groves

groves@arizona.edu
Office
Learning Services Building 219
Office Hours
Fall 2024: Open schedule of Office Hour appointments on Calendly (https://calendly.com/groves-iv)
In-person in my office (Learning Services Building 219) or on Zoom. In-Person is not available on Wednesdays or some Fridays.
Personal Site
Book an appointment for Office Hours, Advising, or General Education Consultati…
Groves, Robert
Associate Professor of Practice, Director of Undergraduate Studies

General Introduction

Hello!   I joined the department here in the fall of 2013, and have been delighted to contribute by teaching a wide variety of courses on ancient Greek and Roman literature, history, language, and culture.   Some of my contributions to the department that I'm especially proud of are: 

  • Teaching 27 different courses, including courses on the Ancient Novel (in English and Greek), Greek Drama, Introductions to Classics in various levels and formats, Advanced Courses in Greek Prose.
  • Leading Study Abroad Programs in/around Greece, Italy, Paris, and the Eastern Coast of the U.S.
  • As Director of Basic Languages, supporting our M.A. students in their teaching of elementary and intermediate Latin (and sometimes Greek) courses, featuring collaborative pedagogy and flipped classrooms.  
  • The "Staging Ancient Drama" project that periodically stages and Ancient Greek or Roman play.
  • Developing our asynchronous Online offerings of Greek and Latin language courses including Greek 112, and Latin 101-202 online.
  • Working with our M.A. students on a variety of exciting and sometimes creative thesis projects.
  • Winning the Society for Classical Studies' "Award for Excellence in Teaching at the College Level" in 2021.

Areas of Expertise

  • Greek and Latin literature, especially Greek Prose
  • Ancient Multilingualism in both reality and literary representation
  • Classical Linguistics
  • Modern Performance of Ancient Drama and Classical Reception in American Drama

Education

  • Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles (2012)
    • Dissertation: "Cross-Language Communication in Heliodorus' Aethiopica"
      Committee: David Blank (Chair), Mario Teló, Brent Vine, Jacco Dieleman
  • M.A, Classics, University of California, Los Angeles (2007)
  • Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, Classics, Unviersity of California Los Angeles (2005)
  • B.S., Classics, University of Wisconsin, Madison (2002)

Teaching

2024-2025 Courses

Fall 2024

  • Greek 433/533--Readings in Greek Poetry (Advanced Greek Language Course) 

Spring 2025

  • CLAS 160D2--Classical Mythology: Ancient Stories and What they Tell Us: (General Education: Exploring Perspectives--Humanist)
  • CLAS 346--Family Feuds: (Re-)Interpreting Greek Tragedy (General Education: Building Connections)

Summer 2025

  • Greek 112 - Elementary Ancient Greek (Fully Online, Asynchronous)

Courses taught at University of Arizona

  • CLAS116B - Word Roots: Science and Medical Technology
  • CLAS160B1 - Meet the Ancients--Gateway to Greece and Rome
  • CLAS160B2 - Classical Mythology
  • CLAS 160D1 - America and Antiquity
  • CLAS 201 - Contexts for Studying Classical Reception Abroad
  • CLAS 220 - The Classical Tradition I (As part of Study Abroad Program based in Orvieto, Italy)
  • CLAS 221 - The Classical Tradition II (As part of Study Abroad Program based in Orvieto, Italy)
  • CLAS 301A (formerly 250A) - The Literature of the Ancient Greeks: From Homer to the Novel
  • CLAS 342 - The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic Tradition
  • CLAS 346 - Ancient Greek Drama
  • CLAS 352 - The Ancient Novel
  • CLAS 397 - Engaged and Applied Classics (Staging Ancient Drama)
     
  • GRK 101 - Elementary Classical Greek I
  • GRK 102 - Elementary Classical Greek II
  • GRK 112 - Intensive Elementary Classical Greek
  • GRK 201 - Intermediate Classical Greek I
  • GRK 202 - Intermediate Classical Greek II
  • GRK 4/502 - Greek Reading Course
  • GRK 4/530 - Readings in Greek Historians
  • GRK 4/533 - Readings in Ancient Greek Poetry of the Archaic and/or Hellenistic Period
  • GRK 4/539 - Readings in Ancient Greek Orators
     
  • Honors 197J - Examining Ancient Lives
     
  • LAT 101 - Elementary Latin I
  • LAT 102 - Elementary Latin II 
  • LAT 201 - Intermediate Latin I
  • LAT 202 - Intermediate Latin II
  • LAT 400 - Readings in Republican Latin Prose

Theses Supervised

M.A. Thesis, Committee Chair:

  • "Dido, Queen of Carthage" (S. Minson, 2022)
  • "A Little Jest that Maybe We Could Try: Playing with Myth in Supergiant Games’ Hades" (I. Morgan, 2022)
  • "The Split Noun Phrase in Classical Latin"  (Z. Feldcamp 2021)
  • "Lament Scenes in Xenophon of Ephesus: A Study in Self-Fashioning" (N. Nelson, 2020)
  • “On Misconceptions Generated by Translating Parrhesia and Isegoria as ‘Freedom of Speech’" (G. Lu, 2017)
  • “Mythic Claims to Territory in the Megarid” (B. Winnick, 2015)

M.A. Theses, Committee Member:

  • "Fraternal Strife Among Statius' Gods" (L. Giuntoli, 2024)
  • "De Hominis Moribus: Characterization as a Vehicle for Moral Rhetoric in Sallust" (N. Savageaux, 2023)
  • "Apuleius Parrots the Poets: Anti-Authoritarian Intertextuality in Florida 12" (T. McMath, 2023)
  • "'You Know Nothing At All': Ironic Prophecy and Reversal of Meaning in John 11:45-53" (J. Abhau, 2023)
  • "'To the Superlative': Intertextual Parallels between Alexander's Last Words and the Golden Apple of Eris" (A. Kiprof, 2023)
  • "The Origins of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey" (D. Raine, 2023)
  • "A Rehabilitation of Homer and Linear B: Points of Connection between Anax/Wanax, Potnia, and Temenos (R. Sanders, 2023)
  • "Bandages and Plasters as Wound Care in Greco-Roman Antiquity: Ancient Evidence and Experimental Analysis" (A. Blanck, 2022)
  • "On the Air: An Intersemiotic Translation of Ovid's Heroides" (E. Larres, 2021)
  • "Count Your Blessings You can't See: An Appalachian Translation of Seneca's Oedipus" (M. Main, 2020)
  • "The Walls of Megalopolis: An Analysis of the Circuit Course Proposed by the British Excavation of 1890-1893" (S. Savage, 2019)
  • "Shame on Stage: Exploring aischunē in Menander's Samia and Dyskolos" (D. Ruprehct, 2019)
  • “Dreams in Homer, Heraclitus, and Plato” (A. Novikova, 2018)
  • “Changes over night: An Analysis of the Aftermath of Mons Graupius in Tacitus’ Agricola” (C. Moat, 2018) 
  • “Roman Pederastic Poetry: The Problem of the Puer Delicatus” (L. Harvey, 2017)
  • “A Comparison of the Works of Latin Literature That Influenced British and American Political Figures Between 1700 and 1825” (I. Merrill, 2016)
  • “The Euripidean Prologue” (J. Geach, 2016)
  • “Towards an Understanding of Herodotean ἱστορίη” (L. Green, 2015)
  • “The Larnax and the Tree: Daphnis, Adonis, Meleager and Osiris in Myths of Death and Rebirth” (J. Muñoz, 2015)
  •  “Rhetoric in Sophocles’ Philoctetes and Plato’s Phaedrus” (V. Ganesan, 2014)

Research

Presentations

  • 2024   "Why Prose Fiction for Intermediate Greek Courses?”, SCS, Chicago.
  • 2023   "Collaborative Micro-Direction" as part of the workshop I co-led, "Beyond Staging Greek Tragedy Today: Pedagogy of Teaching Ancient Greek Theater", CAMWS, Provo.
  • 2022   "Alexander Hamilton and Greek Tragic Performance", CAMWS, Wake Forest.
  • 2022   "Story Map: A New Interactive Mapping Tool", SCS, San Francisco/Virtual.
  • 2021   "Facing Our Fears: The Gladiator" as a Case Study in Classics and Race." (Keynote, Co-Presenter: Krishni Burns), Ancient Drama in Performance VI, Lynchburg.
  • 2019   "Lessons from a Competency-Based Online Greek Course", CAMWS, Lincoln.
  • 2018   "Rescripting Senecan Performability in Agamemnon Act 1", "Ancient Drama in Performance V, Lynchburg.
  • 2017   "Classics in the 21st Century" (3-day Lecture Series), Dorrance Scholarship Program Summer Bridge Experience, Flagstaff
  • 2017   “Next to Normal: An Interior Oresteia”, CAMWS, Kitchener.
  • 2016    "Glossed in Translation: Some Mulitilingual Moments in Greek Literature," Centro Studi Città di Orvieto, Orvieto, Italy.
  • 2016    "What is Classics? (5-day Lecture Series)", Dorrance Scholarship Program Summer Bridge Experience, Flagstaff
  • 2015    "The Semantic Evolution of δίγλωσσος", SCS, New Orleans.
  • 2014    "Cassandra Barbarophonos, Aeschylus at the Language Barrier", CAMWS, Waco.
  • 2013    "Teaching Heliodorus in the Greek Civilization Course”, CAMWS, Iowa City.
  • 2012    “Statue to Story: Ovid's Metamorphosis of Hermaphroditus”, APA, Philadelphia.
  • 2010    “Women, Sex, Bilingualism, and the Aethiopica”, APA, Philadelphia.
  • 2009    “Heliodorus and Ancient Bilingualism: Fiction and Facts”, Ancient Cultures in Contact: Catalysts for Change, University of Pennsylvania, Graduate Conference.
  • 2008    Panel Respondent, Reconstructing Paternity in the Ancient World, University of California, Los Angeles, Graduate Conference.
  • 2008    “Papyrus Stanford Greek Green 8”, American Society of Papyrologists Summer Program,  Stanford University.
  • 2007    “The Librarian and the Shaman: Making Sense of Apollonius's Allusions to Empedocles”, CAMWS, Cincinnati.

Publications

  • Review: "An Introduction to Euripides' Electra - (R. Rehm)..." The Classical Review 71.2 (2021). 
  • Article: “From Statue to Story: Ovid's Metamorphosis of Hermaphroditus”, Classical World 109.3 (2016).

Publications in Progress

  • Commentary: "Chariton's 'Callirhoe' (Selections)", under review for the Dickinson Classical Commentaries series.
  • Article: "Linguistic Chastity in Heliodorus' Aethiopica" (Revising for Ancient Narrative)
  • Article: “P. Stanford Green Greek 8” (forthcoming in Papyrologica Bruxellensia)
  • Textbook in Progress: "A Greek Novel Reader"
  • Monograph in Progress: "Cross-Language Communication in the Greek and Roman Novels" 

Office of General Education

Beginning in Fall semester 2021, part of my workload is in the University of Arizona's Office of General Education, in which I serve as the Faculty Coordinator specializing in the Building Connection portion of our newly revised curriculum.   My role as part of this team includes:

  • Training and Supporting Faculty as they re-envision their courses to align with our new curriculum.
  • Developing Resources to help support high-quality instruction within the General Education program.
  • Developing Policies and Procedures for the effective roll-out of this new curriculum and its infrastructure
  • Supporting the University Wide General Education Committee (UWGEC) by Reviewing Courses in an advisory capacity.

Current Service Activities

  • University
    • University-Wide General Education Committee 
    • Director of Basic Languages (Classics)
    • Classics Curriculum Committee (Co-Chair)
    • Classics Assessment and Outcomes Committee (Co-Chair) 
    • Departmental Recruitment, Retention, and Advising Committee (Co-Chair)
    • College of Humanities Curriculum Review Committee
    • College of Humanities Website Governance and Working Group
  • National/Disciplinary
    • SCS Teaching Excellence Awards Committee
    • SCS Data Committee
    • CAMWS-affiliated "Theater In Greece and Rome (TIGR)" group, secretary

Awards

  • Award for Excellence in Teaching at the College Level (Society for Classical Studies, 2021)
  • Center for Digital Humanities, Pilot Project Development Award (University of Arizona, 2019)
  • Student Engagement Grant: Staging Ancient Drama (University of Arizona, 2016)
  • Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award (University of California-Los Angeles, 2011)
  • Fellowship for Summer Institute (America Society of Papyrologists, 2008)
  • Pillinger Prize for Latin Translation; Logan Prize for Greek Translation (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2002)

Dramatic Activities 

I participate in two chief kinds of activities that revolve around modern productions connected with ancient theater.
  • Staging Ancient Drama is an ongoing project, begun in 2017 in which I supervise undergraduates in putting on a full staging of an ancient Greek or Roman play.  Students enroll in a 1-credit course with the engagement attribute to reflect the active and engaged learning that takes place as part of this experience.  Performances are held annually in late April and are free and open to the public. Performances are supported by grants from the Office of Student Engagement and the Arizona Community Foundation. 
    • Aristophanes' "the Cloud(s)" (2020)
    • Seneca's "Agamemnon" (2018)
    • Euripides' "Trojan Women" (2017)
  • The SCS's Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance (CAMP) performs a play (either Greek, Roman, or on Classical themes) annually at the meeting of the SCS. Theater in Greece and Rome (TIGR) performs a staged reading at each meeting of CAMWS. These performances are not simply entertainment, but rather applied experiments in theatrical practices, translation, interpretation, and reception. I regularly participate in these performances as an actor (and occasionally a singer; once as director).
    • Aristophanes' "Ecclesiazusae" (CAMWS, 2024)
    • Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" (SCS, 2024)
    • Plautus' "Trinummus" (CAMWS, 2023)
    • Flores' "hippolytos (A Queer Dionysia, Part One)" (SCS, 2022)
    • Aeschylus' "Seven Against Thebes" (CAMWS, 2022)
    • Euripides' "Helen" (SCS, 2021)
    • Addison's "Cato: A Tragedy" (SCS, 2020) --Director
    • Aristophanes' "Assemblywomen" (SCS, 2019)
    • Plautus' "Truculentus" (SCS, 2017)
    • Aristophanes' "Wealth" (SCS, 2015)
    • Plautus' "Rudens" (SCS, 2014)
    • Aristophanes' "Birds" (SCS, 2007)
    • Gilbert and Sullivan's "Thespis" (SCS, 2006)

Links

Currently Teaching

CLAS 352 – Pirates, Witches, Barbarians, and True Love: The Ancient Novel

The most famous texts you've never heard of, the ancient Greek and Roman novels are a rich and diverse group of texts that arose somewhat suddenly from mysterious origins, and include formulaic tales of love, sex and marriage, travel to bizarre foreign lands, magical transformations, riddles, zombies, and debauchery. These stories have sometimes been looked on as texts of inferior quality, a topic we will reconsider together, but these novels also laid the groundwork for more modern novels, as well as the works of Cervantes and Shakespeare and films like The Princess Bride and Indiana Jones. This course will use a Humanists perspective to critically read, analyze, discuss, and formulate arguments about select Ancient Greek and Roman novels. We may also include reading and consideration of similar texts from other ancient societies and/or the receptions of these novels in subsequent literature. As we read, we will consider when novels become literature, what makes books good, how we define genre and how genre impacts our reading, as well as what fiction can teach us about the history of love, sex, social class, women, the body, religion, and magic.

View Section Details

CLAS 498H – Honors Thesis

An honors thesis is required of all the students graduating with honors. Students ordinarily sign up for this course as a two-semester sequence. The first semester the student performs research under the supervision of a faculty member; the second semester the student writes an honors thesis.

View Section Details

GRK 101 – Elementary Classical Greek I

Introduction to ancient Greek for students of the Bible and of the classical authors.

View Section Details

GRK 112 – Intensive Beginning Classical Greek

Intensive study of basic morphology, grammar, and vocabulary of beginning classical Greek. Greek 112 provides an intensive introduction to Greek and is the equivalent of Greek 101 and 102. There are no prerequisites, though some background in Latin or Romance language may be helpful. As we will cover two semesters of material in fewer than five weeks, the pace is fast and the workload necessarily demanding. Students who successfully complete the course may advance to Greek 212 in Summer term or Greek 201 in the Fall term.

View Section Details

To view full listing of courses offered, please visit our Course Schedule.

Course Schedule