Biography
Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, I have since lived in a number of states: Georgia, Wisconsin, California, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Iowa, Louisiana. In my eighth-grade class, I was deemed “Most Likely to Sail the Seven Seas,” and while I have yet to accomplish this—in fact, I don’t sail at all—I consider my moderately itinerant life to be a respectable start. As a youth, I had strong interests in music (mainly hard rock and heavy metal), and I realize now that in my research and teaching I employ many of the skills and practices that I began cultivating when studying and performing music as a long-haired teenage rocker.
Academic History
- Ph.D., Classics, University of California, Los Angeles, 2018
- M.A., Classics, University of California, Los Angeles, 2012
- Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, Classics, University of California, Los Angeles, 2008-2010
- B.A., English Literature, Lawrence University, 2006
- Before coming to Scripps I held appointments at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, IA (2018-2019) and Tulane University, New Orleans, LA (2019-2022).
Academic Focus
A historian of rhetoric and literature, I principally study abusive speech and violence in ancient Rome.
My current book project, Rhetoric and Violence in the Roman Republic, is a study of the relationship between oratory and violence in the Roman Republic. I am particularly interested in forms and instances of public speech and writing that are immediate precursors to or subsequent justifications of violent action, or that, in turn, meditate on how public speech is affected, even silenced, by the threat of violence. In each case, I am interested in the proximity of speech to physical violence and in the relative harms, both to individuals and to society, of each.
This topic is, unfortunately, inspired by the rise of hate crimes and political violence in recent years. As society is increasingly confronted by the ways in which divisive, aggressive, and hateful speech—whether it comes from political leaders or from the dark corners of the internet—lead people to act violently, my topic can help us better understand the relationship between speech and violence and thence how to address the issue productively.
Beyond my book project, Cicero is a major focal point of my research and I have essays published, accepted, or in preparation on his rhetorical works, letters, and speeches. More recently, I have turned my attention to public speech and violence in Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, a topic that I continue to explore in an in-progress paper on representations of the Gauls in AUC Books 5-10.
Finally in terms of research, I have a strong interest in the reception of the classics in the Renaissance and have presented some of my work in this area at Renaissance conferences. My principal focus in Renaissance studies is the Neo-Latin writings of Quattrocento humanists and especially Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), but I have also engaged with the Huguenot classical scholar Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614).
As a teacher, I have taught courses in ancient Greek and Latin at various levels as well as a host of civilization courses in translation (including Roman history, mythology, hate speech and politics in the ancient world, and gender in ancient Greece). This spring I am teaching a course on race and ethnicity in the Greco-Roman worlds, the first of its kind at the 5Cs. I enjoy cultivating a diverse, student-centered classroom and I regularly attend pedagogy workshops to learn how I can teach more effectively and more inclusively.
I especially enjoy working closely with—and learning from—students on advanced research projects in any of the fields (or closely related ones!) that I am interested in.
Beyond my book project, Cicero is a major focal point of my research and I have essays published, accepted, or in preparation on his rhetorical works, letters, and speeches. More recently, I have turned my attention to public speech and violence in Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, a topic that I continue to explore in an in-progress paper on representations of the Gauls in AUC Books 5-10.
Finally in terms of research, I have a strong interest in the reception of the classics in the Renaissance and have presented some of my work in this area at Renaissance conferences. My principal focus in Renaissance studies is the Neo-Latin writings of Quattrocento humanists and especially Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), but I have also engaged with the Huguenot classical scholar Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614).
As a teacher, I have taught courses in ancient Greek and Latin at various levels as well as a host of civilization courses in translation (including Roman history, mythology, hate speech and politics in the ancient world, and gender in ancient Greece). This spring I am teaching a course on race and ethnicity in the Greco-Roman worlds, the first of its kind at the 5Cs. I enjoy cultivating a diverse, student-centered classroom and I regularly attend pedagogy workshops to learn how I can teach more effectively and more inclusively.
I especially enjoy working closely with—and learning from—students on advanced research projects in any of the fields (or closely related ones!) that I am interested in.
Interests
Physical fitness and sport (tennis, track and field, basketball), music (I play guitar and a bit of piano), film (mainly drama).
Courses Taught
Spring 2023:
Race and Ethnicity in the Greco-Roman Worlds (CLAS 116)
Roman Decadence (CLAS 130)
Intermediate Latin (LATN 033)
Fall 2022:
Female and Male in Ancient Greece (CLAS 114)
Advanced Latin Readings: Juvenal (LATN 044)