For the Love of (Greek) gods

By Heather Lash

Miami classics professor Judith de Luce sits smiling behind her desk, glasses hanging around her neck from a rainbow-colored chain, ready to talk to anyone who might happen to walk through the door. But you might not see her at first. What you might see is a statue, about two and a half feet tall, sitting on her desk. It's a replica of the sculpture of Nike amid stacks of books and masses of papers strewn across almost every surface.

Dominating the décor across the room, to the immediate right of the office door, are tiny snow globes. One houses a tiny scene of Egyptian pyramids. Another encloses a miniature urban skyline.

But more than any other image, de Luce's snow globes house replicas of ancient sculptures, sized to fit in the palm of your hand. This collection is much more than just mementos from her travels across the world; they are a metaphor for the journey she has taken in her life.

The most recent part of that journey has earned her Miami's College of Arts and Science Distinguished Educator of 2004.   But it started de Luce certainly has come a long way from the college student who didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up.

After graduating in 1968 from Colby College in Maine with an A.B. in Latin, de Luce chose to move to New York City and get a job. While in New York City, she worked for Grolier Encyclopedia, responding to readers questions that were not covered in the encyclopedia set.

Living in New York City was expensive and she was making little money, so de Luce decided to go back to school, still not knowing what she wanted to do with her life.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, de Luce received her master's degree in Latin, but realized that she was not ready to return to New York. So, she continued in her scholarly work and became a PhD candidate and worked as a teaching assistant to fulfill education requirements.

As an assistant she had to teach large lecture classes and interact with students. This is where her career objectives began to formulate and de Luce found her place in the world.  

At UW-Madison de Luce received teaching experience that she would need to teach on the college level. After her dissertation she knew she wanted the opportunity to teach.

"I really enjoyed it, much to my surprise. The professor I taught with was wonderful. Any success I owe in teaching, he's one of them," said de Luce.

"I was really well prepared for it. I just got hooked on teaching."

In the classroom de Luce works to reach out to every student, and to make sure that each student walks away from the course with a better understanding of the topic, no matter the class size. She pushes students to reach inside and use their intellectual resources.

Former student James Hanges, now an assistant professor of comparative religion at Miami, credits her with being able to take a large group of students and develop the class so that there is the same amount of interaction as in the smaller classes.

De Luce's interest in her students paid off for Hanges, who began attending classes at Miami Hamilton as a non-traditional student and was inspired to continue his education in classics. Hanges, who worked during the day and took classes at night, took the time to walk through de Luce's office door.

"She made it very easy for students to talk to her, to open up my plans to her," Hanges said. "She never gave me any sense that I couldn't pursue the goals I shared with her."

To be named a Distinguished Educator, a yearly College of Arts and Science award, faculty members are asked to nominate colleagues who have made special contributions to undergraduate education. Following the nomination process a committee of former winners reviews the materials and makes their selection.

De Luce was nominated by Steven Tuck, assistant professor of classics. Tuck met de Luce 6 ½ years ago at a convention and has considered her to be his mentor since. Tuck goes to de Luce to consult her with questions on teaching, technology and education.

"I think that is what made her case very strong, not only has she taught a variety of courses over the years to a variety of students and been very successful among students, she has worked at integrating her teaching with her research," said Steve Nimis, associate dean of the College of Arts and Science.

De Luce's research is as eclectic as her office. Her research topics include women's studies, ancient law, race and ethnicity and technology in the classroom. Because of this wide range of interests, de Luce has been able to teach 22 diverse courses and has published over 60 papers and articles.

"She has done a nice job of making her teaching and research coincide with her life. I think that is a very strong quality in Judith's profile," said Nimis. Nimis feels de Luce's involvement with technological innovations has had a tremendous impact on her teaching and students.

According to Tuck, one thing that de Luce has done that shows she puts students first. She has taken over the job as departmental advisor. Every year she meets with classics majors and minors to find out where they are going and what they want to do in life.

"She's become a real mentor, not just a teacher," said Hanges. "She is teaching me how to teach." For Hanges, de Luce has been a friend and mentor from his days as a student and continues to provide a model for the type of teacher he wants to be.

Each year the university emphasizes that faculty members focus on different areas of student education that needs to be improved. The ideas range from student involvement in the classroom to integrating more technology. De Luce is known among her colleagues for being ahead of the game in every aspect, primarily in technological advances.

"She has been ahead of the curve in every initiative. Not just at Miami but the university community at large. She does just about everything," said Tuck.

During her first year as classics department chair, de Luce took the initiative to integrate writing into the classroom and organized a series of workshops on student writing for the faculty. She gave strategies for assigning and correcting writing and supplied assignment ideas.

"(Judith) really made it just so that it removed all of the barriers to something that we should be doing more of. What the result has been is that it has changed and improved how everybody teaches. That is a large impact for a small community of teachers," said Tuck.

De Luce has realized how lucky people are in life if they are able to do what they really love to do.   De Luce's journey has taken her from New York to Egypt, UW- Madison to Miami, but the long road has paid off more than she imagined.

"Here is something I've been doing all of my professional life that I never intended to do. I work really hard at it, I just love doing it."

Read more of Heather Lash's articles:

Walk like an Egyptian... or a Roman