Bernstein Latin Declamation Competition

Max Goldman with Mark Arildsen, Natalia Alvarez, and William Bernstein

On April 4, 2012, our Department held its 29^th annual Morris H. Bernstein, Jr. Competition in Latin Declamation. Endowed by alum William Bernstein, the contest has every year brought together oral athletes from across the Department, who are asked to memorize an assigned passage of Latin poetry and recite another of Latin prose with as much as gusto and precision as they can muster.

This year Professor Max Goldman was once again entrusted with selecting the passages, and the theme he chose was "Sorrows in exile." From the tragedy of Seneca to the prose of a heartbroken Cicero writing to his wife, the passages allowed students to deploy all the resources of their rhetorical handbooks to elicit tears from an enraptured audience.

The final certamen came down to Natalia Alvarez and Mark Arildsen. Both students poured their guts out, but in the end the judges decided that Mark's rendition had been most heartrending, and the prize for his labors was a a $250 gift token to the University Barnes & Noble and (a more lasting kleos) his name inscribed on the commemorative plaque with previous winners.

our judges: Carter Philips, Robert Drews, Tracy Barrett

reception in Cohen Memorial Hall afterwards