Three interviews were conducted by Vaughn Fenton (Classics Graduate Program) and Joseph Baronovic (Classics Graduate Program), on behalf of Prof. Clara Bosak-Schroeder, with Profs. James (Jim) Dengate and Wayne Pitard about the Spurlock Museum and their work there. Initially, the interviewers planned the project to be a walkthrough of the museum with commentary, but changed these plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In lieu of a walkthrough, the interviewers prepared a series of questions and conducted three interviews over Zoom: one with Prof. Jim Dengate, one with Prof. Wayne Pitard, and one with both Profs. Dengate and Pitard. Transcription was done through Microsoft Word, with editing by Vaughn Fenton and later proofing by Amy Vandervelde (Classics Graduate Program). Thumbnail image courtesy of The Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
James Andrew Dengate is an emeritus professor of Classics at Illinois and has worked with campus museums since 1975. With a B.A. from Michigan State University and M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania, he is currently Director of Record for the Excavations at Halieis, Greece with which he has worked since 1965. Two volumes of the final reports of these excavations have appeared along with many preliminary reports.
Dengate and Pitard discuss the origins and vision of the Spurlock Museum. The collections, their organization, and repatriation are also major topics. Thumbnail image courtesy of The Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Wayne Pitard is an emeritus professor in the Department of Religion at Illinois and retired director of the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures. With a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, his research has focused primarily on the religion of the ancient Canaanites, particularly on the only surviving library of Canaanite religious texts, found in the ruins of the city of Ugarit, Syria, and dating to about 1200 BCE. In September 2024, he also published Watchman, Tell Us: John J. Bird and Black Politics in Post-Civil War Illinois, research that began while he was director of the Spurlock Museum.
