UCLA Department of Classics

09/25/2026

The figure of Helen in Greek mythology has always been controversial.

In an inadvertent and jarring echo of the classical past, Helen was perhaps the most controversial figure in Christopher Nolan’s recent Odyssey adaptation as well.

Read grad student Elisa McAtee's blog, the latest entry of The Odyssey Files to find out why:

By Elisa McAtee, Graduate Student in Classics   The figure of Helen in Greek mythology has always been controversial. Ancient writers displayed their intellectual prowess debating whether she really went...

09/25/2026

Some of our grad students (Opal, JT, Emma) awaiting the start of the performance of Antigone: In the Language of Kings at the Getty Villa last night. It was a packed house and the play is terrific!! Go to see it if you can. (There is another free matinee performance for students next wed, DM us if you are a UCLA student & interested in tix).

09/25/2026

PhD candidate Tom Francis recently traveled to Toronto to deliver a paper at the Connected Pasts conference. His paper, “Modeling Alphabet Diffusion and Community Interactions in Ancient Italy with Spatiotemporal Processes” was co-authored with PIES PhD student Muhammad Rehan. Congratulations Tom and Rehan!

09/18/2026

Professor Bryant Kirkland brings us the next blog post of The Odyssey Files.

In it he describes how a mishap at the 4DX theater got him thinking about the other forms of intransigence he brought with him into the cinema that day.

He shares his thoughts here: https://classics.ucla.edu/blog/the-odyssey-files-6-reception-in-4dx-or-not/

09/17/2026

Assistant Professor Adriana Vazquez, together with a team of collaborators led by Leni Ribeiro Leite (University of Kentucky), has been awarded a Scholarly Editions and Translations grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities.

With this grant, they will work to publish a critical edition and translation of the Jesuit missionary José de Anchieta’s De gestis Mendi de Saa, a sixteenth-century Latin poem describing the “heroic deeds” of Mem de Sá, the third governor general of Brazil.

The full list of award recipients can be found here, with Prof. Vazquez's award listed under "Kentucky":
https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/2026-07/NEH%20grant%20awards%20state%20by%20state%20July%202026.pdf

Congratulations Professor Vazquez!

09/14/2026

Professor Amy Richlin has been awarded a 2026 Wilbur Cross Medal!

The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Yale University has awarded Distinguished Research Professor Amy Richlin a 2026 Wilbur Cross Medal.

The award was announced on September 2nd, and is the highest honor offered by the Graduate School to its alumni. It recognizes exceptional scholarship, teaching, and public service. Professor Richlin joins three other distinguished researchers in the awards this year, and they will all return to the Yale campus on October 19 to deliver public lectures.

The title of Professor Richlin’s lecture is “Yale, Cradle of the History of Sexuality.”

Congratulations to Professor Richlin on this well-deserved honor! You can find more information about the awards and the lectures at the following link: https://gsas.yale.edu/about/news-announcements/graduate-school-present-its-highest-honor-four-accomplished-alumni

09/11/2026

Graduate student Caleb Speakman brings us the next installment of The Odyssey Files.

He considers the convergence of two underlying sources of complexity - The Odyssey, a text that speaks with many voices, reflecting both the rich oral tradition that stands behind the poem, and the multidimensional character of its protagonist, the wily Odysseus.

You will find it here: https://classics.ucla.edu/blog/the-odyssey-files-5-trick-or-trauma-odysseus-and-his-many-epithets/

By Caleb Speakman, Graduate Student in Classics   The Odyssey is a text that speaks with many voices, reflecting both the rich oral tradition that stands behind the poem and...

09/04/2026

The fourth installment of The Odyssey Files is available now.

Written by graduate student JuliAnne Rach, she describes how Nolan’s Circe is quite different from Homer’s Circe and why she is convinced that Nolan’s portrayal of the witch is true to ancient culture.

Nolan’s Circe: Circe the Witch, Circe the Hag: https://classics.ucla.edu/blog/the-odyssey-files-4-nolans-circe-circe-the-witch-circe-the-hag/

09/03/2026

Professor Catherine Bonesho, a UCLA professor of ancient Judaism, has an article published in Palestine Exploration Quarterly covering her analysis of a ring connected to Pontius Pilate.

UCLA is proud to share the news on the Humanities Division website: https://humanities.ucla.edu/news/catherine-bonesho-pontius-pilate-ring/

And on UCLA Newsroom: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/research-may-unlock-mystery-ring-tied-to-pontius-pilate

Drawing clues from the ring’s inscription, UCLA professor Catherine Bonesho rebuts previous scholarship about the 2,000-year-old relic.

08/28/2026

The third entry of The Odyssey Files has just dropped! Entitled, "Why Odysseus Can Never Go Home" Prof. Ella Haselswerdt discusses "Odysseus’s inability to really go home, and that all of this has to do with Odysseus’ pathological inability to be who he is – to return not only to Ithaca but to himself."

Check out the full blog here: https://classics.ucla.edu/blog/the-odyssey-files-3-why-odysseus-can-never-go-home/