Ross Scaife
Encyclopedia
Allen Ross Scaife was a Professor of Classics
at the University of Kentucky
.
in 1960, one of four children. He was married to Cathy Edwards Scaife and they had three sons, Lincoln (b. 1991), Adrian (b. 1994), and Russell (b. 1998).
in New Hampshire
and he read Classics
and Philosophy
at the College of William and Mary
. In 1985 he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for a year of study at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
, Greece and in 1988 he participated in the summer program at the American Academy in Rome. He earned his PhD in 1990 from the University of Texas at Austin
for his thesis on The Kypria and its early reception.
He worked from 1991 to the time of his death at the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literature, and Cultures of the University of Kentucky
. His primary research and teaching interests were ancient art and material culture, women and gender in Antiquity, as well as Aristophanes and the Greek historians.
Scaife was best known for his pioneering work in the use of computer technology in humanities scholarship. He was the founding editor of the Stoa Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities in 1997, which serves as an umbrella project for many projects in the Classics, such as the Suda on Line, EpiDoc, Diotima and the Neo-Latin Colloquia. Ross Scaife was a co-creator of the latter two.
A digital humanist, he was instrumental in setting up and driving the Digital Classicist
, a partner project hosted at King's College London
.
Scaife was dedicated to the principle of open access and he believed in the potential of technology to bring the highest levels of scholarship to the widest possible audience. He also believed in the power of collaborative work, and he was instrumental in building the framework behind projects, such as the Suda on Line, of which he was a founding editor.
Since 2005, he was the director of the Collaboratory for Research in Computing for Humanities at the University of Kentucky
. His recent work included forging the collaboration that resulted in the high resolution digital imaging
of the Venetus A
, a 10th century manuscript of the Iliad
located at the Biblioteca Marciana
in Venice
, and also the EDUCE project for non-invasive, volumetric scanning technologies for virtually unwrapping and visualizing ancient papyrus scrolls.
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
at the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
.
Life
Ross Scaife was born to William and Sylvia Scaife in Fredericksburg, VirginiaFredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia located south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,286...
in 1960, one of four children. He was married to Cathy Edwards Scaife and they had three sons, Lincoln (b. 1991), Adrian (b. 1994), and Russell (b. 1998).
Education and scholarship
He graduated in 1978 from the Tilton SchoolTilton School
The Tilton School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory school in Tilton, New Hampshire, in the United States, serving students from 9th to 12th grade and postgraduates...
in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
and he read Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
and Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at the College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
. In 1985 he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for a year of study at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
American School of Classical Studies at Athens
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is one of 17 foreign archaeological institutes in Athens, Greece.-General information:...
, Greece and in 1988 he participated in the summer program at the American Academy in Rome. He earned his PhD in 1990 from the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
for his thesis on The Kypria and its early reception.
He worked from 1991 to the time of his death at the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literature, and Cultures of the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
. His primary research and teaching interests were ancient art and material culture, women and gender in Antiquity, as well as Aristophanes and the Greek historians.
Scaife was best known for his pioneering work in the use of computer technology in humanities scholarship. He was the founding editor of the Stoa Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities in 1997, which serves as an umbrella project for many projects in the Classics, such as the Suda on Line, EpiDoc, Diotima and the Neo-Latin Colloquia. Ross Scaife was a co-creator of the latter two.
A digital humanist, he was instrumental in setting up and driving the Digital Classicist
Digital Classicist
The Digital Classicist is a project and community for those interested in the application of Humanities Computing to the field of Classics and to ancient world studies more generally. The project claims the twin aims of bringing together scholars and students with an interest in computing and the...
, a partner project hosted at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
.
Scaife was dedicated to the principle of open access and he believed in the potential of technology to bring the highest levels of scholarship to the widest possible audience. He also believed in the power of collaborative work, and he was instrumental in building the framework behind projects, such as the Suda on Line, of which he was a founding editor.
Since 2005, he was the director of the Collaboratory for Research in Computing for Humanities at the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
. His recent work included forging the collaboration that resulted in the high resolution digital imaging
Digital imaging
Digital imaging or digital image acquisition is the creation of digital images, typically from a physical scene. The term is often assumed to imply or include the processing, compression, storage, printing, and display of such images...
of the Venetus A
Venetus A
Venetus A is the more common [or original] name for the tenth century manuscript catalogued in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice as Codex Marcianus Graecus 454, now 822....
, a 10th century manuscript of the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
located at the Biblioteca Marciana
Biblioteca Marciana
The Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana is a library and Renaissance building in Venice, northern Italy; it is one of the earliest surviving public manuscript depositories in the country, holding one of the greatest classical texts collections in the world. The library is named after St. Mark, the...
in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, and also the EDUCE project for non-invasive, volumetric scanning technologies for virtually unwrapping and visualizing ancient papyrus scrolls.
Selected publications
- Scaife, A.R., Herodotus on the evolution of Lydia, UTexas M.A. Report 1983.
- Scaife, A.R., "The argument of III.84", AAPhA (1988), p. 25
- Scaife, A.R., "Accounts for taxes on beer and natron. P. Austin inv. 34", ZPE LXXI (1988), pp. 105–109
- Scaife, R., "Alexander i in the Histories of Herodot", Hermes CXVII (1989), pp. 129–137
- Scaife, A.R., The Kypria and its Early Reception, UTexas Ph.D. Thesis 1990.
- Scaife, R., "From kottabos to war in Aristophanes' Acharnians", GRBS 33 (1992), pp. 25–35
- Scaife, A.R., "Ritual and persuasion in the house of Ischomachus", CJ 90.3 (1994–1995), pp. 225–232
- Scaife, R., "The Kypria and its early reception", ClAnt 14.1 (1995), pp. 164–191
- Scaife, R. & Bonefas S., Diotima: materials for the study of women and gender in the ancient world (1995-). Available http://www.stoa.org/diotima/
- Scaife, A.R., "Protagorean frames of reference in Thucydides", AHB 10.1 (1996) 31-37
- Scaife, R., Finkel, R., Hutton, W., Whitehead, D. et al., Suda Online: Byzantine Lexicography (1998-). Available http://www.stoa.org/sol/
- Scaife, R. & Porter, D., "Tools for Collaborative Editing" (2006). Available http://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/OSCE_Scaife_Paper
- Scaife, R. et al., "Directions for the Future" (2007). Audio file available http://www.rch.uky.edu/CenterOfGravity/11_Scaife_future.mp3
See also
- Digital Humanities
- ClassicsClassicsClassics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
- Digital ClassicistDigital ClassicistThe Digital Classicist is a project and community for those interested in the application of Humanities Computing to the field of Classics and to ancient world studies more generally. The project claims the twin aims of bringing together scholars and students with an interest in computing and the...
- University of KentuckyUniversity of KentuckyThe University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
External links
- An obituary by Dot Porter
- Obituary in Fredericksburg Free Lance Star
- Obituary in Lexington Herald
- Obituary in Kentucky Kernel
- Homepage at the University of Kentucky website
- Collaboratory for Research in Computing for Humanities
- Digital Classicist
- Changing the Center of Gravity (conference)
- Digital Medievalist 4 (in honour of Ross Scaife)