Study Groups

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The Augustan Society, Inc., bills itself as an "association of scholars". The Society also emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to the field. Indeed, it is our ability to span conventional topics that is one of the Society's great strengths. As such, there are many activities which do not fall neatly into one of the topical Departments. For this reason, and because they don't need discipline-specific oversight, it is appropriate to create these projects as Study Groups under separate administration.

Study Groups will be created at need, provided that a member volunteers to work on it. Study Groups will be made dormant when no member is willing. Thus at any time there will be a list of active Study Groups and a list of inactive Study Groups, the latter occasionally being rather longer than the former. This is in keeping with the nature of the Society, and follows a long tradition of directing the focus of the Society to those projects which have member support at any given point in time.

Study Groups and their Coordinators are under the direction of the Dean of Studies. It shall be upon his authority that Study Groups are created, activated, and deactivated. The Coordinators will be appointed by and serve at his pleasure.

The duties of a Study Group are:

  • Create or confirm their charter, describing the scope of their interest;
  • Advertising the group's activities in Augustæum;
  • Welcoming Augustans into the group (no closed groups are allowed);
  • Coordinating activities with the Library, who may assist by funding book purchases and making loans; and
  • Developing and encouraging the development of articles on the topic of study for Augustan Omnibus.

Currently active Study Groups include:

Currently inactive Study Groups include:

It may well be that there is a call to combine groups, such as a History Study Group encompassing the Ancient History and Medieval History groups. This should be encouraged, as should splitting a group that decides their topic is overbroad. The groups listed above are only those that have in the past been found useful; the future may well find members with different interests.