Yale Department of Classics

Our 2026 newsletter has arrived! Here is our annual roundup of all the news and events from Yale's Department of Classics. We hope all our students, friends and alums are having a calm and happy summer.

Classics2026F_Web.pdf

Our own Prof. Ben Kruchió appears in Yale Today this morning, discussing film adaptations of the Odyssey.

A summer ‘Odyssey’ through time With the recent release of Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited film adaptation, Yale’s Benedek Kruchió considers how the “poem of multitudes” has been adapted and reimagined over millennia.

New Pasts Imperfect (7.16.26) https://pasts-imperfect.ghost.io/pasts-imperfect-7-16-26/ μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, of this special Homer issue to prepare you to head to the theaters to see The Odyssey this week. Our resident Homer sage, Joel Christensen, discusses his new book, Why Odysseus?: Survivor, Scoundrel, (Anti)hero. Then, Yoandy Cabrera provides a list of Hispanic reimaginings of The Odyssey to check out, an engaging Homer discussion with Jackie Murray and Emily Wilson, the Tom Hollands collide on the Odyssey press circuit, a new study calculating the loss of medieval manuscripts, Tom Hiddleston and a few trusty classics professors take on Pompeii, saving Chaco Canyon, Mayan ruins reveal the name of an ancient astronomer and mathematician, global receptions of Homer from China to the Caribbean, a new open access book on The Iconography of ‘Otherness’ in Pre-Modern Visual Art, new ancient world journals, and much more. Let's get to it.

Pasts Imperfect (7.16.26) μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, of this special Homer issue to prepare you to head to the theaters to see The Odyssey this week. Our resident Homer sage, Joel Christensen, discusses his new book, Why Odysseus?: Survivor, Scoundrel, (Anti)hero. Then, Yoandy Cabrera provides a list of Hispanic reim...

New Pasts Imperfect (6.18.26) Yale University Classicist, Erika Valdivieso, discusses Latin American classical reception, Virgil & her new book: Empire’s Companion: Virgilian Epics from Colonial Iberoamerica. (University of Chicago Press). Then, ancient Cypriot pigeons, a new game board from medieval Morocco,
remembering Rosamond McKitterick, ancient world journals & more.

Pasts Imperfect (6.18.26) This week, classicist Erika Valdivieso discusses new directions in Latin American classical reception, Virgil, and her new book, Empire’s Companion: Virgilian Epics from Colonial Iberoamerica. Then, ancient Cypriot pigeons, what film costumes convey about views of the ancient "other", a new game b...

Yale Classics and History Major, Ryo Nagao, has received the Phyllis B. Katz Prize for excellence in undergraduate research from the Classical Association of New England - CANE for his paper "Oral Tradition and Literary Innovation in an Epigraphic Oracle: Claros and Caesarea Trocetta during the Antonine Plague" now published in the New England Journal of Classical Studies https://crossworks.holycross.edu/necj/vol53/iss1/5/

New Pasts Imperfect (5.28.26) https://pasts-imperfect.ghost.io/pasts-imperfect-5-28-26/ This week, ancient historian Tara Mulder discusses her new book, A Womb of One's Own: Lost Histories of Childbirth in Ancient Rome, critical fabulation, and other methods for writing lost histories. Then, brewing beer during the Qin dynasty; marginalia within Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew philosophical traditions; infants wrapped in Tyrian purple textiles in late antique York; repatriating ancient Jain manuscripts; scholarly 'eu**ch phobia' when discussing Ancient Persia; reports on the attacks on faculty free speech and tenure; new ancient world journals; and much more.

Pasts Imperfect (5.28.26) This week, ancient historian Tara Mulder discusses her new book, A Womb of One's Own: Lost Histories of Childbirth in Ancient Rome, critical fabulation, and other methods for writing lost histories. Then, brewing beer during the Qin dynasty; marginalia within Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew philosophical....

Congratulations to Classics and Ancient History PhD student Daniel Graves, who has won this year's John Addison Porter prize for his dissertation on Thomas Jefferson and the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns. Read more about Danny’s dissertation project here:

Q&A with Daniel Graves PhD ’26 With the United States’ 250th anniversary on the horizon, many Americans are reflecting on the nation’s past. Early in his graduate studies, Daniel Graves PhD ’26 (Classics and History) became intrigued by the role of the classics in shaping early national America. In his dissertation, Graves ...

New Pasts Imperfect (5.14.26) https://pasts-imperfect.ghost.io/pasts-imperfect-5-14-26/ This week, medievalist Matthew Vernon discusses Beowulf, Blackness, and the film Sinners (2025). Then, the ACLS, AHA, and MLA win the day for NEH grantees; dendrochronology and medieval Japanese aurorae; using pitch to examine where Roman boats were repaired; open access books on Serving the Christian State in Late Antiquity and Synchronizing the Body in Ancient Medicine and Philosophy; rebuilding the Ziggurat of Ur; a new cartoon introduces kids to medieval Islamic scholars; new ancient world journals; celebrating Nubian Month at Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures; and much more.

Pasts Imperfect (5.14.26) This week, medievalist Matthew Vernon discusses Beowulf, Blackness, and the film Sinners (2025). Then, the ACLS, AHA, and MLA win the day for NEH grantees; dendrochronology and medieval Japanese aurorae; using pitch to examine where Roman boats were repaired; open access books on Serving the Christi...

As we continue to celebrate the achievements of our students, today we recognize Alejandro Quintana, graduate of the combined PhD program in Classics and History, who has won a prestigious Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) at Trinity College, Cambridge. Alejandro researches the cultural history of Greco-Roman Egypt, and particularly questions of migration and rural society. Well done!

Alejandro Quintana, ’20 | Yale Department of Classics Alejandro Quintana is a sixth-year PhD candidate in the combined program in Classics and History. His research encompasses the socio-cultural history of Greco-Roman Egypt, with an emphasis on migration and rural society. He is currently writing a dissertation titled “Mobility Makes History: Human ...

Congratulations to Yale Classics faculty Ben Kruchió and Erika Valdivieso, whose
“Yalebridge” event has been profiled on the MacMillan Center website! This year’s event brought students and professors from the University of Cambridge to Yale for a three-day conference, focused on the topic “Antiquity and Environment”.

Graduate students spark interdisciplinary conversations at the Yale-Cambridge Workshop on Antiquity and Environment In its second year, this exchange convened scholars across disparate countries and fields of study to examine ancient conceptions of the natural world.