Greco-Roman wrestling at the Basilica of Maxentius, Rome Olympics, August 1960. Credit: George Silk/LIFE
Perhaps no year in recent decades has posed more of a struggle for academic job seekers that the current one. And for PhDs in Classics and Archaeology, the 2008/9 season has proved especially tough.
So it’s doubly good news that in the last weeks two recent Rutgers PhDs in Classics have landed highly desirable tenure-track positions. [Is this true? I haven’t seen it in Famae Volent—Ed.]
Gregory K. Golden (BA Penn, MA Chicago, MLitt Oxford [New College], PhD 2008 Rutgers) will join the History faculty of Rhode Island College (Providence RI) as an assistant professor. This current year Greg has been teaching Western Civilization for the Rutgers-Newark Department of History as well as Medieval Latin for Rutgers-New Brunswick Classics.
Michael Johnson (BA Truman State, MA UNC-Chapel Hill, Fellow of the American Academy in Rome’07, PhD 2007 Rutgers) moves to Nashville TN in September 2009 to start as an assistant professor of Classical Studies at Vanderbilt University. Mike is presently in his second year as Visiting Assistant Professor at Davidson College in North Carolina.
RU Commencement May 08, from left: Golden, TC Brennan, Johnson
Here’s a factoid worth noting. All Rutgers PhDs in Classics this decade have received immediately on graduation an academic appointment in their field. As of September 2009 virtually all will be tenured or tenure track. Here’s the roster:
PhD 2008 Ryan C. Fowler
Dissertation: “The Platonic Rhetor in the Second Sophistic”
Now: Grinnell College, Visiting Assistant Professor, Classics and Philosophy
PhD 2008 Gregory K.Golden
Dissertation: “Emergency Measures: Crisis and Response in the Roman Republic (from the Gallic Sack to the Tumultus of 43 BC)”
Now: Rutgers University, Instructor, History and Classics
Soon: Rhode Island College, Assistant Professor, History (from Sep. 2009)
PhD 2008 Andrew G. Scott
Dissertation: “Change and Discontinuity within the Severan Dynasty: The Case of Macrinus”
Now: Hendrix College, Assistant Professor, Classics
PhD 2007 Michael Johnson (FAAR’07)
Dissertation: “The Pontifical Law of the Roman Republic”
Now: Davidson College, Visiting Assistant Professor, Classics
Soon: Vanderbilt University, Assistant Professor, Classical Studies (from Sep. 2009)
PhD 2004 Debra Lynn Nousek
Dissertation: “Narrative style and genre in Caesar’s Bellum Gallicum”
Now: University of Western Ontario, Assistant Professor, Classical Studies
PhD 2003 Lawrence Melvin Kowerski III
Dissertation: “Simonides on the Persian Wars: a study of the elegiac verses of the ‘New Simonides’”
Published as: Simonides on the Persian Wars: a study of the elegiac verses of the “New Simonides” (Routledge 2005)
Now: Hunter College (CUNY): Associate Professor of Classics
PhD 2002 Karen E. Klaiber Hersch (FAAR’01)
Dissertation: “Nuptiae Romanae: the wedding ceremony in Roman literature and culture”
Now: Temple University: Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Classics
PhD 2002 Ilaria Marchesi
Dissertation: “A complex prose: the poetics of allusion in the epistles of Pliny the Younger”.
Published as: The art of Pliny’s letters: a poetics of allusion in the private correspondence (Cambridge University Press/America 2008)
Now: Hofstra University: Associate Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature
And joining the ranks of Rutgers PhDs in May 2009…
Christopher Marchetti
“Aristoxenus’ Elements of Rhythm: Text, Translation, and Commentary” (defended 6 March 09)
Now: Flint Hill School (Oakton VA), Upper School Classics Teacher
For information on the Rutgers graduate program in Classics, contact the Graduate Director, Professor Serena Connolly.
From A.J. Mitterbacher, Das Kriegswesen der Römer (Prague 1824)
rutgersclassics.com 