Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Late Antique Literary, Religious, and Cultural History
Travel, Pilgrimage, Cartography
Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Forgery
Syriac Language and Literature
Greek-Syriac Literary Interaction
Encyclopedism and the Sociology of Knowledge
Teaching Positions
2007–Present: Assistant Professor of Classics, Washington and Lee University (on leave, 2009–11)
2006–2007: Visiting Lecturer in Classics, Harvard University
Fellowships
2010–2011: Kluge Fellow, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
2009–2010: Dumbarton Oaks Fellow in Byzantine Studies, Washington, D.C.
2004–2006: Junior Fellow, Harvard Society of Fellows, Cambridge, Mass.
Degrees
D.Phil. in Classics, University of Oxford (2005)
M.Phil. in Classics, University of Oxford (2001)
B.A. in Classics, Vanderbilt University (1999; summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa)
Books
The Life and Miracles of Thekla, A Literary Study (2006, Center for Hellenic Studies & Harvard U.P.)
Reviews: BMCR, TMR, JThS (pdf), CR (pdf), VigChrist (pdf), Religious Studies Review (pdf), Byzantinische Zeitschrift (pdf), Journal of Religious History (pdf)
ed., Greek Literature in Late Antiquity: Dynamism, Didacticism, Classicism (2006, Ashgate)
Reviews: TMR (pdf), JHS (pdf), Medium Aevum (pdf), Studia Humaniora Tartuensia
Books in Progress:
ed., The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity (under contract, OUP)
ed., Languages and Cultures of Eastern Christianity: Greek, 300–800 AD (under contract, Ashgate)
All the World’s Knowledge: Geography and Literature in Late Antiquity (monograph in preparation)
Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (original with facing-page translations):
- a translation of the Greek Life and Miracles of Thekla (c.470 AD), alongside two later Byzantine miracle collections (Pege and Gregory Palamas) by Alice-Mary Talbot
- a collection of Latin pilgrimage narratives from Late Antiquity (Bordeaux Pilgrim, Egeria, Piacenza Pilgrim, and others)
Articles
“Travel, Cartography, Pilgrimage.” In Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity (forthcoming).
“Apostolic Geography: The Origins and Continuity of a Hagiographic Habit.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers (forthcoming, 2010).
“Reviving the Memory of the Apostles: Apocryphal Tradition and Travel Literature in Late Antiquity.” In Revival and Resurgence in Christian History, edited by Kate Cooper and Jeremy Gregory, 1–26. Studies in Church History 44. Woodbridge: Ecclesiastical History Society and Boydell Press, 2008. (pdf)
“Apocrypha and the Literary Past in Late Antiquity.” In From Rome to Constantinople: Studies in Honour of Averil Cameron, eds. Hagit Amirav and Bas ter Haar Romeny, 47–66. Leuven: Peeters, 2007. (pdf)
“Classical Sources for Early Christian Miracle Collections: The Case of the Fifth-Century Life and Miracles of Thecla.” Studia Patristica 39 (2006) 399–407. (Revised as Chapter 4 of The Life and Miracles of Thekla, A Literary Study; see above)
“Late Antique Narrative Fiction: Apocryphal Acta and the Greek Novel in the Fifth-Century Life and Miracles of Thekla.” In Greek Literature in Late Antiquity (Aldershot, 2006) 189–207. (pdf)
“The Sinful Woman: A memra by Jacob of Serugh.” In Sobornost/Eastern Churches Review 24.1 (2002) 58–90.
Reviews
Review of Anthony Grafton and Megan Williams, Christianity and the Transformation of the Book (Cambridge, MA., 2006), in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.06.41. (BMCR link)
Review of Bernadette Simon, Nonnos de Panopolis: Les Dionysiaques, Tome XVI, Chants XLIV–XLVI (Paris, 2004) in Classical Review 56.1 (2006) 86–87. (pdf)
Review of Gianfranco Agosti, Nonno di Panopoli: Parafrasi del Vangelo di San Giovanni, Canto Quinto (Florence, 2003) in Classical Review 55.2 (2005) 474–476. (pdf)
Review of Tomas Hägg and Philip Rousseau, Greek Biography and Panegyric in Late Antiquity (California, 2000) in Journal of Roman Studies 94 (2004) 274–275. (pdf)
Review of Stephen Davis, The Cult of Saint Thecla (Oxford, 2001), in Heythrop Journal 45 (2004) 80–82. (pdf)
Review of Liz James, Empresses and Power in Early Byzantium (London, 2001), in Classical Review 53 (2003) 186–187. (pdf)
Review of Patricia Cox Miller, The Poetry of Thought in Late Antiquity (Aldershot, 2001), in Heythrop Journal 44 (2003) 506–508. (pdf)
Review of Judith Herrin, Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium (London, 2001), in Journal of Hellenic Studies 122 (2002) 204–205. (pdf)
Recent Papers Delivered
“Pilgrimage and Archive in Pausanias and Egeria,” Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity VIII (Indiana University, April, 2009)
“Pilgrimage as Hagiography: From Pausanias to Egeria,” Society of Biblical Literature, Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti Group (Boston, November, 2008)
“Apostolic Geography: The Origins and Continuity of a Hagiographical Habit”, in the colloquium, “Landscapes of the Saints: Hagiography and Land in the Near East and Europe, ca. 400–900” (Princeton, March, 2008)
“East and Further East: Syriac Christianity at the End of the Ancient World,” Martin Weiner Distinguished Lecture (Brandeis, October, 2006)
“Wandering with the Apostles: Apocryphal Tradition and Travel Literature in Late Antiquity,” Ecclesiastical History Society Annual Meeting (Cardiff, July, 2006)
“John Bainbridge, Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford: Greek, Syriac, and Arabic texts Post-Copernicus,” History of Science Society, on the panel, “Envisioning New Science, Turning Back in Time: The Role of Near-Eastern Sources in Early-Modern Practices of Science” (Minneapolis, November, 2005)
“Hagiography Killed the Novel? A Case Study on the Fifth-Century Life and Miracles of Thecla,” Society of Biblical Literature Conference, Ancient Fiction Group (Atlanta, November, 2003); extended version delivered at the Oxford Byzantine Seminar, St John’s College (November, 2003)
“Classical Sources for Early Christian Miracle Collections,” Fourteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies (Oxford, August, 2003)
“Cult and Competition: Textual Appropriation in the Fifth-Century Life and Miracles of Thecla,” Byzantine Studies Conference (The Ohio State University, October, 2002)
“Athanasius and the Rhetoric of Exile in Late Antiquity,” International Medieval Congress (Leeds, July, 2002)
“The Remains of Church Buildings at Isaurian Seleucia,” Byzantine Archaeology Seminar (Oxford, May, 2001)
Grants & Awards
Recipient of Lenfest Grant for Research, Washington and Lee University, 2009
Recipient of Glenn Grant for Research, Washington and Lee University, 2008
Recipient of research grant from William F. Milton Fund, Harvard University, 2006–2007
Elected to a Mellon Fellowship, 1999–2000 (declined)
Courses Taught
The Hellenic Tradition, Study Abroad to Greece and Istanbul (Spring 2009, W&L)
Aristophanes, Frogs (Winter 2009, W&L)
Introductory Greek, Hansen and Quinn (2007–08, 2008–09, W&L)
Medieval Latin Survey (Fall 2008, W&L)
World of Late Antiquity: Constantine to Muhammad (Spring 2008, W&L)
Longus, Daphnis and Chloe (Winter 2008, W&L)
Augustine, Confessions (Fall 2007, W&L)
Plato, Ion (Fall 2007, Fall 2008, W&L)
Late Antique and Medieval Latin Poetry (Spring 2007, Harvard)
Biography in the Classical Tradition (Spring 2007, Harvard)
Aristophanes, Clouds (Fall 2006, Harvard)
Greek Prose Composition (Fall 2006, Harvard)
(last updated: 8.13.2009)