About

I am the Language Program Director in Classics at Yale University. I received my BA in Classical Civilization (2003) and MAT in Latin and Classical Humanities (2006) from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I was a Recognised Student in Philosophy at Wolfson College, Oxford (2011-2012) and received my PhD in Classics from the University of Texas at Austin (2015). You can find my CV here.

My research interests include intellectual history, ancient religion, early Christianity, and most things North African. At the moment I am focused on the religious, sociopolitical, and material context of Augustine’s philosophy of memory and time. I am also interested in pre- and non-Roman North African antiquity, the reception of classical literature in Roman North African education, and the reception of Rome in the modern Maghrib, especially Algeria. Read here for more.

In terms of language teaching, I am a proponent of a blended linguistics-reading approach to Greek and am always busy promoting ‘morphological awareness’ to all levels of Greek and Latin language learners, from K-12 to college to graduate students. I find the study of Greece and Rome fascinating for what it says not only about Greece and Rome proper but also about cultures peripheral to it, from Numidia to Persia to Illyria to Britain.

Before coming to Yale in 2021, I was a Lecturer in Classics and the Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts & Ideas at the University of Texas at Austin (2016-2021). There, I taught all levels of Greek and Latin, was the program director of UT’s Summer Intensive Greek program, and taught various courses in translation from large introductory lectures to upper-division seminars. At Yale, I teach introductory Greek and Latin, supervise graduate students teaching Greek and Latin, and help graduate students prepare for their PhD qualification exams in Greek and Latin. See my teaching page for more.

I may have an unconventional background for someone teaching at Yale. I barely graduated high school, I was on academic probation my freshman year of college due to poor grades, I dropped out my junior year, and my GPA prior to finding Classics in my senior year was a disaster. I imperfectly taught myself Greek and Latin yet despite everything somehow made it to graduate school. In some ways I believe that these hiccups prepared me for this job better than my successes. Among other things, I can relate to students for whom life isn’t always easy or pleasant.

Aside from academics, once upon a time I was an artist working maintenance in Cambridge, MA. Now I enjoy simple things, like exploring the New England countryside and fundraising for Ukrainian humanitarian organizations.