Benjamin Stevens

Assistant Professor of Classics

Primary Academic Program: Classical Studies

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Experimental Humanities, Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures, Mind, Brain, and Behavior

Academic Expertise: Classical Studies

Area of Specialization: Latin, classical traditions, linguistics.

Biography:

Benjamin Stevens (B.A., Reed College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago) has published on Latin poetry (including Lucretius and Ovid), sensorial anthropology, linguistics, comics, and philosophy of mind; he has also published poems, and maintains additional research and teaching interests in Biblical Hebrew, the Classical tradition, and science fiction. Outside Classics, Stevens contributes to the Cognitive Science program, First-Year Seminar, and the Language and Thinking program (2005– ). He serves on the board of directors of the Contemporary A Cappella Society, judges international a cappella contests and awards, and leads masterclasses at music festivals around the country. (2004– ) Assistant Professor of Classical Studies.

Interests:

Research Interests: Latin and Greek languages and literatures, esp. Catullus, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, and Plato.; Classical traditions and reception studies, esp. European epic, Shakespeare, comics, and science fiction.; Linguistics and its history; silence.

Teaching Interests: Latin and Greek languages and literatures; Classical traditions and comparative literature.; Linguistics.

Other Interests: A cappella music.

Highlights:

2012-10-05 — Presentation
""But once put out thy light": Othello 5.1.1-22 and Catullus cc. 5 and 7", a paper examining Shakespeare's classicism and the reception of Catullus, is presented at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States.

2012 — Publication
Silence in Catullus, a book examining Catullus' interest in silence as an essential aspect of poetry and of human being-in-language, is forthcoming from the University of Wisconsin Press.

2012 — Publication
Classical Traditions in Science Fiction, co-edited with Prof. Brett Rogers of the University of Puget Sound, a volume of essays examining receptions of ancient Greek and Roman materials in modern science fiction literature, television, and film, is under contract with Oxford University Press.

2012 — Publication
Chapters on "Ancient Sensory Media" and "Representations of Roman Smell-Culture in Latin Literature" are forthcoming in edited volumes on the senses in antiquity.

Contact:

Phone: 845-758-7283
Website: http://classicalstudies.bard.edu/faculty/profiles.shtml?id=4300274
E-mail: bstevens@bard.edu