Research Interests

Latin language and literature, especially poetry of the late Republic and Augustan age

• Roman elegy and epic
• Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid

Greek language and literature, especially poetry from Homer to the Hellenistic period

• Epic and epigram
• Homer, Hesiod, and Theocritus

The ancient literary tradition

• Genre, aesthetics, and intertextuality

The concept of love in Roman poetry

• Tracing the development of a cultural concept

Fall 2018 Courses                                

Intermediate Classical Greek I (GRK 201)

In Intermediate Classical Greek, you will forge ahead with your study of ancient language and literature, honing your skills to become a more masterful reader, while delving deeper into the intricacies of morphology, grammar, and syntax. Selections from Attic forensic oratory (Lysias, On the Murder of Eratosthenes and Against Simon) and the New Testament, together with Greek prose composition, will engage your interest as you develop your abilities in prepared translation, sight reading, and meticulous analysis. Learning about the broader cultural and historical contexts in which the primary texts were written will allow you to reflect on a range of topics, including legal, political, and philosophical thought, social status, religious belief, and gender and sexuality.

A Roman Life in Letters: Prose of the Roman Republic (LAT 400) 

The fortuitous survival of Cicero’s personal correspondence provides invaluable insight into the trials and triumphs of one of the most important figures of the late Republic. Through a close reading and analysis of select letters, you will continue to hone your Latin language skills, while gaining access to Cicero’s unique perspective on public and private life, expressed with rhetorical mastery, philosophical contemplation, and intellectual vigor to family and friends, allies and enemies. More broadly, you will consider the literary importance of the collection within the Roman epistolary tradition and its exceptional value as a source of evidence for the social, political, and historical landscape of Cicero’s Rome.  

Spring 2019 Courses                                

Be In Love and You Will Be (Un)happy: Classics Through the Ages (CLAS 220)

Vergil's famous phrase "love conquers all" (omnia uincit amor, Eclogues 10.69) identifies love as a pervasive and powerful force, while also hinting at its ability to overwhelm, subdue, and destroy. This idea of love is embedded throughout Roman poetry and prose, including philosophical texts, letters, epic poetry, and erotic elegy. By reading a stimulating selection of ancient works in translation (e.g. Lucretius, Cicero, Vergil, Propertius, Ovid, and more), you will attempt to trace the evolution of love as a concept in the Roman imagination. Complementary readings by post-classical authors, including Tom Stoppard's amazing play The Invention of Love, will invite you to contemplate the impact of the ancient tradition on subsequent Western thought and literature.

Sweeter than the Sound: Vergil’s Eclogues (LAT 401/501)

For his debut collection, Vergil transformed the sounds, landscapes, and personalities of the Greek pastoral tradition into a new, uniquely Roman incarnation of the genre. The ten poems of the Eclogues are astonishingly beautiful and rich in sound and expression. But the stunning language and style also articulate concepts and themes of great depth and complexity, and the poems reverberate with thought and feeling. In addition to reading all of the Eclogues, you will explore their place in the ancient literary tradition and importance to Vergil’s subsequent epic achievements in the Georgics and the Aeneid. Complementary readings in Latin and English, including ancient and post-classical literature and crucial scholarship, will enhance and inform your close reading and analysis of Vergil’s text.

Publications and Works in Progress

Book in progress

Taking Love Seriously: Elegiac Love and Death in Aeneid 7–12.

Edited volume

Gwynaeth McIntyre and Sarah McCallum, eds. Uncovering Anna Perenna: A Focused Study of Myth and Culture. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.

Published articles and book chapters                                                        

“Nulla fabula tegenda: Ovid’s Elegiac Revision of Vergilian Allusion.” In Uncovering Anna Perenna: A Focused Study of Myth and Culture, edited by Gwynaeth McIntyre and Sarah McCallum, 19–36. Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.

“Ego sum pastor: Pastoral Transformations in the Tale of Mercury and Battus (Ov. Met. 2.676–707).” Classical Outlook 92.2 (2017): 29–34.

“Primus Pastor: The Origins of Pastoral Programme in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” In Roman Literary Cultures: Domestic Politics, Revolutionary Poetics, Civic Spectacle, edited by Alison Keith and Jonathan Edmondson, 124–39. University of Toronto Press, 2016.

“Heu Ligurine: Echoes of Vergil in Horace Odes 4.1.” Vergilius 61 (2015): 29–42.

“Elegiac Amor and Mors in Vergil’s ‘Italian Iliad’: A Case Study (Verg. Aen. 10.185–193).” Classical Quarterly 65.2 (2015): 693–703.