Robert Ketterer, professor and interim chair of the Department of Classics in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), has been awarded the 2013 Outreach Prize by the American Philological Association.

Ketterer received the recognition from the discipline’s premier national organization for organizing an interdisciplinary conference titled, “Re-Creation: Musical Reception of Classical Antiquity,” held at the University of Iowa from Oct. 27-30, 2011.

Collaborating with fellow CLAS faculty member Gregory Hand, assistant professor of organ in the School of Music, Ketterer worked with a committee from diverse fields to ensure that the conference would appeal to a broad spectrum of interests. Its presentations and performances reflected upon and illustrated how the myths, literary texts, and aesthetic ideals of Greco-Roman antiquity have been received, portrayed, and re-conceptualized in musical works from the sixteenth through twenty-first centuries.

The conference sessions and events brought a diverse group of international scholars from a variety of fields together with musical artists representing numerous vocal and instrumental specializations. Its program spotlighted a wide spectrum of genres in the realm of literary and cultural studies as well as in music itself. Presenters included graduate students, secondary teachers, independent scholars and performance practitioners, as well as university-level scholars.

The concerts included in the conference were performed by the School of Music’s Center for New Music and Opera Studio.

Ketterer holds a joint appointment in the CLAS departments of Classics and Comparative Literature. His research interest is in Greek and Roman drama and its reception in the classical tradition, with a special interest in early Italian opera. His book, Ancient Rome in Early Opera, was published in 2009 by University of Illinois Press.