ESP Biography

CRAIG ABERNETHY, Admin Assistant for 2 engineering research groups

Major: Not available.

College/Employer: Not available.

Year of Graduation: Not available.

Brief Biographical Sketch:

I have been involved in studying and then teaching ancient Greek for a couple of decades. I taught ancient Greek for several years during IAP (in January) at MIT; in connection with that, I wrote a couple of short textbooks. I also taught the Greek of the Iliad to high school students some years ago.

As far as the presentation on Surplus Value is concerned, I earned a Master's Degree in history from Boston University, and I have been involved in movements for social change for the last forty years, since I was in the movement against the war in Vietnam, as an undergraduate.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

H2723: The Greek of Homer: Alphabet and initial paradigms in Splash! 2009 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2009)

We will learn the Greek alphabet and begin to look at how nouns and verbs behave in the Greek of Homer. At the end of the instruction, you will be able to read aloud some lines from the beginning of the first book of the Iliad.

H2725: One facet of Marxism: Surplus value = Social dynamite in Splash! 2009 (Nov. 21 - 22, 2009)

In this activity, we will look at the social roles of worker and capitalist, as Marx explains them in the first volume of Capital, with a primary focus on Marx's understanding of surplus value, which, according to Marx, is created by workers, but pocketed by those with capital, a process which is the mainspring of class conflict in industrial society.