Overview
As a scholar of Latin and Greek literature, I approach ancient texts through the lenses of book history and the history of reading, queer theory, and reception studies. I have published articles on a range of topics, from the ancient entomological bookworm to the curious (and surprisingly queer) legacy of "Bilitis," an ancient lesbian poet and comrade of Sappho invented by a man in the late 19th century (for CRJ and aeon magazine).
My first book, Bad Readers and Ancient Rome (under contract with Oxford University Press), proposes that the cultural category of the "bad reader" helps us tell a different story about reading in the imperial Roman world. If most studies of reading tell the story of idealized or normative reading, searching for the "bad reader" illuminates the kinds of readers glossed over or marginalized in both ancient and modern scholarly accounts of reading. Literary representations of "bad readers" clarify how hierarchies of reading practices are never simply about "just reading" but rather are bound up in performative negotiations of power and social identity. Finally, Bad Readers proposes that we might generate new interpretations of classical literature by taking our cue from "bad readers" themselves.
In Spring 2027, as a fellow at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Studies, I will be developing a project about Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, C. P. Cavafy, and "perverse readings" of antiquity's remains.
I have taught Classics in a variety of contexts, including a one-year gig at Eton College, where I also coached boys' rugby. I am also a member of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography.
Research Focus
Latin and Greek literature; ancient reading cultures; book history; gender and sexuality studies; queer theory; classical reception studies
Publications
- "The erotic poems of Bilitis" (2026) aeon magazine
- "Gender" (2025), in Writing, Enslavement, Power in the Roman Mediterranean, 100 BCE-300 CE, ed. J. Coogan, J. Howley, and C. Moss, 44-59. Oxford University Press.
- "Teaching Cavafy with Queer Theory" (2025), in Approaches to Teaching the Works of C. P. Cavafy, ed. David Jeffreys and Demetres Tryphonopoulos, 37-43. Modern Language Association.
- "Lucian's Queer Book User in the Adversus Indoctum" (2024) American Journal of Philology 145.4: 563-592.
- "Forging Lesbians: Sappho and The Songs of Bilitis" (2024) Classical Receptions Journal 16.2: 162-177.
- "The Ancient Entomological Bookworm" (2020) Arethusa 53.1: 1-24.