D.M. Corinne Sinclair Crawford (1980-2007)

Corinne Sinclair Crawford, classicist, feminist, labor organizer, cook, and writer, died as a result of brain injuries from a bike accident last month.

The Berkeley classics department has a memorial page.

There are tributes here.

For some of Corinne's own sparkling intelligence, her blog is here. Damn, the woman had a voice! It will never be completely silent.

There is now a big gaping Corinne-shaped hole in our lives.

In honor of Corinne: Live life, keep your standards high, and don't ever take any opportunity for granted.

first post!

This is the inaugural post of speculum mendax, a blog about women, gender, classical and other literatures, academia, and the interface between self and other. And anything else I care to write about.

On the name: Ovid, Tristia 3.7.37-8 :

Cumque aliquis dicet "fuit haec formosa" dolebis,
et speculum mendax esse querere tuum.

And when someone says "This woman was beautiful", you'll be sad,
and you'll complain that your mirror (speculum) is lying (mendax).

I haven't yet worked out all the implications of this choice.