New Classics Professor to Join Faculty

Robert Germany will be joining the Haverford Department of Classics in September 2008 as an assistant professor. Germany’s interests are both chronologically and linguistically wide-ranging, including Roman comedy, the ancient novel, the Homeric hymns, and the German reception of classical literature in the 17th and 18th centuries.   Of his recent work on Roman comedy he comments: “I’m especially interested in how these plays reveal an awareness of themselves as theatrical artifacts and often do so in extremely subtle ways that point to the fragile boundary of the make-believe world they inhabit.  This metatheatrical element in Roman comedy is far more than the random irruption of silliness it may at first seem; in fact, I believe it may be the key to understanding how these plays are more deeply imbedded in their Hellenistic philosophical and Roman political context.”

Germany has a B.A. in Classics (with minors in German and Math) from the University of Texas at Austin and is about to receive his Ph.D from the University of Chicago; he has been teaching for the past two years at Trinity University. He has taught Greek and Latin at all levels, and is interested in the possibility of offering courses in koine Greek and medieval Latin; he has also given a variety of courses in classical studies, including ancient comedy, ancient novel, and mythology.  Next year he will be teaching elementary Greek, Latin 102b (Roman Comedy), and a classical studies course on the ancient novel.