Classical Studies at Brandeis
Brandeis University
Classical Studies Department
Livia's House, fresco, Pompeii



The Faculty and Staff of Classical Studies



Classical thinkers and their achievements are studied across Brandeis University in almost every other department, from Mathematics and Physics to History and Philosophy, but we specialists number only four, two of us specializing in the ancient languages and literature, one in classical art and archaeology, and one in ancient history.  The reader should bear in mind, as concerns the following portraits, that the field of Classics is by nature and inclination an interdisciplinary one that has always valued a range of intellectual skills and approaches, and we all do our best to broaden our knowledge and that of our students without becoming diffuse. While the following portraits tend to stress the narrower scholarly achievements and research interests of our faculty, we are particularly proud of our efforts and our success as teachers. Two of the four members of the department, Professors Walker and Koloski-Ostrow, have won the annual prize for best teacher among the faculty at Brandeis, and Professor Koloski-Ostrow has won a national teaching award from the American Philological Association.  In addition, year after year the student evaluations of the teaching in our department are among the best in the university.

Our department also houses the nationally acclaimed Outreach-in-the-Classics program, "The Examined Life: Greek Studies in the Schools." Each year 20 local teachers (K-12 of all subjects across the curriculum) become Greek Study Fellows.  They take a ten-week seminar course through the Rabb School of Continuing Studies on Greek Literature in Translation and then go on an archaeological study tour of Greece for two weeks each April.  The program, now almost ten years old, has over 150 teacher-graduates of the program and continues to have a positive intellectual effect on well over 10,000 school children in the greater Boston area.



Classical Studies Faculty & Staff (Click faculty name to link to individual home page.)

Faculty Office Hours Fall 2008 Research Interests
Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow
Associate Professor
Department Chair
Rabb 128
TuFr 1:30-2:30pm
781-736-2183
Roman & Greek Art & Archaeology. Latin texts. Pompeii. Ancient Technology. Mythology in Classical Art.
Patricia A. Johnston
Professor
Rabb 348
TBA
781-736-2182
Latin & Greek Language & Literature. Vergil. Ancient Religion. Mystery Cults.
Leonard C. Muellner
Professor
Rabb 130
TBA
781-736-2185
Greek & Latin Language & Literature. Homeric texts. Ancient Poetics. Historical Linguistics. Mythology.
Eirene Visvardi
Florence Levy Kay Fellow
Rabb 359
TuFr 10-1130am
781-736-2186
Ancient Greek Drama. Greek Lyric Poetry. Ancient Aesthetics. Ancient and Modern Theater. Theories of Performance and the Emotions.
Cheryl L. Walker
Associate Professor
Rabb 138
TBA
781-736-2190


Roman & Greek History. Caesar. Alexander the Great. Medieval Literature and Culture.
Staff Office Hours
Janet Barry
Academic Administrator
Rabb 140
Mo-Th 9:00 am-2:00 pm
781-736-2180 (Dept Office)


Photograph: Livia's Garden, detail, wall painting from her Roman villa ad Gallinas Albas, Prima Porta, now in the Museo Massimo, Rome (Photographic Credit: Ann Raia, 1999), courtesy of the VRoma Project: http://www.vroma.org/images/raia_images/liviahouse2.jpg.

To report broken links, please contact Janet Barry at jbarry@brandeis.edu or x6-2180.
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Department of Classical Studies, 2008.