Conference to honor retiring classics scholar
Colleagues to recognize Peradotto's contributions

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

Greek classicist John J. Peradotto, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Classics, is the immediate past Andrew V.V. Raymond Chair and an internationally distinguished Homeric scholar.

He is about to retire from UB with a shine on his shoes and a melody in his heart, on his tongue and all over his Web site-in the last instance, Rossini's "Largo al Factotem" (which means, he says, "make way for the guy who will do anything").

It is clear he will not go quietly. This weekend, Peradotto will be honored by his colleagues with a conference titled "Epos and Mythos: A Conference on Homer" that will feature presentations by several notable Homeric scholars.

The conference, which will be free of charge and open to the public, will be held from 2-5 p.m. tomorrow and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday in the Screening Room of the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

The conference is sponsored by the classics journal Arethusa, which Peradotto co-founded and edited for 20 years; the Department of Classics; the Andrew V.V. Raymond Chair of Classics (Roger Woodard), SUNY Conferences in the Disciplines and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Peradotto also was recognized recently with the publication of a book of essays in his honor by some of the most distinguished voices in his field.

Its title is "Contextualizing the Classics: Ideology, Performance and Dialogue, Essays in honor of John J. Peradotto" (Rowman and Littlefield, 1999).

The essays were selected from the proceedings of a 1997 conference, "Interdisciplinarity and the Classics," held at the University of Georgia, in recognition of Peradotto's 20 years as editor of Arethusa.

Under his editorial leadership, Arethusa came to explore theoretical insights derived from other disciplines that might be applied to studies in the classics. Important work published in the journal undertook this venture using theory and research methods from the fields of semiotics, comparative literatures, feminist theory, performance theory, folklore, anthropology, cultural studies and art history, among others. Arethusa continues to be edited at UB by Martha Malamud, associate professor of classics.

Peradotto's vie de joie have included the production of four nearly identical daughters-some of whose weddings have been blessed by the Ave Maria rendered in the Peradotto tenor-and an early discovery of Internet thrills that sent him dashing into the IT race before most of his colleagues had tied their Nikes.

Other thrills over the past 30 years have included his presidency of the American Philological Association, the occasional one-Manhattan lunches at the late (dark) "Den of Thieves," teaching Greek literature and history to travelers on several extensive Smithsonian Institution Greek Island cruises, and a plethora of footraces-including several marathons-completed in excellent time for someone who eats anchovies.

Speaking of which, if so inclined, you can find Peradotto's race log, pro-garlic recipes, weird family photos and a hell-mouth (for those who hate anchovies) on his top-of-the-line Web site at http://www.acsu. buffalo.edu/~peradott/.

Peradotto came to UB in 1966, chaired the Department of Classics from 1974-77, and served as dean of undergraduate education from 1978-82. In 1975, he received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 1990 was named a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor.

He occupied the Raymond Chair from 1984-99, and twice was awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities