We learn the most when we encounter what is least familiar.
Education
Ph.D. in Classics, Yale University
B.A. in Classics, University of Washington
Biography
I have been a professor of classics at Hillsdale College since 2017, having previously taught at Princeton University and Barnard College/Columbia University after receiving my Ph.D. from Yale University in 2015.
My research interests and specialties are purposely broad, and I am extremely grateful that Hillsdale College has allowed me not only to explore my various interests but also teach classes that expand my own experience and expand the cultures and traditions that students encounter in their time here. In classics, my specialties are Greek and Roman poetry, Late Antiquity, the Second Sophistic, Greek epic, and the idea of the classical hero. My own work on the very belated poet Nonnus and his “Dionysiaca” examines the influence of Christianity and paganism in Late Antiquity, epic poetics, and the idea of innovation in poetic composition within tradition. Other areas in which I specialize are Biblical Hebrew, historical linguistics, rabbinic literature, Ugaritic, Sanskrit, and historic architecture.
In my teaching, I aim to present the cultures and languages of antiquity on their own terms and in their own cultural context. For me, an encounter with a foreign and ancient language is to encounter an entire way of thinking, one that can be strikingly similar to contemporary thought at times, and one that can be startlingly unfamiliar and alien at other times. It is by balancing these two concepts, the familiar and the foreign within the classroom and doing so through the prism of language and literature that classics provokes analytical self-reflection and develops the critical thinking vital to the liberal arts. The provocation, the struggle, and the sheer joy of this process is what centers classics at the heart of “rejoicing in the challenge” of academic and personal development.