Greek Poetry History of Science Homer Aratus Argonautica
I work on Ancient Greek poetic and scientific texts and teach all levels of Greek and Latin language and literature. I have published articles on ancient epic, lyric and Hellenistic poetry and ancient astronomy and am currently working on a book manuscript. I am past member of the board for the Classical Association of Canada and the journal Phoenix, and received the Cécile E. Mactaggart Travel Award for Narrative Writing in 2014.
My research is primarily focused on various intersections of poetry and science in the ancient world. Current projects include a book in preparation on Ancient Greek colour terms and chapter contributions and articles on Hellenistic poetics, ancient astronomy, decipherment and ancient theories of visual perception. My translation of Nicole Loraux's Né de la terre was published by Cornell University Press as Born of the Earth in 2000, and other translations appear in Brunschwig and Lloyd's Greek Thought ("Physics" and "Technology"), also published in 2000.
I teach Greek and Latin language and literature courses as well Greco-Roman Religion at the 3rd year level, Greek and Roman literature in translation and Class 103: Introduction to Ancient Greece. In 2014 I developed and taught a 4th year seminar entitled Sappho to Wilde on homosexuality in Greco-Roman texts and its reception in Western literature, based on Greek and Roman poetic texts and their reception in poetry and art from the Renaissance through Victorian England and the early 20th C.; the course is taught largely from a literary perspective and we begin with selections from the Greek lyric poets, Homer, Plato's Symposium and Virgil's Aeneid.
Examination of the nature of pre-Christian religious practices in antiquity.
Winter Term 2021Winning essay for the Cécile E. Mactaggart Travel Award for Narrative Writing (“A Hallowe’en Meditation”), 2014. A Halloween Meditation: Gay family life in Canada in the early and mid-20th C. Personal memoir.
A Halloween Meditation