My responsibilities as Director of the Honors College keep me in the Director’s office for several hours on most days of the week. Email or telephone to confirm I’m there and then stop by for consultation, even outside my regularly scheduled office hours. You’re also welcome to set up a virtual conference with me.
Education
PhD, Classical Studies and Comparative Literature, Indiana University, 2004
Lipson Special Opportunity Grant (with Prof. Sevinç Türkkan, 2014-15)
NY State Council for the Humanities Mini-Grant (with Prof. Brooke Conti, 2011)
National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions Course Development Grant, June 2009-January 2011
SUNY Brockport Sigma Tau Delta Outstanding English Teacher, 2008-2009
Mellon Foundation Grant for Research Leave, Stanford University, Winter Quarter 2006
Office for Women’s Affairs Eva Kagan-Kans Graduate Research Paper Award, IU, 2000
Gilbert V. Tutungi Award for Best Comparative Literature Master’s Project, IU, 2000
Institute for Biblical and Literary Studies Graduate Fellowship, IU, 1997-2001
Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society, San Francisco State University, 1996
Harry Berger Scholarship in World and Comparative Literature, SFSU, 1994
Books:
Risen Indeed? Resurrection and Doubt in the Gospel of Mark. Early Christianity and Its Literature. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2022.
The English Bible (KJV): The New Testament and the Apocrypha. Co-editor with Gerald Hammond. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2012.
Articles and Book Chapters:
“Sacrifice and Atonement in Morrison’s Beloved and Faulkner’s Light in August.” Journal of Christianity and Literature (in press).
“Americanizing the Nuremberg Laws: Alternative-Historical Racial Reconfigurations in The Plot against America.” Melus: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 45 (2020): 152-179.
“Tragedy, Philosophy, and Social Theory.” The Cultural History of Tragedy in Antiquity. Ed. Emily Wilson. London: Bloomsbury, 2020. 65-81.
“Scriptural Revision in Mark’s Gospel and Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius.” Classical Greek Models of the Gospels and Acts. Eds. Mark G. Bilby, Michael Kochenash, and Margaret Froelich. Claremont, CA: Claremont Press, 2018. 71-112.
“Gnostic Biblical and Second Sophistic Homeric Interpretation.” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity 22 (2018): 195-217.
“Characterizing Gnostic Scriptural Interpretation.” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity 21 (2017): 243-271.
“New Testament Narrative and Greco-Roman Literature.” The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative. Ed. Danna Nolan Fewell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. 61-72.
“Pederasty and Flavian Family Values in Statius, Siluae 2.1.” Classical World 107 (2013): 53-97.
“Presence Deferred: The Name of Jesus and Self-referential Eschatological Prophecy in Acts.” Biblical Interpretation 17 (2009): 521-553.
“The Dissolution of the Self in the Senecan Corpus.” Seneca and the Self. Eds. Shadi Bartsch and David Wray. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 255-82.
“Versane natura est? Natural and Linguistic Instability in the Extispicium and Self-Blinding of Seneca’s Oedipus.” Classical Journal 102 (2007): 225-67.
“Questioning and Conviction: Double-voiced Discourse in Mark 3:22-30.” Journal of Biblical Literature 125 (2006): 477-505.
“The Figure of Eve in Romans 7:5-25.” Biblical Interpretation 12 (2004): 1-36.
Encyclopedia Articles:
“Gentiles”; “Healing Miracles”; “Heaven”; Holy Family”; “Incarnation”; “Incest” (literature sections). The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, vols. 10,11,12. Berlin: De Gruyter (2015-16).
“Deification, Greek.” Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Ed. Michael Gagarin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Select Book Reviews and Bibliographic Essays:
“Seneca’s Medea.” Oxford Bibliographies in Classics. In press.
Rev. of Helen Slaney, Seneca: Medea. Classical World 113 (2020): 361-63.
Rev. of Delbert Burkett, The Case for Proto-Mark. Review of Biblical Literature, June 2019.
Rev. of Susanna Braund, Seneca: Oedipus. Classical World 110 (2016): 152-153.
Rev. of J. Christopher Edwards, The Ransom Logion in Mark and Matthew. Review of Biblical Literature, October 2014.
Rev. of Brad Inwood, Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary. Exemplaria Classica 12 (2008): 383-92.
Select Invited Lectures:
“Risen Indeed? Resurrection in the Gospel of Mark.” Indiana University, Department of Religious Studies. 11 February 2013.
“Eve and Childbirth: Images of Femininity in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.” University of Rochester, Department of Classics. 10 February 2011.
“The King James Bible in the 21st Century.” University of Florida, Department of Religion. 21 September 2010.
“The Sin of Sodom and the Problem of Context.” SUNY Fredonia, Department of English. 27 April 2009.
“Pederasty and Flavian Family Values in Statius, Siluae 2.1.” Stanford University, Mellon Foundation Humanities Colloquium. 12 May 2006.
“Visions of Mortality in Seneca’s Thyestes.” San Francisco State University, Classics Students Association 14th Annual Lecture Series. 4 May 2006.
“Pederasty and Flavian Family Values in Statius, Siluae 2.1.” University of California at San Diego, Department of Literature. 9 February 2006.
“Imperial Dialogues: Political and Rhetorical Authority in Paul, Mark, and the Senecan Corpus.” University of Michigan, Department of Classical Studies. 21 January 2005.
Select Presentations:
“Jesus’s Death as a Failed Sacrifice in Mark.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Antonio, Texas. 19 November 2023.
“Sexual Violence in Classic Gnostic Literature and Ovid.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Antonio, Texas. 22 November 2021.
“Violent Atonement in the Gospels and Faulkner’s Light in August.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Diego, California. 25 November 2019.
“Greek Philosophical Circles and Gnostic Scriptural Interpretation.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. Boston, Massachusetts. 18 November 2017.
“Revisionary Interpretation of Homeric and Biblical Myth.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. Atlanta, Georgia. 21 November 2015.
“Mark 8:31ff. as an Adaptation of Galatians 1-2.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Diego, California. 24 November 2014.
“The Evangelical Myth of Simon of Cyrene.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Francisco, California. 19 November 2011.
“The Passive Parturient in Romans 8.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Francisco, California. 19 November 2011.
“KJV: An Ideologically Felicitous Translation.” Modern Language Association Annual Meeting. Los Angeles, California. 7 January 2011.
“Resurrection in Mark, or not?” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. Boston, Massachusetts. 22 November 2008.
“Dialogues of Resurrection in Mark’s Gospel.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Diego, California. 17 November 2007.
“Natura uersa est? Natural Order or Chaos in the Extispicium of Seneca’s Oedipus.” American Philological Association Annual Meeting. Ontario, Canada. 8 January 2006.
“Dialogues of Empire in Mark’s Gospel.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 19 November 2005.
“Presence Deferred: Exodus 3, Acts 3, and Divine Names.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Antonio, Texas. 21 November 2004.
“Questioning and Conviction: Double-voiced Discourse in Mark 3:22-30.” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Antonio, Texas. 20 November 2004.
“Statius, Siluae 2.1 and Flavian Family Values.” Classical Association of the Midwest and South Annual Meeting. Provo, Utah. 20 April 2001.
“Livy’s Ethical and Ethnographical Reversals: The Romans and the Gauls in Ab urbe condita 5.” American Classical League Institute. Bloomington, Indiana. 30 June 2000.
“Felix the Freedman: The Career and Character of Felix, Procurator of Judaea.” Classical Association of the Midwest and South Annual Meeting. Knoxville, Tennessee. 8 April 2000.
Academic Positions
College at Brockport (SUNY), Department of English and Honors College
Professor of Early World Literatures (2023-present)
Associate Professor of Early World Literatures (2012-2023)
Assistant Professor of Early World Literatures (2006-2012)
Director of Honors College (2019-present)
Director of the Honors College (2016-2019)
Stanford University, Introduction to the Humanities Program
