In her first year seminar, Grace Bauer walked in as a freshman and walked out as Marcus Tullius Cicero. In the class, called “Beware the Ides, Beware the Hemlock: Roleplaying Crisis in Ancient Greece & Rome,” students took on the identities of ancient figures and delivered impassioned speeches to their peers. Cast as one of Rome’s most accomplished orators, Bauer embraced her role, guided by her professor, Dr. T.H.M. Gellar-Goad. What started as a freshman year requirement became something much bigger: the first stepping stone toward her major in classical studies.
Growing up, Bauer loved mythology, often rereading the Ancient Greek-inspired children’s book series “Percy Jackson,” but it wasn’t until she experienced Wake Forest’s classics department that she fully pursued this love. Her experience learning ancient languages, her close bonds with professors and her connection with the content convinced her that classical studies were truly special.
In her Ancient Greek and Latin classes, Bauer developed new academic skills.
“For classical languages, I feel like I was able to build my skills of close reading, precision reading…my vocabulary [and] my attention span,” she said.
Bauer also connected with the faculty, taking multiple classes with the same professors.
“I was really lucky with a small department to be able to really build relationships with them,” she said. “The relationships in the classics department are pretty much unlike probably any other department that I’ve seen.”
She highlighted Dr. Michael Sloan as one of her most influential teachers.
“He teaches the class so well,” Bauer said. “He’s able to connect all these ancient stories that no one should be able to relate to in such a digestible way. No matter where you come from, what you major in, he’s going to make sure he connects with you.”
In her research class with Sloan, Bauer crafted a comprehensive online guide to Latin.
“We’re building essentially an online textbook with the interactive format of Duolingo, but it’s more intense because it also has the lessons embedded in them,” she said.
With Sloan, she also wrote her thesis: an in-depth translation and analysis of Cicero’s major court cases. Reading Cicero’s works helped her develop an appreciation for classical texts.
“If you just studied Cicero alone, you could learn so much…about oratory, about rhetoric, about grammar, about persuasion skills,” Bauer said. “If you went into poetry or myth, just the life lessons alone…You could learn anything that you need to about human psychology, love and friendship, worship and devotion.”
Much of the content in classical studies is still relevant today, Bauer said, adding that she’s enjoyed studying these subjects in their original forms.
“There’s a lot to pull that has now broken into a ton of different branches of sociology, psychology,” she said. “But a lot of it is just right there in the words of people who wrote them 3,000 years ago.”
Looking back on her time in the classics department, Bauer emphasized the importance of creativity.
“[Creativity] is the number one thing that feeds your heart and soul,” she said. “It’s the fruit of everything. The fruit of your heart. There’s no finding yourself without finding a creative outlet for yourself.”
Sloan said Bauer has done exactly that, bringing her creativity and passion to Wake Forest and the classics department.
“Grace is a paragon among WFU students—intellectually curious, diligent, and agile of mind,” he said. “The quality of her work and her engagement in our courses proved her genuine interest in learning for the sake of refinement. Our department will miss her joyful, kind presence as we root for her every success.”
