Berea, KY – April 29, 2006 – The Bluegrass Ancient Studies Seminar (BASS), a group of Kentucky scholars who specialize in the ancient world from East to West, will hold its second annual meeting at Berea College on April 29.

Founded in 2004-05 by professors Rubén Dupertuis of Centre College and Jeff Richey of Berea College, BASS brings together classicists, historians, philosophers, religionists, and others whose research and teaching focuses on China, Greece, India, Palestine, Rome, and other civilizations of Old World antiquity.

The centerpiece of this year’s meeting will be a free public lecture by Dr. Steven Shankman, Professor of English and Director of The Humanities Center at The University of Oregon. Dr. Shankman will speak about “The Iliad and the Shijing: Poems of Peace” at 1:30 p.m. in room 218 of the College’s Frost Building. This presentation will explore themes common to Homer’s ancient Greek epic and the oldest collection of Chinese poetry, known in English as “The Classic of Poetry.”

Dr. Shankman holds degrees in classics, comparative literature, and English from the universities of Cambridge, Stanford, and Texas. His recent books include The Siren and the Sage: Knowledge and Wisdom in ancient Greece and China (2000), Early China/Ancient Greece: Thinking Through Comparisons (2002), both with Stephen W. Durrant, and In Search of the Classic (2004). He taught at Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton Universities prior to joining the University of Oregon faculty in 1985.

Dr. Shankman’s lecture and the entire BASS program this year have been made possible by generous grants from Berea College’s Asian Studies Program, Foreign Languages Department, General Studies Program, and the Office of the Dean and Provost.

For more information about BASS, visit their website