Our mailing address is:

Classics Division
Patterson Office Tower 1055
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0027

Phone: 859-257-3761
Fax: 859-257-3743

James Francis

Education:

• Associate Professor, Classics
• Ph.D. in Classical Studies 1991, Duke University
• B.A.H. in history and philosophy from Villanova University in 1976

Positions:

• Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor of Classics, University of Kentucky, 1995-
• Interim Director of the Program in Classics, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, 1993-95
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics, Rollins College, 1991-95
• Instructor in Liberal Studies, St. John's University, Collegeville, MN, 1980-81
• Assistant Director, N.E.H. Christian Humanism Project, St. John's University, 1978-81

Francis specializes in the history and culture of the later Roman Empire, particularly in the relationship between religion and culture and the development of early Christianity. His current research focuses on artistic and literary representation in late antiquity and the early Church, and he has delivered several papers at international conferences on this topic. He also continues interest in his earlier research on asceticism and pagan philosophical culture, a project which culminated in the publication of his book Subversive Virtue in 1995. He is the author of various articles and reviews which have appeared in classics, history, and religion journals, and takes an active part in learned societies in these disciplines. Francis holds a joint appointment in the Department of Classics and the University Honors Program.

David G. Hunter

Education:

• Ph.D, Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity, University of Notre Dame (1986)
• M.A., Theology, University of Notre Dame (1983)
• M.A., Theology, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto (1980)
• M.A., Latin, Catholic University of America (1976)
• B.A., Latin, Catholic University of America (1976)

Positions:

• 2007-present:
  Cottrill-Rolfes Chair of Catholic Studies
  Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures
  Department of History, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
• 1999-2007
  Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of Catholic Studies, Professor of Religious Studies
  Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
• 1984-1999
  Instructor, then Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor
  Department of Theology, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN

David G. Hunter is the first occupant of the Cottrill-Rolfes Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Kentucky. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Classical Studies division of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Hunter’s academic interests lie in the early history of Christianity and the history of Christian thought. He has published several books and numerous articles on Greek and Latin writers of the early church, among them Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Clement of Alexandria, and John Chrysostom. Hunter’s most recent book, Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy (Oxford University Press, 2007), examines early Christian debates about marriage and celibacy. Co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies (2008), Hunter has served as President of the North American Patristics Society (2006-08) and is active on the advisory boards of the Journal of Early Christian Studies and the Journal of Late Antiquity and the translation series, Writings from the Greco-Roman World and The Fathers of the Church.

Hubert Martin

Education:

• A.B. (1954), University of Chattanooga
• M.A. (1955) and Ph.D. (1958), Johns Hopkins University

Positions:

• Instructor in Latin (summer 1954), the McCallie School (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
• Junior Instructor in Greek (1955-58), Johns Hopkins University
• Associate Professor and Professor of Greek (1958-60), Randolph-Macon College
• Assistant Professor and Associate Professor of Classics (1960-69), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Associate Professor and Professor of Classics (1969- ), University of Kentucky

Ever since, many years ago, he wrote a dissertation on the moral terminology of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, Martin has maintained a lively interest, personal as well as scholarly, in the Greek biographer and essayist. Brief forays into other areas of scholarly interpretation have yielded such items as a short book on the Greek lyric poet Alcaeus, an article on Caesar's delineation of himself in the Gallic Wars, Book 1, and another comparing Greek and Hebrew religious thought. But the consistent theme in Martin's professional bibliography is Plutarch, both the Lives and that assemblage of essays and dialogues subsumed under the title Moralia. He has dealt with Plutarch's methods of depicting character and passing moral judgments, his handling of literary sources, his relationship to Plato, and the rhetorical features that permeate his writings. Martin has also written commentaries on two of the Moralia, one in conjunction with his colleague Jane E. Phillips. He is presently composing, far more slowly than he would like, a study of Plutarch's ten Athenian biographies. He teaches courses and seminars on, among others, Plato, Demosthenes, Plutarch, and the Greek tragedians.

Milena Minkova (mmink2 at uky.edu)

Education

• University of Sofia, M.A. in Classics 1988.
• University of Sofia, Ph.D. in Classics 1992.
• Pontifical Salesian University, M.A. in Christian and Classical Philology 1993.
• Pontifical Salesian University, Ph.D. in Christian and Classical Philology 1995.

Positions

• Associate Professor of Classics, University of Kentucky: 2005-
• Assistant Professor and Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Kentucky: 2001-2005
• Previously taught at: Davidson College; Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome; Pontifical Liturgical Institute S. Anselm, Rome; Pontifical Salesian University, Rome; Foundation “Latinitas,” Vatican City; University of Sofia

Minkova has been a Kazarow scholar at the University of Geneva (1990-1991) and a DAAD scholar at the University of Heidelberg (1995-1996). She has authored three book monographs: The Personal Names of the Latin Inscriptions from Bulgaria, Peter Lang 2000; The Protean Ratio, Peter Lang 2001; Introduction to Latin Prose Composition, Bolchazy-Carducci 2007 (20011), as well as published a translation of John Scotus Eriugena’s De divisione naturae (Sofia 1994). Minkova has also published numerous articles on Latin medieval philosophy (recently on the 12th century cosmologists Bernardus Silvestris and Alan of Lille), Latin literature, Latin composition, and Latin pedagogy. With her colleague T. Tunberg, Minkova has co-authored four books: Readings and Exercises in Latin Prose Composition, Focus 2004; Reading Livy’s Rome. Selections from Livy, Books I-VI, Bolchazy-Carducci 2005; Mater Anserina. Poems in Latin for Children, Focus 2006; Latin for the New Millenium, an introductory Latin textbook, Bolchazy-Carducci (two volumes forthcoming in 2008 and 2009). Minkova is an associate director of the Institute for Latin Studies at the University of Kentucky, in which students study the entire history of Latin from ancient to modern times and where classes are conducted in Latin. Together with T. Tunberg, Minkova conducts various seminars and workshops in active Latin, among which is the Graduate Summer Program of the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Minkova is an elected fellow of Rome based Academia Latinitati Fovendae, the primary learned society devoted to the preservation and promotion of the use of Latin.

Jane E. Phillips

Education:

• Millersville (PA) State College 1961-65 B.A.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1965-69 Ph.D.

Positions:

• Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1969-71
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Ohio State University Summer 1970
• Adjunct instructor, Dickinson College 1971-72
• Adjunct instructor, Franklin and Marshall College 1971-72
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Franklin and Marshall College 1972-73
• Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky 1973-78
• Associate Professor, University of Kentucky 1978-92
• Professor, University of Kentucky 1992-
• Core faculty, Governor's Academy for Teachers of Foreign Languages, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Summer 1989
• Visiting Associate Professor, University of Toronto 1990-91

Phillips is the author of articles on a variety of topics in classical Latin literature, but her research is now mostly focused on Erasmus as a student of the New Testament. She is a collaborator with the Collected Works of Erasmus project of the University of Toronto Press. Her first volume, the translation and annotation of CWE 46, The Paraphrase on the Gospel of John, appeared in 1991; CWE 48, The Paraphrase of Luke, Chapters 11-24, was published in 2003. She is currently working on a third volume and has two more planned. She also edits the Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook, the journal of an independent international learned society dedicated to the humanist who preferred to spend money on books rather than food and clothing.

Robert J. Rabel

Education:

• University of Pittsburgh 1966-70 B.A.
• University of Michigan 1970-75 M.A. and Ph.D.

Positions:

• University of Michigan, Teaching Assistant & Lecturer, 1973-1975
• University of Kentucky, Associate Professor: Greek and Roman, 1975-1997
• University of Kentucky, Professor: Greek and Roman, 1997-
• Vanderbilt University, Faculty, Second International Institute for Semiotic and Structuralist Studies, Summer 1981
• Governor's Scholars Program Summer 1984, Summer 1985
• Dartmouth College Visiting Associate Professor, 1990-91

Rabel is a specialist in Greek literature. His current research interests lie in Homeric epic and in Greek and Roman literary criticism. His book Plot and Point of View in the Iliad was published by the Univesity of Michigan Press in 1997. He is now collaborating on a collection of essays dealing with the literary criticism of the Roman poet Horace. He is also working on a book on mimesis in the Odyssey, which studies the literary theories of Plato and Aristotle and considers their value for modern students of Homeric epic. In the last few years he has taught courses and seminars on the uIliad/u, the uOdyssey/u, Cicero, Plato, and Seneca's tragedies.

Jennifer Morrish Tunberg

Education:

• St Anne's College, Oxford University, England, D. Phil. 1982
• St Anne's College, Oxford University, England, B. Phil. 1976
• University of Western Ontario, Canada, B. A. (Hon.) 1974

Positions:

• Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor, Classics and Honors Program, UK, 1999-
• Visiting Professor, Faculty of Letters, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium, 1995-96
• Part-time Instructor, Faculty of Classical Languages and Honors Program, UK, 1990-98
• Junior Fellow, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada, 1987-1990
• Research Fellow, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada, 1985-87
• Assistant to the Curator of Manuscripts, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1982-85

Jennifer Tunberg specializes in neo-Latin novels and is currently working on the literary significance, circulation, and vocabulary of Samuel Gott's Novae Solymae libri sex (Londini: 1648/49). She is also interested in the history of the early printed books in which the novels were transmitted. Together with Terence Tunberg, she is preparing a Latin translation of the children's story, The Cat in the Hat, by Dr Seuss, which, like their recent translation of Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit), will be published by Bolchazy-Carducci. J. Tunberg practises the active use of Latin and assists her husband in his annual summer workshops which demonstrate this approach to Latin. Her earlier publications pertain to the paleography of insular manuscripts.

Terence O. Tunberg

Education:

• University of Toronto, Ph. D. Classics, 1986
• University of London, MA Programme in Medieval Studies and Ancient History, 1979 -1982
• University of Southern California, MA Classics, 1974
• University of Southern California, BA Classics, 1972

Positions:

• Assistant Professor: University of Kentucky, 1986-1994
• Associate Professor: University of Kentucky, 1994-1996
• Professor of Classics: University of Kentucky, 1996-

Terence Tunberg completed his post-graduate training at the University of London and the University of Toronto, earning his Ph.D. in 1986. Since that time he has published extensively on the history of Latin prose styles from Cicero up to and including the Renaissance. One of his special interests is the phenomenon in humanist Latin known as ‘Ciceronianism’, on which he published a seminal article in 1997 and is now preparing a substantial study. His expertise in Neo-Latin also extends to the works of Erasmus, and he is currently completing a critical edition of a declamation by Erasmus for the Amsterdam series of Erasmus’ Opera omnia. Tunberg is not only an expert in the history of Latin prose, he is also keenly interested in the practice of Latin prose composition in modern Latin study and is co-author with his colleague Milena Minkova of a book on the subject entitled Readings and Exercises in Latin Prose Composition (from Antiquity to the Renaissance), and he has won prizes for original Latin prose in international competitions. The teaching of Latin itself has been a focus for other publications by Tunberg, who in collaboration with Milena Minkova has written Reading Livy’s Rome, Selections of Livy, Books I-VI, an annotated edition designed for students who are just beginning to read Latin prose. Together with Minkova, Tunberg is currently working on Latin for the New Millennium, an entirely new introductory course on the Latin language. Finally, for many years Terence Tunberg has devoted himself to Latin as a spoken language. Convinced of the potential of active Latin to enhance the teaching and study of Latin he founded in the mid 1990s the Conventiculum Latinum, an annual summer immersion workshop in spoken Latin held on the campus of the University of Kentucky. Today the Conventiculum Latinum draws 60-70 people each year from many parts of North America and the world, and it is the largest and longest-running seminar for active Latin in North America. Together with Milena Minkova, another pioneer in the revival of spoken Latin, he directs the Institute for Latin Studies, a special graduate certificate curriculum in the MA program in Classics at UK, which brings together active Latin (speaking and writing) with graduate-level course work.

Lecturers in Classics

• Theodore Higgs, Classics, Literature (ted.higgs at uky.edu)
• Bruce Holle, Ancient history, Early Christianity (bholl2 at uky.edu)
• Paolo Visonà, Classical Archaeology (Paolo.Visona at uky.edu)

Some Related Faculty in Other Departments

• David Bradshaw, Greek Philosophy (dbradsh at uky.edu)
• Alice Christ, Ancient Art (achrist at uky.edu)
• Daniel J. Gargola, Roman History (djgarg01 at uky.edu)
• David Olster, Ancient and Byzantine History (dmolst01 at uky.edu)
• Eric Sanday, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (eric.sanday at uky.edu)

This page was last modified: 16 May 2008

Site Design:
J. Francis and Ross Scaife