Curriculum Vitae

Benjamin Haller has been at Virginia Wesleyan University since 2008, having taught previously at the University of Pittsburgh, the College of William and Mary, and Lawrence University. He received tenure in 2013, and is Coordinator of the Classics Program.

Since arriving at VWU, he has begun the VWU Classics Department Lecture Series, which has hosted luminaries like Kurt Raaflaub (Brown University), Stanley Lombardo (University of Kansas), Bill Hutton (The College of William and Mary), Adam Potkay (The College of William and Mary), Alex Mann (The Smithsonian), Carl Rubino (Hamilton); Erik Neil (Director, Chrysler Museum), and many more; obtained permission from the national chapter to begin our own chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, the National Honorary Society for Greek and Latin; successfully taught significant overloads every semester to provide classes for two major programs and two minor programs (according to statistics from the Dean's Office, he has taught several hundred tutorials during his time at VWU); authored and kept current an assessment plan (CDAP 2018, available here) and strategic plan for the Classics Department, and handled all departmental assessment for Classics; served on and co-chaired a wide range of commissions and committees at VWU; served as Area Chair for the Classical Representations in Popular Culture section of the Southwestern Popular/American Culture Association; and published on topics ranging from Homer to Lucian of Samosata to Chris Nolan's Inception. 


EDUCATION

AWARDS, HONORS, and GRANTS


PUBLICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL VITALITY

Books

Haller, Benjamin. 2024. Greco-Roman Literature and Culture in the Imagination of Virginia’s Tidewater Region, 1607–1826: The Empire of the Mind.  Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.


Edited Volumes

Day, Kirsten, and Benjamin Haller, co-editors. 2014. "καλὸν ἀνθρωπίνου βίου κάτοπτρον":  Popular Culture as a Paedagogical Lens on Greco-Roman Antiquity. Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy. 1(1). http://journaldialogue.org/issues/issue-1/


Book Chapters 

Haller, Benjamin. 2019. “Intreat them Gently, Trayne them to that Ayre: George Sandys’s Savage Verses and Civilized Commentary at Jamestown.” Blackwell Companion to the Translation of Greek and Latin Epic.


Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Haller, Benjamin. 2021. "Justice, Revenge, and Unexpected Theodicy in Lars von Trier's Dogville and Euripides' Medea." Arethusa 54:221-267.

Day, Kirsten and Benjamin Haller. 2014. “καλὸν ἀνθρωπίνου βίου κάτοπτρον:” Popular Culture as a Pedagogical Lens on Greco-Roman Antiquity. Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy 1(1).

http://journaldialogue.org/issues/issue-1/popular-culture-as-a-pedagogical-lens-on-greco-roman-antiquity/

Haller, Benjamin. 2014. “Homeric Parody, the Isle of the Blessed, and the Nature of Paideia in Lucian's Verae Historiae.” In The Ancient Novel and the Frontiers of Genre: Supplementum to Ancient Narrative (Transactions of the International Conference on the Ancient Novel In Lisbon, Portugal, July 2008).

—. 2014. “The Labyrinth of Memory: Iphigeneia, Simonides, and the Classical Models of Architecture as Mind in Chris Nolan’s Inception (2010).” Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy. 1(1). http://journaldialogue.org/issues/issue-1/

—. 2013. “Dolios in Odyssey 4 and 24: Penelope's Plotting and Alternative Versions of Odysseus's νόστος." Transactions of the American Philological Association 143.2: 263-92.

—. 2009. “The Gates of Horn and Ivory in Odyssey 19: Penelope's Call for Deeds, Not Words.” Classical Philology 104: 397-417.


Encyclopedia Articles

2011 “Doulichion.” In Blackwell Homer Encyclopedia, ed. Margalit Finkelberg. Oxford: Blackwell.

2011 “Echinades.” In Blackwell Homer Encyclopedia, ed. Margalit Finkelberg. Oxford: Blackwell.

2011 “Geography.” In Blackwell Homer Encyclopedia, ed. Margalit Finkelberg. Oxford: Blackwell.

2011 “Ionian Islands.” In Blackwell Homer Encyclopedia, ed. Margalit Finkelberg. Oxford: Blackwell.

2011 “Ithaca.” In Blackwell Homer Encyclopedia, ed. Margalit Finkelberg. Oxford: Blackwell.

2011 “Landscape.” In Blackwell Homer Encyclopedia, ed. Margalit Finkelberg. Oxford: Blackwell.

2011 “Zakynthos.” In Blackwell Homer Encyclopedia, ed. Margalit Finkelberg. Oxford: Blackwell.

2009 “Antigone.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Michael Gagarin. New York: Oxford University Press.

2009 “Narcissus.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Michael Gagarin. New York: Oxford University Press.

2009 “Pandora.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Michael Gagarin. New York: Oxford University Press.

2009 “Pygmalion.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Michael Gagarin. New York: Oxford University Press.


Peer-Reviewed (not Anonymously) Online Articles

2012       “Horace I.22.” Ann Raia, Judith Lynn Sebasta, and Barbara F. McManus: Online Companion to “The Worlds of Roman Women,”the online companion to Ann Raia, Cecelia Luschnig, and Judith Lynn Sebasta, The Worlds of Roman Women: A Reader (Newburyport, MA: Focus).


Literary Publications

2019     “Kyklikoi Logoi” (Poems). Arion:  A Journal of the Humanities and Classics. Published by Boston University, and including Anne Carson on its Editorial Board. Arion has published original poem by Seamus Heaney and other major world-class poets.


Popular Publications

2011       “The Good Epicurean: What the Poet Horace Can Teach Us About the Beauty of Simplicity in a Complex Modern World.” VWC Magazine, 2011: pp. 36-37.


Reviews

2015 Review of, Powell (B.B.) (trans.) Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. The Essential Books. Pp. xx + 511, ills, maps. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

2015 Review of, Powell (B.B.) (trans.) Homer: the Odyssey. Pp. xxii + 459, ills, maps. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.


Recent Conference Presentations

2024   "Back to the Roman New Comedy?:  Marty McFly and the Servus Callidus and Adulescens in Robert Zemeckis's Back to the Future," SWPACA Summer Salon, Thursday June 20, 2024, 8:30 a.m. Mountain Time. 

 

2023    “Citizens Forged in Flame and Song: The Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the Apatouria, and the Peisistratids” Presented Thursday, March 30, 2023 at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.


 2023    “ἐν σπέσσι γλαφυροῖσι: The Odyssey Cyclops-Narrative and the Children in the Audience.” Presented the 11:30 a.m. Classical Representations in Popular Culture panel at the February 23, 2023 meeting of SWPACA.

2023 “ἄνδρα μοι ἔεννεπε, μοῦθσα, αἀόρατον? Invisible Man, the Odyssey, and Ralph Ellison’s ‘Basement Studio’” and Federal Writers Project Interviews" Presented remotely at the hybrid Annual Meeting of the Society for Classical Studies on Saturday, January 7, 2023.


2022 "ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, ἀόρατον? Ralph Ellison and the Influence of Homer’s Odyssey on the Form of Invisible Man and on its Representation of Orality." Presented at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Winston-Salem, NC, on Friday, March 25 (1:15 p.m.).


2021 “Orpheus and Orfeu: Marcel Camus’ Eastertide Pagan Temporale.” Delivered Friday, February 26, 2021 in the Classical Representations area at the remote meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association.


2020-21 “Your Friendly Neighborhood Cultural Relativist Cyclops: Antifa, Marx, and Other Straw Men of Contemporary American Hate Groups.” Originally scheduled to be presented at the panel entitled “E Pluribus Unum,” March 2020, in Birmingham, AL, and actually presented at the rescheduled remote CAMWS meeting on April 7, 2021. Annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.

2020     “Your Friendly Neighborhood Cultural Relativist Cyclops: Antifa, Marx, and Other Straw Men of Contemporary American Hate Groups.” Presented March 2020 at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Birmingham, AL. (POSTPONED TO NEXT YEAR DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC).

2020     “Childe Asimov’s Pilgrimage: Freedom, Fate, and Byronic Outlaw Heroes in ‘The Stars Like Dust.’” Benjamin Haller, Thursday, 2/20 at the annual meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association in Albuquerque, NM.

2019 "The Surprise Endings of Lars Von Trier’s 2003 Dogville and Euripides’s Medea:  Teaching an Unexpected Theodicy in the Modern Mythology Classroom," February 22, 2019 at the annual meeting of the  Classical Representations in Popular Culture at the 2019 meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association in Albuquerque, NM.

2018 “'Intreat them Gently, Trayne them to that Ayre:' George Sandys’s Savage Verses and Civilized Commentary at Jamestown," Classical Association of Virginia Fall Meeting, September 29, Charlottesville, VA.

2018 “The Metamorphoses of George Sandys: Ovid Commentary as Self-Making in Virginia’s Jamestown Colony,” at the 114th annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 12, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

2018 “Classical Counterfactuals: George Sandys’s 1632 Metamorphoses Commentary and “Good Newes from Virginia”,” February, 2018, The Annual Meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM.

2017 ““New England Trout and Midas in the Shadow of Monument Mountain: The Yankee Reception of Classical Mythology in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s A Wonder Book,” at the Southwestern Popular/American Culture Association meeting in Albuquerque, NM on Saturday, February 18, 8:00 a.m.

2016 “Nick Tosches, Monty Python, and the Genre of Self-Deconstructing Christian Pseudepigrapha” at the Southwestern Popular/American Culture Association meeting in Albuquerque, NM on Wednesday, February 10 at 1:15 p.m.

2015 “Classical Themes in Chris Nolan's Inception,” an invited lecture delivered at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, on Thursday, February 5, 2015.

2015 “Shattering the Walls of Dystopia: Humanistic Heroism in Snowpiercer and the Cena Trimalchionis.” Presented in the Classical Representations in Popular Culture panels of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Annual Meeting in Tucson, Arizona on Friday, February 13, 2015.

2014 “From Hexameter to Hekatompedon.” Presented at the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Waco, TX, Friday, April 4, 2014.

2014 “Songs of Innocence and Experience: Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.” Presented Saturday, February 22, 2014 in theClassical Representations of Popular Culture Area at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

2014 “Advice for Job Candidates at Small Liberal Arts Schools.” Remarks at a Round Table for Academic Job-Seekers presented Friday, February 21, 2014 at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

2013 "Myth, Architecture, and Memory: Chris Nolan's Inception and the myths of Ariadne and Iphigeneia." Presented at the International Popular Culture Association in Warsaw, Poland on July 24, 2013.

2013 Respondent to Ed Floyd’s Paper “"Textual variants in the Odyssey as background for understanding the composition of theIliad.” University of Pittsburgh Humanities Center Presentation. Provisional date, March 26, 2013.

2011 “Dum conderet... Germanopolim?! Whittier's Pius Pennsylvania Pilgrim Pastorius and Vergilian Rhetoric in the Ktisis Legend of Germantown, Pennsylvania.” Reception Panel, Classical Association of the Atlantic States Annual Meeting at Baltimore, MD. October 15, 2011.

2011 "Myth, Architecture, and Memory: Chris Nolan's Inception and the myths of Ariadne and Iphigeneia." A talk presented at Classical Representations in Popular Culture panel April 20, at the PCA/ACA and Southwest Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Joint Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

2010 “More than a Mere Suasoria: Lucian's Phalaris.” Greek Literature Panel, The Classical Association of the Atlantic States Annual Meeting in Newark, New Jersey.

2009 “Lucian's Phalaris: Defining Proper Uses of Paideia for Emperors and Sophists.” Presented in absentia at the Colóquio Internacional do Gipsa: Luciano e a tradição luciânica, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, April 13-17, 2009.

2008 “Homeric Parody, the Isle of the Blessed, and the Nature of Paideia in Lucian’s Verae Historiae.” International Conference on the Ancient Novel in Lisbon, Portugal, July 21-26, 2008.

2008 “Duplicitous Dolios? Conditioning Audience Response to Deceit through Two Kinds of Deception in the Back Story of theOdyssey.” Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Tucson, Arizona, April 16-18, 2008.

2007 “μιν αὐτόν versus μιν αὐτῶι: What is Athena hiding at Odyssey 13.190?” Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 13, 2007.

2005 “Penelope’s Fidelity and the Bed in Odyssey 23.” Fall Meeting of CAAS, Wilmington, DE, October 7, 2005.

2005 “The Gates of Horn and Ivory in Odyssey 19: Penelope’s Preference for Erga over Logoi.” Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Madison, Wisconsin, March 31, 2005.


Recent Community Presentations

        2019     Moderator for Panel entitled “Apuleius,” 3:15 p.m. on Friday April 5, 2019 at the annual meeting of CAMWS in Lincoln, NE.

2018 “Melesigenes Meets a Monster: Homer, the Cyclops, and the Wrath of Poseidon”; “Dangerous Goddesses, Chaste Heroines, and Chased Heroes”; “Melesigenes Meets his Match: Metis, the Death of Homer, and the Homecoming of Odysseus”; “’Do Not Seek to Become Zeus!’ Gods and Mortals Learning to Gnothi their Sauton in the World of Greek Epic.” April 17 and 24; May 1 and 8, 2018 at Westminster Canterbury Lifelong Learning Series.

2015 “The Inward Journey: Travel as Meditation and Self-Exploration in Ancient Greece.” A talk delivered at a joint panel with Imam Vernon Fareed for the VWC Center for Sacred Music on February 24, 2015.

2014 "Memories, Monuments, and Manumission…. King’s 'I Have a Dream' Speech and the Architecture of the National Mall." July 9, 2014, Heritage United Methodist Church, part of the Readings With Wesleyan Series of lectures for the Western Bayside Community.

2014 “Medieval Manuscripts.” Latin Day (Tidewater area high school and middle school students). February 2014, at Christopher Newport University. 

2013 “Medieval Manuscripts.” Latin Day (Tidewater area high school and middle school students). February 2013, at Christopher Newport University. 

2012 “Politics as Usual In Ancient Rome and the Modern U.S.?” A Pre-Election Discussion of Quintus Cicero’s Commentariolum Petitionis and its Relevance to the 2012 Election by Benjamin Haller of VWC and Jesse Richman of ODU at Café Stella in Norfolk, Va., November 5.

2012 “Classical Virginia.” Latin Day (Tidewater area high school and middle school students). February 11, at Christopher Newport University. 

2011 “An Angler in the Lake of Darkness: the Emperor Nero's Misspent Youth and Reign.” November 17, 1-3 p.m., at the Institute for Learning in Retirement (http://www.lions.odu.edu/org/ilr/).

2011 “The Odyssey.” Invited lecture on a CNU Interdisciplinary Panel, November 9 at 1 p.m.

2011 “Introduction to The Eagle.” Phi Alpha Theta invited lecture, February 18. Social Science Lounge.

2011 “Catastrophic Love Affairs and Misunderstood Femmes Fatales” (1:30 Monday February 14 in Clarke 218); part of the “Love Liberally” series, in which VWC open their classrooms to other faculty and students.

2011 “Greek 102.” Latin Day (Tidewater area high school and middle school students). February 5, at Christopher Newport University. 

2010 “Ideal Landscapes in Greco-Roman Epic: Environmental Ethics in the Ancient World" as part of the "Reflections in Research: Double Feature" Series. March 9, Virginia Wesleyan College (11:00, Clarke 118).

2010 “Greek 101.” Latin Day (Tidewater area high school and middle school students), at Christopher Newport University. 

2009 “Illuminated Manuscripts”. Latin Day (Tidewater area high school and middle school students). January 17, at Christopher Newport University. 


Ongoing Research: Books and Articles in Preparation

         Tacitus, Annales I (Translation, plus updates to commentary, notes, and vocabulary, under contract with Bloomsbury)

The Classics and the Virginia Experiment in the Seventeenth-Nineteenth Centuries: Voyages of Exploration, Formulating Ideals of Freedom, and the Stain of Slavery in Tidewater and the Piedmont.

       “Byron and the Movement for Greek Independence in Isaac Asimov’s The Stars Like Dust.”


Recent Campus And Community Lectures By Outside Speakers Organized

         2020     With Travis Malone in Theatre: “Peter Meineck’s Warrior Chorus Project,” (Talk and performance of Warrior Chorus) February, 2020.

         2019     “Sardis: City of Croesus, Birthplace of Coinage,” William Bruce, Senior Archaeologist at Sardis. Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 4:30 p.m., 255 Greer.

        2019     “Rhapsodes and Rock Stars: the enduring Legacy of Greek Myth in Pop Music," Georgia Irby, Chair, Classics Department, the College of William and Mary.

2017 “Atlas, Caesar, and other Figures in 21st Century Editorial Cartoons Around the World,” Tom Sienkewicz, 12:0 p.m. in Greer 255, October 5, 2017 at Virginia Wesleyan University.

2017 “A Classicist on the Camino,” Tom Sienkewicz, 6:00 p.m. in Greer 255, October 4, 2017 at Virginia Wesleyan University.

2016 “O Latest Born and Loveliest Vision Far: The 2016 Virginia Wesleyan College Symposium on the Romantics and the Classics.” November 17-19, 2016 at Virginia Wesleyan College. Speakers included (in order of appearance):

· Erik H. Neil, Director of the Chrysler Museum of Art.

· Chris Ann Matteo, Ph.D., Princeton

· Adam Potkay, College of William and Mary

· Michael Panitz, Temple Israel, Virginia Wesleyan College

· Carl Rubino, Hamilton College

· William Hutton, College of William and Mary

2016 Rabbi Michael Panitz, Temple Israel and Virginia Wesleyan College, “Flavius Josephus: Judaism for a Roman Audience.” Thursday, April 7, 2016 in Clarke 118.

2014 Carl Rubino, Hamilton University. “Shane and the Iliad.” April 15, 2014.

2013 Alex Mann, Yale University and the Chrysler Museum, “The Sensuality of American Neoclassical Sculpture.” Thursday, November 14, 2013.

2013 T. Corey Brennan, Rutgers University and Outgoing Director of the American Academy at Rome. “Teaching Julius Caesar for the A.P.” June 12, 2013.

2012 Dr. Dennis Looney, University of Pittsburgh, “The Poetics of Lynching: Dante, Allen Tate, and other Freedom Readers.” October 22, 2012 in Clarke 118. Invited Dr. Looney to speak, obtained funding, handled all organizational details.

2012 Dr. Stanley Lombardo, University of Kansas, translator of the popular Hackett edition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid spoke on translating and performing Homer VWC. Invited Dr. Lombardo to speak, obtained funding, handled all organizational details.

2011 Kurt Raaflaub, Brown University. "Leaders in War and Bravery: The Ideology of War in Late Fifth-Century Athens". Thursday March 3, 6:00 p.m., Clarke 118, Virginia Wesleyan College. Invited Dr. Raaflaub to speak, obtained funding from Deans and community sources, handled all organizational details, advertised with help of Center for the Study of Religious Freedom.

2010 Steve Walsh, “Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana”. Tidewater Classical Symposium Talk. November 13, Fine Arts 9, Virginia Wesleyan College. Assisted local high school teachers in booking room and managing logistics for a talk preparing high school teachers for the Virginia Symphony’s performance of Carmina Burana.

Other Conferences Attended as Non-Presenter

Thucydides the Athenian, a College Year in Athens International Conference. June 26-27, 2018, Athens, Greece.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2013-present Associate Professor of Classics, Virginia Wesleyan College, Norfolk, VA

2008-2013 Assistant Professor of Classics, Virginia Wesleyan College, Norfolk, VA

2007-2008 Assistant Professor of Classics, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI

2006, Spring Adjunct Instructor, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA

2004-2005 High School and Middle School Latin Teacher, Churchland High School,

Portsmouth, VA

1997-2003;2006-2007 Teaching Fellow, University of Pittsburgh


COURSES TAUGHT

Virginia Wesleyan College (2008-present)

Original Language

Elementary Greek

Elementary Latin I-II

Intermediate Latin 

300-level:

Ovid (Metamorphoses, Fasti, 300-level Latin)

Vergil

Horace/Catullus

Apuleius

Boethius

Caesar

Cicero

Medieval Latin

Pliny the Elder

Tacitus

Suetonius

Seneca

Petronius

  LATN 471:  Teaching Latin at a Secondary Level

In Translation

First Year Experience (Freshman Seminar)

Classical Mythology (100 level, both as Writing and non-Writing course)

Archaeology (100 level)

Roman History (200 level)

Greek History (200 level)

Introduction to World Literature (200 level)

Apuleius and Ovid (300 level tutorial, in translation)

Ancient Theater (300 level Tutorial)

Women in the Ancient World (300 level)

Classical Virginia (300 level Winter Session Course with trips to Charlottesville, Williamsburg, Norfolk)

The Ancient World in Cinema (300 level)

Epic, Special Topics: J.R.R. Tolkien and Ancient Epic (CLAS 330; three times: twice as regular class, and again as tutorial in Oxford, England)

Epic, Special Topics: Homer and the Tradition of the Trojan War (CLAS 330)

Epic, Special Topics: Page to Stage (Staging Ancient Epics) (CLAS 330)

Epic, Special Topics: Travel Literature (CLAS 330)

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in Oxford (team-taught, with Terry Lindvall and Regent Faculty, in Oxford, England in 2012 and 2014)

Classical Studies/Latin Senior Integrative Experience (CLAS 450)

New Courses and Programs Created

Latin Teaching Certification (Approved by VDOE, 2016)

Latin Minor (approved by Faculty Assembly Spring 2011)

Introduction to World Literature, Part I (200 level)

Classical Virginia (300 level)

Latin 213 (Intermediate for the new 4-credit curriculum)

Epic Special Topics: JRR Tolkien and Epic (existing traditional epic course, modified)

CLAS 356: Travel Course (first trip to Rome took place Jan 2012)

Professional Development Series Class for High School Latin Teachers (PDS-1*190): Teaching Caesar for the A.P. (Summer 2013)

Lawrence University (2007-2008)

Introductory and Intermediate Latin

Mythology

Latin Historians (Nero: Suetonius, Tacitus)

Greek Poetry (Homer)

College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (Spring 2006)

Roman Civilization

Introduction to Latin Poetry: Ars Amatoria and Metamorphoses (two sections)

Churchland High School and Middle School, Portsmouth, VA (2004-2005)

Latin 1-4

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (Teaching Fellowship, 1997-2003, 2006-7)

Latin 1-2: Introductory (five semesters) and 4 (Vergil, Aeneid, one semester)

Classical Mythology and Literature (one semester)

Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age (one semester)

Greek History (one semester)

Mythology in the Ancient World (assisted, 1 semester)

Roman History (assisted, 1 semester)


SERVICE

Committees, Commissions, and Boards

2018-present  Faculty Secretary

2018-present Agenda Committee (as Faculty Secretary, who is automatically a member)

2017-2020 Faculty Standards and Welfare: 

• Co-Chaired 2017-2018; 

• Responsible for initiative to reform VWU Faculty-Student policy on romantic relationships (until 2017, VWU defined both Faculty-Faculty and Faculty-Student relationships as “discouraged”; I offered a motion before faculty assembly encouraging administration to define faculty-student relationships as not permitted).

2017-2019 Undergraduate Research Committee:  Humanities Representative

2016 Port Day Humanities UR:  Introduced Fall and Spring Humanities talks and led Pathways sessions. As committee, selected Humanities Award Winners for Honors Convocation.

2014-present Sexual Misconduct Board, Faculty Rep (participated as member of faculty judicial committee reviewing such cases on several occasions).

2014-2015 Community Review Board (reviewed two cases)

2013-2015 INTEL Committee

· Attended Regular INTEL Committee meetings

· Community Outreach Projects:

o Bayside Community Outreach Program: met with principals of Bayside Middle and High Schools to discuss involving their students in VWC activities.

o Roberto Clemente/Reading with Wesleyan Outreach Classes: participated in planning sessions for the Roberto Clemente initiative and volunteered to prepare one class session on Classical Themes in the “I Have a Dream” Speech.

· VA Engage: Planning for October 24, 2014 Meeting on VWC’s Campus

2014-present New Faculty Orientation Committee

2014-2016 Academic Effectiveness Committee

2014-present Faculty Mentoring Advisory Committee

2013-present Faculty Mentoring Committee member for Leslie Caughell

2014 Search Committee, Director of Student Activities (hiring of Kate Polivka)

2013 Search Committee, Coordinator of Clinical Experiences and Partnerships, Department of Education (hiring of Debra Jefferson-Fitzgerald)


Virginia Wesleyan Classics Department: Departmental Service

2008- Present: Coordinator of Classics Department, Virginia Wesleyan College

· Teaching Licensure

o Authored application and submitted all relevant paperwork to the Virginia DOE to apply for an Endorsement for our BA in Latin; since approved by the state in 2015

· Online and Distance Learning Initiatives

o Taught LATN 111-112 as first VWC course offered through the VFIC Language Exchange

o Developed CLAS 210 Roman History as one of the “Shelf” Courses to be offered through the Learning House Initiative

o Will serve on the Westminster Canterbury Committee for 2017-2018

· Administration, Planning, Assessment

o Revised Classical Studies major from a 36 to a 32 credit major in order to create greater conformity with the latest version of CDAP (Classics Department Assessment Plan) and to make it easier to undertake a Classical Studies major as a second major; approved by Humanities Division and EPC in Fall 2016.

o Revised Classical Studies and Latin majors and minors for 4-credit curriculum, proposing and adding several new classes and a Latin Minor (see above under Teaching).

o Updated and revised catalog for 4-credit course curriculum.

o Wrote Classics Department Assessment Plan 2010 (CDAP 2010)

o Submitted annual Assessment Reports (CDSLAR 2011, CDSLAR 2012, CDSLAR 2013, CDSLAR 2014) to monitor compliance with Classics Department Assessment Plan.

o Administered, graded, compiled data for measures of student learning outcomes to be used in assessment reports, including both measures which I created myself, such as our Senior Objective Examination, rubrics for the Classics Senior Thesis our the SIE; and externally-authored measures like the National Latin Exam which I administered and graded; and measures created for our program by David Dirlam.

o Authored and presented to Strategic Planning and Mita Vail a Classics Department Strategic Plan and supporting documentation to help promote our program initiatives to prospective donors.

o Planned all course schedules and submitted book orders for Classical Studies, Latin, Greek.

o Obtained permission from the Dean to have a new section of Archaeology taught by Adjunct Professor Katie Briscoe.

o Represented the Department at VWC Days and Major Declaration Fairs.

o Chose Classical Studies and Latin Award Winners, and Presented Awards at Awards Convocation

· Collegiality and Advocacy for Classics

o Developed 300-level Winter Session Class Classical Virginia to serve as part of required sequence for the Education Department’s Comprehensive Liberal Studies Major – Curricular Emphasis.

o Taught a linked FYE-Mythology course with Lee Jordan-Anders (Fall 2009) and team-taught a C.S. Lewis/J.R.R. Tolkien study abroad class in Oxford with Terry Lindvall (Summer 2012).

o Successfully lobbied and defended Latin major from being cut when this was advocated on the EPC in 2009-2010.

o Translated VWC Motto into Latin and presented its meaning and significance to VWC community at Freshman Honors Convocation in 2011 and 2012.

Advising: students from the majors of Classical Studies, Latin, Comprehensive Liberal Studies, Elementary Ed (CLSCE).


Virginia Wesleyan Administration: QEP, Strategic Planning, and Re-Accreditation

2014-2015 Co-Chair, with Rebecca Hooker, QEP Committee

2014-2015 Co-Chair, Strategic Planning Action Team for Priority 1 (Experiential Learning).

2013-2014 Working Group B (Teaching Excellence), Strategic Planning Virginia Wesleyan College

2013-2014 Attended Meetings of Strategic Planning Steering Committee in support of above activities

2013-2014 Academic Effectiveness Committee

· Worked on evaluating Language Assessment gaps, and drafted a new language proficiency policy (not implemented) as a solution to a potential gap

· Attended and participated in SIE Workshops (January 8, May 16) and Writing Workshops (May 16)

2012-2013 Faculty Assembly Secretary

2012 Summer Served on Two Library Search Committees for Library Director, and Research Librarian: reviewed over 70 CVs, authored the majority of phone interview questions, participated in phone interviews and on-campus lunches/interviews 

2011-2012 Alternate, Community Review Board and Community Arbitration Board 

2010-2011 EPC Co-Chair: together with Susan Larkin, chaired EPC meetings, took minutes, oversaw review of all courses and majors under a new 4 credit model; reported to Faculty Assembly on progress. 

2009-2011 Educational Programs Committee, Virginia Wesleyan College


Virginia Wesleyan Student Activities and Community Service

2018 Served as Faculty Marshall for Commencement (May 2018) and Honors Convocation

2017 Served as Faculty Marshall for Commencement (May 2017) and Founder’s Day (September 7, 2017)

2015 Reflection on School Motto for Freshman Class at 2015 Freshman Honors Convocation

2014 Delivered Invocation at Baccalaureate Service, May 16

2014 LGBT “Reel It Out Film Series” Film Series Planning Committee, planning September 17 screening of “Kicking Out Shoshana”

2014 Chesapeake Bay Foundation Tree Planting on the Eastern Shore, March 21

2013 Reflection on School Motto for Freshman Class at 2013 Freshman Honors Convocation

2012-present: Faculty Sponsor for our chapter of Eta Sigma Phi

2011-2012: Successfully submitted an application for a VWC chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, the national undergraduate Classics Honor Society.

2011 Volunteer Shelter Manager at VWC Winter Homeless Shelter

2010-present: Eta Sigma Phi, Faculty Sponsor

2008-present: Latin Club, Faculty Sponsor

2008-present: Classics Club, Faculty Sponsor


Regional and National Professional Service

2019-2020 Classical Association of the Middle West and South Ad Hoc Diversity Committee. 

2014-present Area Chair for the Classical Representations in Popular Culture area of the Southwest Texas Popular/American Culture: organized five panels in 2014, two in 2015; three in 2016; three in 2017; chaired panels at all of the above meetings; presented papers at all of the above meetings.

2009-present Scholarship Chair, Tidewater Classical Symposium

Consultant, Ann Raia, Judith Lynn Sebasta, and Barbara F. McManus: Online Companion to “The Worlds of Roman Women,” the online companion to Ann Raia, Cecelia Luschnig, and Judith Lynn Sebasta, The Worlds of Roman Women: A Reader (Newburyport, MA: Focus). 

2011 Chaired Panel on Education at the National Phi Alpha Theta (History Honor Society) Undergraduate Conference, March 26.

2008-2010 Field Tester for Disce Latinam a new Latin Textbook by Kenneth Kitchell and Thomas Sienkewicz. Helped design online exercise, proofed drafts of textbook while using it for Introductory and Intermediate Latin. It is currently being published by Pearson.

2005 American Philological Association, Committee for Libraries and Scholarly Communication, Subcommittee for Public Library Outreach.

2002-2003 Graduate Student Teaching Mentor, Department of Classics, University of Pittsburgh.

2002 Advisor, Eta Sigma Phi, Undergraduate Classics Honor Society, Department of Classics, University of Pittsburgh.

1998-1999 Faculty of Arts and Sciences Planning and Budgeting Committee, Graduate Student Representative.


PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

American Philological Association/Society for Classical Studies

Archaeological Institute of America

Classical Association of the Midwest and South: Member of Diversity Committee, beginning 2019

Classical Association of the Atlantic States

Classical Association of Virginia

American Classical League

Tidewater Classical Symposium

APA Forum for Classics, Libraries, and Scholarly Communication