Interview with Donald McCarthy
Don McCarthy is a PhD candidate in the Classics department. In 2025, he won a prestigious award from the UofT, honouring his work teaching Latin and implementing innovative pedagogical strategies. His dissertation examines the influence of Peripatetic and Epicurean philosophy on the composition of Vergil’s Georgics. We talk to him today about learning languages and his experiences teaching Latin.
Tell me about the award you’ve won recently.
I won the Teaching Assistant Training Program’s CI Teaching Excellence Award which is an annual award based on a department nomination and teaching dossier.
It’s a pretty big deal, right?
(Laughs) Yeah, I guess it is. It’s a competition across all the departments at the UofT, so there were a lot of strong nominees. It was really flattering to win it, and I was kind of shocked. I didn’t really think I had a chance. One of the highlights was an invitation to a pedagogy workshop with the other award finalists where I was invited to talk about my experiences teaching. They’re a very nice group at TATP and they were helpful in thinking about how to present ourselves as teachers.
Why do you think you won the award?
I guess I can’t say for certain why I won, but I would imagine part of the reason is that I’ve had the opportunity to teach Latin at all undergraduate levels. I think that having to adapt to a wide range of students’ abilities might have been a point in my favour. I also try to incorporate more interactive activities, like a Latin choose-your-own-adventure novella for students in an introductory class to get them interested in reading longer passages, or occasional spoken Latin activities. I think that these sorts of activities allow students with very different strengths to have opportunities to show off their skills in class.
Do you think the classroom has changed in the past few years?
Some of the references I make seem not to land and I don’t understand all of their references either. For instance, there seems to be a new or increased interest in the reception of Classics in video games and things like that, which is new for me. But I don’t think the students themselves are changing. There is often a tendency to panic about the influence of computers or AI, but I’m convinced that the students are, by and large, just as strong and diligent as they’ve always been. I don’t think there’s any point in being pessimistic. The committed students will always find a way to do good work.
What advice would you have for someone teaching their first class on their own?
It’s hard to say, because you really do just have to teach to learn how to. But I would say don’t be afraid to experiment. Don’t worry too much about following to the letter any particular formula from past instructors or courses. You have to make every course your own, to some degree. Enjoy the experience and try to connect with your students.
Do you think there’s a good way to integrate your own research as a PhD student into the classroom? How do you help students get into some of the bigger topics in Classics in a first-year language course?
Yeah, I think it’s definitely possible, even if it’s more difficult than at a graduate or advanced level. For all of my Latin classes, I’ve always introduced myself as a Latin poetry sort of person. That seems to interest a lot of students. To hear that someone can actually do an advanced degree in poetry is a novelty for many of them. Sometimes I get questions about Vergil, or I’ll include a few verses from the Aeneid for translation exercises. Most of all, the students know when the instructor is interested in the material and when they’re not. So, I think bringing in your own enthusiasm can be a way to keep students motivated.
What did your process of learning Latin look like?
I would say Latin was the first language I put a lot of personal effort in. I think it shaped me into a more serious person academically. I didn’t come into Latin with some sort of linguistic virtuosity or anything like that. But in university I encountered instructors who were very clearly passionate about their subjects and were also very clearly experts. That became something that I aspired to very early on—to be an expert in a field and show that same kind of genuine interest to students.
What other languages do you know? Do they have any effect on how you teach Latin?
I started learning French pretty young, but I didn’t really become fluent until I was an adult. I went to university in Quebec, which helped, but working a job there was the real trial by fire situation. I took a minor in German, though I wouldn’t say I’m nearly as comfortable in the language. Of course, I studied Ancient Greek as well. I also know a bit of modern Irish. Learning more is a long-term goal for me.
You also studied Yiddish at one point, right?
I did take some Yiddish classes in university. I was a big fan of the novels of Der Nister and Moyshe Kulbak, which is a big part of what inspired my interest for the language. But yeah, I think learning other languages can help with Latin and Greek—as teachers we can find it easy to forget the nervousness and the anxiety of approaching a new language. After you’ve read a thousand pages of Latin, it’s hard to remember what it feels like to have read zero pages of Latin. Giving yourself some humility is an important part of being a teacher (laughs).
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
I want to thank Adriana Brook, Alison Keith, Lorenza Bennardo, and Jarrett Welsh for all of their support with my award nomination and teaching dossier. They were a big part of why I think I won the award, and they all have impacted how I think about teaching and what I bring to the classroom. I think we as a department have been extremely fortunate to have such a nuanced and serious focus on pedagogy at all levels. Huge kudos to all the faculty and graduate instructors in the department.