of William Sanders Scarborough in 2020.[10]

Black Classicism

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Ronnick's study of Scarborough led her to examine the place of classical studies in the history of African American education.[11]

Ronnick invented the subfield of Black Classicism, or Classica Africana, patterned on Meyer Reinhold's Classica Americana.

Definition of Black Classicism.[12]

Ronnick organized the first scholarly panel on Black Classicism for the 1996 meeting of the American Philological Association (now called the Society for Classical Studies).[13]

Patrice Rankine has called Ronnick "a trailblazer in the study of black men and women who were professional classicists."[14]

"Photo Installation: Black Classicists", pictured here during its exhibit at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies. Scarborough's photo is on the far right.

Photo Installation: Black Classicists

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In 2007, and with a grant from the James Loeb Classical Library Foundation, Ronnick debuted her "Photo Installation: 12 Black Classicists"[4], and exhibition celebrating the role of African Americans in Classics.[15]

This photo installation has grown to 18 panels, each presenting the photos and stories of Black Classicists in America, and has traveled the world, including an exhibits at the University of Mississippi[16] and the University of Oxford, each in 2022.[17]

Since 2022, the photo installation has been traveling through Great Britain. It made its debut at the University of Toronto in 2024.

Helen Marie Chesnutt

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In Search of Helen Marie Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist.[18]

Selected Publications

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  • The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship, edited, introduced and annotated. Forward by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005,) 16 illus., index, 416 pages. [ISBN 0-8143-3224-2]
  • The Works of William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader, edited, introduced, annotated. Forward by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) index, 560 pages. [ISBN 978-0-19-530962-1]
  • William Sanders Scarborough’s First Lessons in Greek: A Facsimile of the 1881 First Edition, edited, introduced, annotated. Forward by Ward W. Briggs, Jr., 5 illus.,187 pages (Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2019) [ISBN 978-0-85616-863-3]

Awards and honors

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Michele Valerie Ronnick - College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - Wayne State University". clasprofiles.wayne.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  2. ^ "Black Classicism in the United States". obo. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  3. ^ a b c Sienkewicz, Tom. "About Michele Ronnick". department.monm.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  4. ^ a b c Curriculum Vitae
  5. ^ "Michele Ronnick (MA '86) Sheds Light on the Life and Work of W.S. Scarborough". Department of Classics. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  6. ^ a b Scarborough, William Sanders (2005). The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0814332245.
  7. ^ Ronnick, Michele Valerie. "William Sanders Scarborough: The First African American Member of the Modern Language Association". PMLA. 115 (7): 1787–1796. doi:10.2307/463573. ISSN 0030-8129.
  8. ^ "William Sanders Scarborough Prize". Modern Language Association. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  9. ^ Brown, Mary (2022-09-06). "Brown: William Sanders Scarborough, son of a slave who became a Greek scholar". Mainline Media News. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  10. ^ Clifford, Becky (2020-09-21). "William Sanders Scarborough and the enduring legacy of black classical scholarship". OUPblog. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  11. ^ "Oberlin Alumni Magazine Spring 2019". issuu. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  12. ^ Ronnick, Michele Valerie (2015). "Writings on Classical Subjects by People of African Descent, 1576-1962: A Preliminary Survey". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement (128): 97–114. ISSN 2398-3264.
  13. ^ "Michele Valerie Ronnick". Eos. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  14. ^ Rankine, Patrice (2006). Ulysses in Black: Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0299220006.
  15. ^ Eisen, Erica (2018-06-04). "Hidden figures: the importance of remembering black classicists". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  16. ^ "Events | University of Mississippi". olemiss.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  17. ^ "Faculty of Classics Newsletter, University of Oxford" (PDF).
  18. ^ Ronnick, Michele (2021-05-14). "In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist". New England Classical Journal. 48 (1): 110–121. ISSN 2692-5869.
  19. ^ "past winners, ACL Mertius Award" (PDF). American Classical League. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  20. ^ "Michele Valerie Ronnick | Bostonia". Boston University. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  21. ^ Marconi, Tessa (2018-09-18). "Michele Valerie Ronnick". ΗΣΦ. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  22. ^ "Lifetime Achievement Award Winners". ΗΣΦ. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  23. ^ "The struggles of clever women". TLS. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  24. ^ "Michele Ronnick". CAMWS. 2017-04-13. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
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