PETER T. STRUCK

Professor and Chair, Department of Classical Studies
Religion and Comparative Literature (graduate faculties)
Director, Benjamin Franklin Scholars

University of Pennsylvania

201 Logan Hall

249 South 36th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19104–6304

ph: 215–898–7425

email: struck@sas.upenn.edu

Last updated April 2019

Areas of Interest

Greek and Roman history of ideas, philosophy, literary criticism and theory, myth

Professional Experience

University of Pennsylvania

Assistant, Associate, Full Professor, Department of Classical Studies (1999–)

Evan C. Thompson Term Professor, Department of Classical Studies (2014–17)

Chair, Department of Classical Studies (2016-)

Director, Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program (2009–)

Founding Director, Integrated Studies Program (2009–2014)

Undergraduate Chair, Department of Classical Studies (2007–2009)

Director (interim), Undergraduate Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, University of Pennsylvania (spring 2005)

Director, Post-Baccalaureate Program, Department of Classical Studies (2003–2006)

Faculty Fellow, Stouffer College House, University of Pennsylvania (2000–2002)

Faculty Fellow (interim), Hamilton College House, University of Pennsylvania (1999–2000)

National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education, cofounder and codirector (2009–2012)

University of Missouri – Kansas City, Assistant Professor, codirector, Program in Classical Languages and Literatures (1998–1999)

Ohio State University, senior lecturer, Department of Classics (1997–1998)

University of Chicago

Preceptor, Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (1996–1997)

Lecturer, Department of Comparative Literature (fall 1996)

Instructor, Department of Classics, Intensive Greek Program (summer 1996)

Visiting Positions

American Academy in Rome, Lucy Shoe Meritt Scholar in Residence (spring 2016)

University of Chicago, Visiting Scholar, Center for the Study of Ancient Religions (spring 2012)

Princeton University, Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Classics (spring 2008)

Education

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1997 (Comparative Literature)

M.A., University of Chicago, 1991 (Divinity; Religion and Literature)

A.B., University of Michigan, 1987 (English, honors, with allied field of Anthropology)

Grants, Awards, and Honors

Penn SAS Dean's Global Initiatives grant -- $17,000 -- for the Ancient Epic Poetry seminar

C. J. Goodwin Award of Merit for best book in the field of classics, American Philological Association (2017)

Evan C. Thompson Term Professorship (2014–17)

Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching (2013)

Penn Fellow (2010–2012)

The Teagle Foundation, grant to create the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education ($392,500) (2009–2012).

Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University (2009–2010)

C. J. Goodwin Award of Merit for best book in the field of classics, American Philological Association (2007)

College of General Studies Distinguished Teaching Award (2006)

Fellow, Young Faculty Leaders Forum, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (2002–2006)

Mellon Faculty Research Fellow, Penn Humanities Forum (2004–2005)

Lindback Teaching Award, University of Pennsylvania (highest award university-wide) (2004)

Robert F. and Margaret S. Goheen Fellow, National Humanities Center (2002–2003)

Andrew W. Mellon/ACLS Fellowship for Junior Faculty (2002–2003)

Research Foundation Grant, University of Pennsylvania (2001)

Distributed Learning Venture Fund Grants, University Pennsylvania (2000, 2001)

Whiting Dissertation Year Fellowship (1995–1996)

Overseas Dissertation Research Fellowship, University of Chicago (1994)

University of Chicago, Dean of the Humanities Travel Grant (1994, 1995, 1996)

 

Publications

Books:

Divination and Human Nature: A Cognitive History of Intuition in Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, June 2016).

C. J. Goodwin Award of Merit, Society for Classical Studies (2017)

Reviews:

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (October 20, 2016), Times Literary Supplement (March 15, 2017), Time & Mind 10.4 (2017): 379-85, Kernos, 30 (2017): 346-50, Mythlore 36.2 (2018), Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, 7.1 (2018): 126-131, The Classical Review, 68.2 (2018): 372-374, Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 13.3 (2018): 475-78, Classical Philology 113.1 (2018): 102-7, Religious Studies Review 44.4 (2018): 466.

Review article:

Massimo Pigliucci, Journal of Cognitive Historiography 3.1-2 (2016): 190-97

Birth of the Symbol: Ancient Readers at the Limits of Their Texts (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), xiv + 312 pp.

C. J. Goodwin Award of Merit, American Philological Association (2007)

Reviews:

Classical Review 57 (April 2007): 50–52; Comparative Literature 58 (summer 2006): 256–59; New England Classics Journal 32.3 (2005): 266–68; Bryn Mawr Classics Review (June 8, 2005); Classical World 99.1 (2005): 95–96; Times Literary Supplement (January 14, 2005): 4–5

Review articles:

Aldo Setaioli, "Simbolo e allegoria: Aproposito di un libro recente," International Journal of the Classical Tradition 13.1 (2006): 69–90; David Konstan, "Reading for the Meaning," Literary Imagination 7.1 (2005): 105–18

Edited Volumes:

A Cultural History of Ideas, general editor with Sophia Rosenfeld (London: Bloombury, in progress)

A six-volume project on the history of ideas from Antiquity to the twenty-first century. Publication expected 2021.

Cambridge Companion to Allegory, coedited with Rita Copeland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Reviews:

Journal of English and Germanic Philology 112.2 (2013): 217; Journal of Hellenic Studies 132 (2012): 271–73; Studies in the Age of Chaucer 34 (2012): 390; Notes & Queries 59.1 (2012): 112–13; Bryn Mawr Classical Review (December 27, 2011); Speculum 86.2 (2011): 573; Quarterly Conversation (fall 2010); Medium Aevum 79.2 (2010): 360

Review article:

Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, "Review: Ancient Allegory and Its Reception through the Ages," International Journal of the Classical Tradition 18.4 (2011): 569–78

Mantik: Studies in Ancient Divination, coedited with Sarah Iles Johnston (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 155; Leiden: Brill, 2005)

Reviews:

Henoch 31.2 (2009): 411–13; L'Antiquit Classique 77 (2008): 532; Kernos 20 (2007); International Review of Biblical Studies 52 (2007): 323; The Classical Review 56.2 (2006): 413–15; Bryn Mawr Classical Review (April 10, 2006)

Peer-reviewed Articles:

"Living the Good Life, Even Without Trying: The Strange Cases of Luckiness and Predictive Dreaming in Aristotle," in Darrin McMahon, ed., Humanities and Human Flourishing, vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2020)

"Hermeneutic Fields in Ancient Poetics," in Vladimir Brijak and Micha Lazarus, eds., Poetics Before Modernity: Literary Theory in the West from Antiquity to 1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2020)

"Iamblichus on Divination: Divine Power and Human Intuition," in Eirini Viltanioti and Anna Marmodoro, eds., Divine Powers in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)

"A Cognitive Approach to Divination in Antiquity," Journal of the History of Ideas 77.1 (Jan. 2016).

"Plato and Divination," Archiv fr Religionsgeschichte 15.1 (2014): 17–34

"Augury and Haruspicy," in Gordon Campbell, ed., Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 310–24

"Allegory and Ascent," in Rita Copeland and Peter Struck, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Allegory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 57–70

with Rita Copeland, "Introduction," in Rita Copeland and Peter Struck, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Allegory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 1–11

"The Invention of Mythic Truth in Antiquity," in Ueli Dill and Christine Walde, eds., Antike Mythen: Medien, Transformationen und Konstruktionen (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009), 25–37

 "The Self in Artemidorus' Interpretation of Dreams," in David Brakke, Michael L. Satlow, and Steven Weitzman, eds., Religion and the Self in Antiquity (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 109–20

 "Viscera and the Divine: Dreams as the Divinatory Bridge between the Corporeal and the Incorporeal," in Scott Noegel, ed., Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in Antiquity (State College: Penn State University Press, 2003), 125–36

"The Ordeal of the Divine Sign: Divination and Manliness in Archaic and Classical Greece," in Ralph Rosen and Ineke Sluiter, eds., Andreia: Studies in Manliness and Courage in Classical Antiquity (Mnemosyne Supplement Series 238; Leiden: Brill, 2002), 167–86

"Pagan and Christian Theurgies: Iamblichus, Pseudo-Dionysius, Religion and Magic in Late Antiquity," Ancient World 32.2 (2001): 25–38

"Iamblichus, De Mysteriis, Book 1," introduction, translation, and notes, in Richard Valantasis, ed.,  Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 489–505

Invited articles in collections:

"Greco-Roman Literary Criticism," in Paul Blowers and Peter Martens, eds., The Oxford Handbook on Early Christian Biblical Interpretation (Oxford, forthcoming 2019).

 "A World Full of Signs:  Understanding Divination in Ancient Stoicism," in Patrick Curry and Angela Voss, eds., Seeing with Different Eyes: Essays on Astrology and Divination (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008), 3–20

"Divination and Literary Criticism?," in Sarah Iles Johnston and Peter T. Struck, eds., Mantik: Studies in Ancient Divination (Religions of the Graeco–Roman World 155; Leiden: Brill, 2005), 147–65

 "Hermeticism," in Sarah Iles Johnston, ed., Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 650–52

"The Poet as Conjurer: Magic and Literary Theory in Late Antiquity," in Leda Ciraolo and Jonathan Seidel, eds., Magic and Divination in the Ancient World (Ancient Magic and Divination 2; Leiden: Brill, 2001), 119–31

"Speech Acts and the Stakes of Hellenism in Iamblichus, De Mysteriis 7," in Paul Mirecki and Marvin Meyer, eds., Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World (Religions of the Graeco-Roman World 141; Leiden: Brill, 2001), 289–303

"At the Limits of Mimesis: Reading Symbolically in Late Antiquity and Beyond," in Bernhard F. Scholz, ed., Mimesis: Studien zur literarischen Representation (Basel: Francke, 1998), 149–64

"Allegory, Aenigma, and Anti–Mimesis: A Struggle against Aristotelian Literary Theory," in J. G. J. Abbenes, S. R. Slings, and I. Sluiter, eds., Greek Literary Theory after Aristotle (Amsterdam: Vrije University Press, 1995), 215–34

Articles on the Profession:

"Classics: The Curriculum and the Profession," in "What's New about the Old: Reassessing the Ancient World," special issue, Daedalus (Spring, 2016)

"End of the Lecture?" University of Pennsylvania Almanac, vol.62, no.27 (March 22, 2016): 8.

"A World of Multiplicity and the Core Mission of the Liberal Arts," publication of speech on Presidential Panel, American Philological Association, on "What are the Futures of the Liberal Arts?" (2014), http://apaclassics.org/annual–meeting/2014/145/presentations–presidential–panel

"Learning to Teach in the 21^st Century," University of Pennsylvania Almanac, vol.53, no.23 (Feb., 2007): 8.

Articles in encyclopedias:

"Allegory," in Jan Ziolkowski and Richard Thomas, eds., The Virgil Encyclopedia (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)

"Hermetic Writings," in Roger Bagnall, ed., Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)

"Allegorical Interpretation," in Margalit Finkelberg, ed., The Homer Encyclopedia (Malden, MA: Wilely-Blackwell, 2011)

"Artemidorus of Daldis," in Paul T. Keyser and Georgia L. Irby-Massie, eds., The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek Tradition and Its Many Heirs (London: Routledge, 2008), 164

"Symbol and Symbolism," Lindsay Jones, ed., Encyclopedia of Religions (second edition; New York: Macmillan, 2005), 8906–15

Reviews:

Review of Fritz Graf, Apollo (London: Routledge, 2009) and Philippe Mondrun, Les Voix d'Apollon (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2007), in Journal of Hellenic Studies 130 (2010): 232–34

Review of Franois Guillaumont, Le De diuinatione de Cicron et les theories antiques de la divination (Brussells: Latomus, 2006) and D. Wardle, Cicero: On Divination, Book 1 (Clarendon Ancient History; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), in Classical Review 60.2 (2010): 436–38

Review of Luc Brisson, How Philosophers Saved Myths (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), in Journal of Religion 86.4 (2006): 713–16

Review of G. R. Boys-Stones, ed., Metaphor, Allegory and the Classical Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), in Hermathena 181 (2006): 239

Review of Dan Cohn-Sherbok and John M. Court, eds., Religious Diversity in the Graeco–Roman World: A Survey of Recent Scholarship (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), in Journal of Roman Studies 94 (2004): 214–16

Review of Oiva Kuisma, Proclus' Defense of Homer (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1996), in Classical Philology 94.1 (1999): 114–21

Editorial Boards

Journal of the History of Ideas

Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft

Lapham's Quarterly (founding member)

Professional Service

Society for Classical Studies Delegate, ACLS (2018 - )

Selma V. Forkosch Prize Committee, Journal of the History of Ideas (2018-21)

Society for Classical Studies, Chair, Committee of the Chairs of PhD-Granting Institutions (2016 - )

Executive Director Search Committee, Society for Classical Studies (=new name for American Philological Association) (2015)

Expanding College Classics Opportunities Committee, American Philological Association (2014–)

Presider, panel on "Innovative Encounters between Ancient Religious Traditions," American Philological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, January 2015

Presenter on "A World of Multiplicity and the Core Mission of the Liberal Arts," Presidential Panel, American Philological Association, on "What are the Futures of the Liberal Arts?," APA Annual Meeting, Chicago, January 3, 2014

Invited to create and organize American Philological Association joint panel with the British Classical Association, "Idea Networks: New Approaches to the History of Ideas," University of Reading, April 6, 2013

Goodwin Award Committee, American Philological Association (2012–2014), Chair 2013 and 2014

Cofounder, codirector, National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education (2009–2014)

Seminar leader, Colloquium on Corresponding Landscapes: Religious and Cultural Exchange in the Post-Classical Mediterranean, Brown University, May 1, 2012.

Consultant, Teagle Foundation, New York (2003–present)

Respondent, New England Ancient History Colloquium, Yale University, October 25, 2007

Panelist, Classical Association of the Atlantic States, Centennial Roundtable Discussion, "Do Liberal Arts Colleges Deliver a Liberal Education?," Washington, DC, October 6, 2007

Discussant, Teagle Foundation, "Listening" session on Classical Antiquity, New York, December 3, 2004

Presenter, American Philological Association Seminar on "Divination in Ancient Greece," American Philological Association, Boston, January 2005

Respondent, "Europe and the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity," Society of Biblical Literature, Nashville, November 18–21, 2000

Service at Penn

School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), LPS Online Learning Faculty Fellow (2017-)

Provost's committee on Online Learning Initiatives (2016-)

SAS, Planning and Priorities Committee (2016-)

SAS Dean's Council on Innovation (2015-16)

Provost's Fellowship Review Committee (2014–)

Faculty Senate

Committee on the Faculty and the Administration (2017–)

Executive Committee (2011–2014)

Chair, Presidential Nominating Committee (2014)

Chair, Committee on Faculty and the Academic Mission (2012–2013)

Co-chair, Committee on Faculty Development, Diversity, and Equity (2012)

Integrating Knowledge Working Group, Middle States Reaccreditation Self Study (2012–2014)

Director, founder, Integrated Studies Program (2009–2014)

Penn Undergraduate Research Mentorship program, faculty mentor (2009, 2013)

Graduate admissions committee, Department of Classical Studies (2013)

Provost's Committee to Review the Academic Theme Year (2013)

Trustees Council of Penn Women/Office of the Provost Annual Award of Recognition Selection Committee (2013)

Provost's Faculty Advisory Committee on Open Learning Initiatives (2012–)

Director, Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program (2009–)

Faculty Advisory Board, Penn Humanities Forum, (2005–)

Speaker, Parent Panel: Academic, Social, and Career Success at Penn (2011)

Speaker, Penn Previews, Welcome to Penn Presentation (2011)

Graduate Council of the Faculties (2008–2011)

Freshman Advisor (1999–2011)

Topic Director, Penn Humanities Forum, 10th-year program, "Change" (2008–2009)

SAS Committee on Graduate Continuing Education (2008–2009)

Co-organizer, "Meat in Human Society: Killing, Consuming, and Commodifying Animals," University of Pennsylvania, May 1–2, 2009

Lindback Award Review Committee (2005, 2006, 2008)

Undergraduate Chair, Classical Studies (2007–2009)

Learning and Technology Committee, School of Arts and Sciences (2007–2009)

Fellow, Teaching with Technology Seminar, Center for Teaching and Learning (2007–2008)

Director, Post-Baccalaureate Program, Department of Classical Studies (2003–2006)

Critical Writing Committee (2001–2006)

School of Arts and Sciences Teaching Awards Review Committee (spring 2005, spring 2006)

Center for Teaching and Learning Advisory Board (2004–2006)

Penn Ethics Forum on Ethics in Practice (spring 2004–2006)

Interim Director, Undergraduate Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory (spring 2005)

Panel Presenter, Dean's Welcome to the College (2003, 2004, 2005)

Panel Presenter, Dean's Welcome to the Pilot Curriculum (2002)

Faculty Fellow, Stouffer College House (2000–2002)

Organizer, "Greek and Roman Divination," University of Pennsylvania, April 20–21, 2001

Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship Review Committee (2001)

Interim Faculty Fellow, Hamilton College House (1999–2000)

Hamilton College House, Faculty Master search (2000)

Penn Reading Project discussion leader (2000)

Speaker, Career Services, Life after Graduate School (2000)

Undergraduate Committee, UMKC (1998–1999)

Review committee, Comparative Literature, University of Chicago (1994)

Latin tutor to local high school students, Chicago (1992–1994)

Invited Lectures on Research

"Porphyry on Vegetarianism," Classics Colloquium, Columbia University, February 1, 2019

"Iamblichus on Divination and Prophecy," for the Modes of Knowing and the Ordering of Knowledge in Early Christianity 2018 Rome Seminar, July 27, 2018

"Living the Good Life, Even Without Trying: The Strange Cases of Luckiness and Predictive Dreaming in Aristotle," for the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project, Shawnee, PA, June 16, 2018

"Teaching the Iliad," lecture to the Common Core faculty, September 6, 2017

"A Cognitive History of Divination in Antiquity," Yale-NUS, March 9, 2017

"Hermeneutic Fields in Ancient Poetics," University of Cambridge, research seminar on "Poetics before Modernity," May 16, 2017

"Knowledge as Ascent in Plotinus," for the conference, Paths of Knowledge in Antiquity, Humboldt University of Berlin, December 1, 2016

"Divination and Intuition in Greek Antiquity," at "Divination in the Ancient World," Annual Symposium of the Center for Ancient Studies, Nov. 12, 2017

"A Cognitive Approach to Divination in Antiquity," C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, September 16, 2016

"Porphyry on Vegetarianism," University of Pennsylvania, Department of Classical Studies, September 1, 2016.

 "A Cognitive Approach to Divination in Antiquity," Cambridge University, Cambridge, May 30, 2016

"A Cognitive History of Ancient Divination," Charles University, Prague, April 9, 2016

"Between Ancient Divination and Modern Intuition: A Cognitive History," American Academy in Rome, April 7, 2016

"Penelope's Dream: Homer's Odyssey and the Language of Divine Signs," American University of Rome, March 1, 2016

"Divination and Intuition: Thinking Differently about Signs in the Closing Books of the Odyssey," Smith College, February 26, 2015

"Divination and Intuition in Homer's Odyssey," Hunter Memorial Lecture, Florida State University, January 29, 2015

"Posidonius on Divination," Corpus Christi, Oxford University, June 3, 2014

"Aristotle on Lucky People," keynote address at "Twists of Fate," conference, Harvard University, March 29, 2014

"Power and Divination in Iamblichus's De Mysteriis," Puissaince Divines dans l'Antiquit Tardive, conference, Acadmie Royale de Belgique, Brussells, October 11, 2013

"From Myth to History," Classics Department, Dickinson College, September 2, 2013

"A Cognitive Approach to Divination in Antiquity," Arthur O. Lovejoy Lecture, Journal of the History of Ideas, Philadelphia, May 3, 2013

"Divination in the Ancient World: A Cognitive Approach," Wesleyan University, April 25, 2013

"Idea Networks in Classical Antiquity: New Approaches to the History of Ideas," British Classical Association/American Philological Association Panel, University of Reading, April 6, 2013

"Reconsidering Iopas and Allegory," Penn State University, March 15, 2013

"Oracles, Omens, and Dreams among the Philosophers," Department of Classics Annual Benefactors' Lecture, Dartmouth College, May 10, 2012

"Divination in Augustine and Iamblichus," Colloquium on Corresponding Landscapes: Religious and Cultural Exchange in the Post-Classical Mediterranean, Brown University, April 30, 2012

"Lucky People and the Demonic Tillerman: Aristotle on Divination," Center for the Study of Ancient Religions, University of Chicago, February 29, 2012

"Divine Signs and Human Nature: A Cognitive History of Divination in Antiquity," Center for the Study of Ancient Religions, University of Chicago, February 27, 2012

"A Cognitive Approach to Plato on Divination," keynote at Midwestern Consortium on Ancient Religions, Department of Classics, Ohio State University, February 24, 2012

"The Cognitive History of Divination in Antiquity: The Case Study of the Stoics," Department of Classics, Indiana University, March 31, 2011

"Plato on Divination as a Form of Nonrational Cognition," Department of Classics, Stanford University, May 18, 2010

"Divine Signs and Bodily Nature: A Cognitive Approach to Divination in Ancient Greece and Rome," delivered at "Eikos: Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought," workshop, University of Toronto, May 8, 2010

"Iamblichus and Augustine on Divination," Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University, April 22, 2010

"Aristotle on Divination by Dreams," Ancient Explanation Conference, Stanford Humanities Center, April 17, 2010

"Plato on Divination as a Form of Nonrational Cognition," Classical Lecture Society, University of Chicago, April 8, 2010

"Divine Signs and Human Nature," Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Science, Stanford University, March 24, 2010

"Making Sense of the Macrocosm: Divine Signs and Somatic Signals in Ancient Stoicism," Annual Goodwin Award Lecture, University of Cincinnati, April 24, 2009

"Iamblichus on the Rationality of Divine Knowledge," delivered at "Wisdom in Ancient Thought," conference, Center for the Ancient Mediterranean, Columbia University, April 3–4, 2009

"Classical Allegory and Medieval Mystical Traditions," delivered at the Cambridge Neo-Latin Society Symposium, Clare College, Faculty of Classics, Cambridge University, September 22–23, 2008

"Divination and Human Nature in Aristotle," Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, April 16, 2007

"A World Full of Signs: Understanding Divination in Ancient Stoicism," keynote address at "Seeing with Different Eyes," conference, University of Kent, April 2006

"Natural Supernaturalism: Aristotle's On Divination by Dreams," Columbia, April 2004

"Divination and Sympathy: Stoic Theories of Divine Signs," Fordham University, April 2004

"Artemidorus and the Ancient Greek Self," delivered at "The Religious Self in Antiquity," conference, Indiana University, September 2003

"Physicalist Theories in Ancient Greek and Roman Divination," University of Texas at Austin, February 2003

"Microcosm and Macrocosm in Greek Divination,"

Amsterdam Hellenist Club, December 2002

Leiden University, December 2002

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, November 2002

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, October 2002

"Invocation Theories of Literature in Late Antiquity," Princeton University, March 2002

"Notes on the Mechanics of Divination in Practice: Divine and Human Speech in the Iliad, Oedipus Rex, and the ԗooden Wall,'" Bryn Mawr Classics Colloquium, November 2000

"Sacramental Reading," Hall Center, Social and Cultural Studies Before1500 Seminar, University of Kansas, February 1999

Presentations of Research

"Physicalist Theories in Ancient Greek and Roman Divination," University of Pennsylvania, February 2003

"Divination and Literary Criticism?" delivered at "Greek and Roman Divination," University of Pennsylvania, April 2001

"Viscera and the Divine: Dreams as Divinatory Bridge between the Corporeal and the Incorporeal," delivered at "Prayer, Magic, and the Stars," conference, University of Washington at Seattle, March 2000

"Divination, Andreia and Virtus: The Divine and the Formation of Social Goods," delivered at "ANDREIA and Ancient Constructs of Manly Courage," Penn–Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values 1, University of Leiden, June 2000

"Sacramental Reading: The Dionysian Imagination in Late Antiquity," delivered at "Plotinus and his Visions: The Alexandrian Intellectual World in Transition," conference, Claremont Institute for Antiquity and Early Christianity, February 1999

"Dreams and Flesh: The Case of Hippocrates' On Regimen IV," American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Dallas, December 1999

"Synesius and the Hermeneutics of Within: Dream Divination and Psychology in a Synthetic Cosmos," American Academy of Religions Conference, Europe and the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity Session on Pagans and Christians at the End of Antiquity, Orlando, November 1998

"Speech Acts and the Stakes of Hellenism in Iamblichus, De Mysteriis 7," Second International Conference on Magic in the Ancient World, Orange, CA, August 1998

"Pagan and Christian Theurgies," American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, December 1997

"Speech Acts and the Stakes of Hellenism in Iamblichus, De Mysteriis 7" (earlier version of paper delivered at Orange, CA), American Academy of Religions Annual Meeting, San Francisco, November 1997

"The Talismanic ԓymbol': The Poet as Conjurer in Ancient Literary Theory," American Philological Association Annual Meeting, New York, December 1996

"Face to Face with the Gods: The Theurgic ԓymbol' and the Representation of the Divine," American Academy of Religions Annual Meeting, New Orleans, November 1996

"Against Mimesis: The Neoplatonists and the ԓymbol' in Ancient Literary Theory," "Mimesis 50 Years Later: A Conference in Honor of Erich Auerbach, Rijksuniversiteit," Grningen, May 1996

"The Riddling Text: Divination and the Interpretation of Literature in Antiquity," The Workshop on Rhetoric and Poetics, Ancient and Modern, University of Chicago, May 1996

"The Riddling Text" (earlier version of the above), delivered at "Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and Social Thought," conference, SUNY Binghamton, October 1995

"The Neoplatonists and the Symbol: A Performative Background for Medieval Literary Theory," delivered at "Performance, Ritual, and Spectacle in the Middle Ages," conference, Columbia University, October 1995

"Allegory and Anti-Mmimesis," delivered at, "Greek Literary Theory after Aristotle," conference, Vrije University, April 1994

"Sumbolon: The Magical History of Proclus's Literary Theory," delivered at "Magic and Divination in the Ancient World," conference, University of California at Berkeley, February 1994.

"The Early History of the Symbol: Proclus's Invention of a Literary Category from Pythagorean, Theurgic, and Allegorical Traditions," delivered at the Workshop on Poetics and Rhetoric, Ancient and Modern, University of Chicago, February 1994

Public Talks

"Skills and Beyond: What the Liberal Arts Do for Us," BAAS Employer Advisory Board, April 30, 2019

"Greek History: Thucydides and Herodotus," address to the Warrior Scholar Project, University of Pennsylvania, June 25, 2018

"Greek Myth and Philadelphia," address to the Freemasons of Philadelphia, May 10, 2018

"Plato's Republic" to the Senior Men's Club of Stonington, CT, October 27, 2017

"Athens," lecture in the "Ancient Cities" series at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, October 4, 2017

"Directed Studies and the Future of Liberal Education," panel participant at "Directed Studies at 70: An Experiment in Liberal Education, Yale University, April 1, 2017

"Homer's Muse," and "If Poetry is Inspiredɬ" Artis-Naples, Naples Florida, February 2-3, 2017

 "Divination and Intuition," public lecture at Penn TEDx, Annenberg Center, Philadelphia (attendance: 1000), April 12, 2015

"The Odyssey, Nostalgia, and the Lost Home," public lecture Penn Museum (attendance: 500), April 2, 2014

"Thinking about Food in Homer's Odyssey," Aloysius B. McCabe Դ5 Lecture, Germantown Friends School, Philadelphia, February 27, 2014

"A World of Multiplicity and the Core Mission of the Liberal Arts," invited speaker for the American Philological Association Presidential Panel titled, "What are the Futures of the Liberal Arts?" American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, January 3, 2014

Respondent and facilitator for the keynote lecture on "Student Learning and the New Online Technologies," delivered at "Convening: Faculty Work and Student Learning in the 21st Century—An Introduction," conference, Teagle Foundation, April 11, 2013

"Teaching the Humanities on a Small Screen, and to a Global Audience," Wesleyan University, April 24, 2013

"Transforming Education: MOOCs and More," speaker on a panel exploring online learning, "Future of Information Alliance," University of Maryland, November 12, 2012

"Oracles, Omens, and Dreams: A Cognitive Approach to Divination in Antiquity," Knowledge by the Slice, Penn SAS External Affairs, April 4, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix2zFgfbbKw

Presenter, "How Are We Doing? Scholarly Judgments of Academic Achievement," panel discussion at ACLS Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, May 8, 2009

"Magicians in Ancient Times," Penn Humanities Forum, Public Lecture Series, University of Pennsylvania, March 26, 2009

Presenter, "New Leadership for Student Learning," Panel Discussion at the Teagle Foundation conference on Systematic Improvement of Student Learning, Durham, NC, October 9–11, 2008

Teagle Foundation planning meeting, Washington Duke Inn, February 7–8, 2008

Presenter, "Do Liberal Arts Colleges Deliver a Liberal Education?" Classical Association of the Atlantic States, Centennial Roundtable Discussion, Washington, DC, October 6, 2007

Participant, Teagle Foundation, "Listening: Roundtable on Classical Antiquity and the Liberal Arts," New York, December 3, 2004

Referee

Oxford University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Princeton University Press, Routledge, Blackwell, Addison Wesley Longman, Prentice Hall, Classical Philology, Mosaic, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Classical World, Journal of the History of Ideas, American Journal of Philology, Ancient Philosophy

Dissertations Advised (All University of Pennsylvania)

Roshan Abraham (Classical Studies, 2009), "Magic and Religious Authority in Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana"

Jeremy Leftkowitz (Classical Studies, 2009), "Aesop's Pen: Adaptation, Authorship, and Satire in the Aesopic Tradition" (reader)

Todd Krulak (Religious Studies, 2009), "The Animated Statue and the Ascension of the Soul: Ritual and the Divine Image in Late Platonism" (reader)

Daniel Munoz-Hutchinson (Philosophy, 2009), "Plotinus on Consciousness: A Multi-Layered Approach" (reader)

Daniel E. Harris-McCoy (Classical Studies, 2008), "Varieties of Encyclopedism in the Early Roman Empire: Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder, Artemidorus"

T. J. Wellman (Religious Studies), "The Holy Man in Antiquity" (reader)

Daniel McLean (Classical Studies, 2002), "Refiguring Socrates: Comedy and Corporeality in the Socratic Tradition" (reader)

Alex Purves (Classical Studies, 2002), "Telling Space: Topography, Time, and Narrative from Homer to Xenophon" (reader)

Jennifer Ebbler (Classical Studies, 2001), "Pedants in the Apparel of Heroes? Cultures of Latin Letter-Writing from Cicero to Ennodius" (reader)

Michael McShane (Philosophy, 2000), "Plotinus and the Limits of Discursive Rationality" (reader)

Undergraduate Advising

Theses:

Alex Perkins, Classical Studies, 2006

Jacob Cytryn, Classical Studies, 2004

Flint Dibble, Classical Studies, 2004

Other:

Fran Lattanzio, Michael Horwitz, and Timothy Demorest. Undergraduates originally hired as part of a Distributed Learning Venture Fund Technology Grant to create a web site for the course "Greek and Roman Mythology" (CLST 200).This work developed into a senior thesis research project for Lattanzio and Horwitz on using database display technology in pedagogically advantageous ways (2001–2002)

Stephanie Langin-Hooper. Faculty Advisor for her individualized major in "Myth, Ritual, and Religion of Ancient Cultures" (2001–2002)

Masters Thesis Directed

Lee T. Papouras (Ohio State University, 1998), "Selections from Michael Psellos' Interpretation of the Chaldean Oracles: Translation, Introduction, and Commentary"

Related Experience

Founding member, Editorial Advisory Board, Lapham's Quarterly (2007–)

Media consultant, NBC, History Channel, Newsweek, US News and World Report, A&E

Top Dog Media (a company making films for children based on Greek myths) (2002–)

Managing Editor, History, a book series conceived by Peter Struck and Lewis Lapham. First volume, The End of the World (New York: History Book Club, 1997; reissued St. Martin's, 1998)Editorial Assistant, Critical Inquiry (1992–1994)

Fact-Checker, Researcher/Reporter, US News and World Report (1988–1989)

Copyeditor, The New Republic (1987–1988)

Languages

Greek, Latin, French, Italian, German