Curriculum Vitae

William A. Johnson
william.johnson@duke.edu
Department of Classical Studies
Duke University
P.O. Box 90103
Durham, NC 27708-0103
Tel. (919) 684-2082

Professional Employment
•2010-present Duke University,
Schiff Family Dean of Humanities and the Arts (2022 - )
Dean of Humanities (2020-2022)
Professor in Classical Studies (2010- )
Chair of Department, Classical Studies (2017-20)
   Director of Graduate Studies, Classical Studies (2011-14, Spring 2017)
•2014-15 Duke Kunshan University, China
Visiting Professor (2014) and inaugural Chair of Faculty (2014-15)
•1999-2009   University of Cincinnati
   Head of Department 2004 (acting), 2005-2009 (elected)
   Associate Professor 2003-2009
   Assistant Professor 1999-2003
•1997-1999 Bucknell University, Assistant Professor
•1996-1997 Ohio University, Athens, Assistant Professor
•1993-1995 University of California, Irvine, Director of Research & Assistant Director, Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (with joint teaching appointment in Classics)
•In the period 1981-1992, I served as systems designer and consultant for TLG Project, PHI Latin Data Bank, Duke Data Bank of Documentary Papyri; the Ibycus Corporation (Vice-President, 1984-7); and as technical editor for the TLG Canon of Greek Authors and Works (Oxford University Press: 1986, 2nd ed. 1990).

Education
•PhD, Classical Philology, Yale University (1992)
•MA, Greek Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1981)
•BA, English Literature & Latin Literature, Oberlin College (1978)

Awards
•Dean’s commendation on teaching excellence (top 5% of evaluations in Quality of Course/Quality of Instructor): Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2019
•Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies (2005-06)
•National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship (2003-04)
•National Humanities Center (2003-04, declined)
•Center for Hellenic Studies (2003-04, declined)
•Gildersleeve Prize (2000). Award for "Toward a Sociology of Reading in Classical Antiquity," in American Journal of Philology 121.
•Semple Fund Summer Research Grant (annually 2000-2009)
•John D. and Rose H. Jackson Fellowship (1997). Beinecke Library, Yale University
•Yale University Graduate School (Charles A. Parcells Fellowship; University Fellowships (several years); John F. Enders Grant; Woolsey Travel Fellowship for research at Oxford, Cambridge, London)
•Pogue Fellowship, UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate School
•National Merit Scholar
•Phi Beta Kappa

Research

Publications

Books

1. 2017. Oxford Handbook to the Second Sophistic, co-edited with Daniel Richter. Oxford University Press. October 2017. Hardcover + ebook.
1a. 2021. Oxford Handbook to the Second Sophistic. Issued in paperback with corrections.
Reviews: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.07.09 (Martin Korenjak)
  Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.07.10 (Jean Alvares)
Sehepunkte: Rezensionsjournal für die Geschichtswissenschaften 18 (2018), Nr. 6 (Christopher P. Jones)
The Classical Review 2019 (Sonia Pertsinidis)
  New England Classical Journal 45.4 (2018) (Brandon Jones)
Classics for All (2020) (Silvio Bär)
2. 2016. The Essential Herodotus. Oxford University Press. July 2016. Paperback.
Reviews:   Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.11.45 (N. J. Sewell-Rutter)
  AramcoWorld Reviews May 15, 2018 (Robert W. Lebling)
Choice Vol. 54, Iss. 6 (Feb 2017): 862 (F A. Grabowski)
3. 2010. Readers and Reading Culture in the High Empire: A Study of Elite Reading Communities. Oxford University Press. Hardcover + ebook.
3a. 2012. Readers and Reading Culture in the High Empire: A Study of Elite Reading Communities. Issued in paperback with corrections.
Reviews:   Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History 2012 (4): 33–35 (Ika Willis)
  Times Literary Supplement, July 1, 2011 (Gail Trimble)
                               Greece & Rome 58 2011: 246-255 (Rebecca Langlands; review article)
                               Classical Journal 2012.02.03 (James Ker)
American Journal of Philology 132 (Zsuzsanna Várhelyi)
The Heythrop Journal 57.1 (2016) 239-240 (Guy Lawrence)
  Sehepunkte: Rezensionsjournal für die Geschichtswissenschaften 13.1 2013 (Charles Hedrick)
  Classical Philology 106 (Thomas Habinek)
                                Rosetta 10: 94-97 (F. Sapsford)
                                Religious Studies Review 37 (David Reis)
                                The Expository Times 122.10, 2011: 490-91 (L. W. Hurtado)
                                Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.11.37 (Jonathan Mannering)
  New England Classical Journal 2011 38 : 304-307 (Eugenia Lao)
                                Revue des études latines 2010 88 : 326-327 (Nicole Méthy)
Choice Vol. 48, Iss. 2, (Oct 2010): 288-289 (D. Lateiner)
                Blogs:    Larry Hurtado, Centre for the Study of Christian Origins
Ben Witherington, Ancient Readers and Manuscripts -- William Johnson’s Take
Medieval History Geek
4. 2009. Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome. Ed. with Holt Parker. Oxford University Press. Hardcover + ebook.
4a. 2011. Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome. Issued in paperback with corrections.
Reviews: Journal of Hellenic Studies 102, 2012, 365-7 (Joseph Howley)
   Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.07.65 (Curtis Dozier)
   CJ Online 2009.09.08 (Scott Farrington)
   SEBarc 8, 2010, 207-2011 (Sara Redaelli)
   Hermathena 187, 2009, 133-139 (Sander Goldberg)
5. 2004. Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus. University of Toronto Press. Hardcover + ebook.
5a. 2013. Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus. Issued in paperback.
Reviews: Classical Review 56.2, 2006, 485-8 (Silvia Barbantani)
   Classical World 100.1, 2006, 67-9 (Efrosyni Stigka)
   Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 43, 2006, 169-73 (Thomas J. Kraus)
     Archiv für Papyrusforschung 51/1, 2005, 166-7 (Günter Poethke)
   Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005 (Susan Stephens)
   Scriptorium 59, 2005, 63-4 (Martin Wittek)
   The Expository Times, 117.5, 2006, 209-10 (Thomas J. Kraus).

Book Series
Cultures of Reading in the Ancient Mediterranean Monograph Series. Interdisciplinary book series with Oxford University Press. Co-editor with Chris Keith.

Jeremiah Coogan, Eusebius the Evangelist. 2022.
Anna M. Sitz, Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers - The Afterlives of Temples and Their Texts in the Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean. Expected 2023.
Jeremiah Coogan, Joseph Howley, Candida Moss, Writing, Enslavement, and Power in the Roman Mediterranean. Under contract.
Warren Campbell, The Pauline History of Hebrews. Under contract.

Born-digital projects

Ancient Greek Music - an interactive web site showcasing two of the rare papyri containing ancient musical notation, containing audio and visual materials ancillary to the publications (Johnson 2000 and 2001).
"Bone Rules Catalogue", Harvard Dataverse, V7, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SCV3ZB. 2022, updated 2023.
Forthcoming. Papyrus Provenance Project. Phase one, the Duke Papyrus Collection provenance materials, is a Filemaker app produced in 2022, in collaboration with Nick Wagner and Any Armacost. Complete, but not yet publicly available.
Under development. Greek Bookrolls Project. Phase one, data on formats and scribal conventions from 450+ bookrolls. Filemaker app, in process.
Under development. Early Greek Codices Project. Phase one, data on formats and scribal conventions from 200+ codices from 4th century or earlier. Filemaker app, in process.

Articles and Book Chapters

2023. "Reading for Efficiency in Ancient Rome: The Case of Pliny the Elder." Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History 15.3 (2023) 15-23.
Forthcoming. 2023. "Scribal Tools of the Trade: Bone Rules, Dividers, and Lamps as Writing Aids." Segno e Testo (2023).
2023. “Typological Catalogue of the ancient Roman Scribal Tool Known as a Bone Rule.” Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 11.1 (2023), pp. 1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/joad.97. Data paper for the open-access online dataset, Johnson, William A., 2022, "Bone Rules Catalogue", Harvard Dataverse, V7, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SCV3ZB.
2023. "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Classicist's View," chapter in The Dead Sea Scrolls in Ancient Media Culture, ed. Travis Williams and Chris Keith. In the Brill series Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah. Pp. 488-505.
2022. "Trifle reprised: British Library School Tablet Add MS 34186(1)(2)." BASP 59 (2022) 205-220.
Forthcoming, 2020 [delayed, 2023]. "From Bookroll to Codex," Studies in Manuscript Cultures, de Gruyter. COVID PUBLICATION DELAY.
2018. “Isidora to Apollonia: a Private Letter in the Beinecke Collection (P.CtYBR inv. 5044)," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 206 (2018) 154–156.
2018. “Ptolemaic Mummy Stuffings, 3: The Documentary Texts (Beinecke P.CtYBR inv. 5058, 5059, 5060, 5061, 5062, 5063)," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 206 (2018) 157–178.
2017. "The Second Sophistic: Periodicity and Scope," in The Oxford Handbook to the Second Sophistic, co-edited by W. Johnson and D. Richter. Oxford University Press.
2017. " Imperial Pantomime and Satoshi Miyagi’s Medea," Didaskalia 13 (2016–2017): 76-90. http://didaskalia.net/issues/13/13/
2016. “Ptolemaic Mummy Stuffings, 2: A Comic Fragment and Grammatical Text in the Yale Collection (P.CtYBR inv. 5019, 5043),” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 199 (2016) 7-15.
2016. “Ptolemaic Mummy Stuffings: An Intriguing Scholar’s Text in the Yale Collection (P.CtYBR 5018),” Archiv für Papyrusforschung 62/1 (2016) 1-19.
2015. “Learning to Read and Write,” chapter in Blackwell’s Companion to Ancient Education, ed. Martin Bloomer.
2013. “Bookrolls as Media,” chapter in Comparative Textual Media : transforming the humanities in the postprint era, edd. Kate Hayles and Jessica Pressman, University of Minnesota Press.
2013. “The Oxyrhynchus Distributions in America: Papyri and Ethics,” BASP 49 (2012; appeared Dec. 2013).
2013. “Pliny Epistle 9.36 and Demosthenes' Cave,” Classical World 106.4 (2013).
2013. “Libraries and Reading Culture in the High Empire,” chapter in Ancient Libraries, ed. Greg Woolf. Cambridge University Press.
2012. “Cicero and Tyrannio: Mens addita videtur meis aedibus (ad Atticum iv.8.2),” Classical World 105.4 (2012) 471-77.
2011. “Teaching the Children How to Read: The Syllabary” Classical Journal 106: 445-463.
2009. "Books," "Literacy," "Readers and Reading," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. M. Gagarin
2009. "The Ancient Book," in The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology, ed. Roger Bagnall. Oxford University Press.
2008. "Hesiod's Theogony: Reading the Proem as a Priamel," Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 46:231-235.
2006. “The Story of the Papyri of the Villa dei Papiri,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 19: 493-6. Essay and review of David Sider, The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum (Getty, 2005).
2005. "The Posidippus Papyrus: Bookroll and Reader," in The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book, ed. Kathryn Gutzwiller. Oxford University Press.
2004. "Greek Electronic Resources and the Lexicographical Function," in Biblical Greek Language and Lexicography. Eerdmans. 75-84.
2002. "Reading cultures and education," in Reading Between the Lines: New Perspectives on Foreign Language Literacies, ed. P. Patrikis. Yale University Press.
2002. "P.Hibeh II 193 (Iliad VI 4-7)," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 139: 1-2.
2001. "Towards a sociology of reading in classical antiquity." American Journal of Philology 121 (2000): 593-627. Appeared 2001. Winner of the 2000 Gildersleeve Prize.
2001. "New instrumental music from Graeco-Roman Egypt," Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 37 (2000): 17-36. Appeared 2001.
2000. "Musical Evenings in the Early Empire: New Evidence from a Greek Papyrus with Musical Notation," Journal of Hellenic Studies 120: 57-85.
1998. "Dramatic Frame and Philosophic Idea in Plato." The American Journal of Philology 119: 577-598.
1995. "Oral Performance and the Composition of Herodotus' Histories," Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 35 (1994, appeared Fall 1995) 229-254.
1994. "The Appian Papyrus from Dura-Europus (P.Dura 2)," with Robert G. Babcock, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 31: 85-88.
1994. "Macrocollum," Classical Philology 89: 62-64.
1994. "The Function of the Paragraphus in Greek Literary Prose Texts," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 100: 65-68.
1994. "Percolare" and "percolere" in Thesaurus linguae Latinae vol. 10, 1, cols. 1215-1217.
1994. "Towards an Electronic Greek Historical Lexicon," Emerita 62 253-261.
1993. "Pliny the Elder and Standardized Roll Heights in the Manufacture of Papyrus," Classical Philology 88: 46-50.
1993. "Column Layout in Oxyrhynchus Literary Papyri: Maas's Law, Ruling and Alignment Dots," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 96: 211-215.
1993. "Is Oratory Written on Narrower Columns? A Papyrological Rule of Thumb Reviewed," Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Papyrology (Copenhagen) 423-427.
1992. "Multiple Copies of Literary Papyri, Fiber Patterns, and P.Oxy. XLVIII 3376 fr. 44," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 93: 153-154.

Reviews

2013. Review of Roger Bagnall, Everyday Writing in the Graeco-Roman East. Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 49 (2012; appeared Dec. 2013): 339-341.
2007. Review of Larry W. Hurtado, The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins (Eerdmans 2006). Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 44: 249-251.
2007. Review of Melissa M. Terras. Image to Interpretation. An Intelligent System to Aid Historians in Reading the Vindolanda Texts (Oxford 2006). Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 44: 245-247.
2003. Review of Musique et posie dans l’antiquité (ed. G.-J. Pinault). Classical Review 53: 463-4.
2003. Review of M.L. West, Ancient Greek Music (Oxford University Press, 1992) and Egert Pöhlmann, M.L. West, Documents of Ancient Greek Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001) Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.04.08.
1998. Review of R. Cribiore, Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Classical Philology 93: 276-279.
1995. "Computer Assisted Instruction in the Learning of Greek and Latin," with J. Conant et al., Bryn Mawr Classical Review 6.1.

Papers & Conferences - Invited or Refereed

2022 May. "Not the Pharoah’s Curse: Tales of Greek Literary Papyri and Colonial Entanglements," Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Distinguished Lecture at University of Chicago.
2020 May. “Publishing and How to Become an Influencer in the Social Networks of Antiquity.” Invited lecture for a conference, "Cultures of Reading in the Ancient Mediterranean: Jews, Christians, Greeks, Romans," at St Mary's University, Twickenham, London UK. CANCELED DUE TO COVID-19 CRISIS.
2020 May. "Publishing without Publishers: Book Circulation and Personal Networks in the ancient Mediterranean," Sigmund H. Danziger Jr. Distinguished Lecture at University of Chicago. POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 CRISIS.
2019 June. "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Classicist's View." Invited lecture for a conference, "The Dead Sea Scrolls and Ancient Media Criticism," at St Mary's University, Twickenham, London UK.
2018 July. "Is our goal to understand ancient reading and writing, or ancient literacy; and what’s the difference?" Invited response for a panel session, "Reading and Writing for Rome: literacies of administration," at The 11th Celtic Conference in Classics. St Andrews, Scotland,
2017 November. "Authorship & Publication in late antique homilies and the gospel of Matthew." Invited lecture for a panel session, “The Reading Cultures of Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity: A Dialogue with William A. Johnson” at the SBL conference, Boston, Massachusetts.
2016 December. “From Bookroll to Codex.” Invited lecture for the Mellon-Sawyer seminar, Cultural and Textual Exchanges: The Manuscript across pre-modern Eurasia.” University of Iowa.
2016 November. “Judaic and Christian Readers and Reading Cultures- A Response.” Invited lecture for a panel session, “The Reading Cultures of Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity: A Dialogue with William A. Johnson” at the SBL conference, San Antonio, Texas.
2016 October. “Ancient Magic and Ancient Literacies” Invited lecture as conference respondent for a conference, Inscribing Power in Antiquity, at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany.
2016 June. “Imperial Pantomime and Satoshi Miyagi’s Medea,” for a conference, Music in the Time of Vergil, at the Villa Vergiliana in Cuma, Italy.
2015 July. “Triangulating Publication in Rome.” Invited lecture for a conference, Triangulationships: Between Authors, Readers, and Texts in Imperial Literature. Cambridge University, UK.
2015 May. “An Intriguing Ptolemaic Commentary in the Yale Collection,” for a conference, The North America Papyrology Seminar, University of Michigan.
2015 April. “The Sociology of Publishing in Ancient Rome.” Invited lecture/seminar for an interdisciplinary Humanities Center workgroup called Oral Literature and Literate Orality. Stanford University.
2015 April. “Publishing without Publishers in Ancient Rome and in New Media Today.” Invited lecture for an interdisciplinary Humanities workgroup called Transitions in Reading and Writing, Consortium for the Study of the pre-Modern World. University of Minnesota.
2014 November. “Publishing without Publishers in Ancient Rome and in New Media Today.” Invited lecture. Shanghai Normal University, China
2014 October “Herodotus and his Readers.” Invited lecture. Fudan University, Shanghai.
2014 January “Imperial Pantomime and Satoshi Miyagi's Medea.” American Philological Association. Chicago.
2012 October, “Publishing without Publishers: Books, Publication, and Community in Imperial Rome,” invited lecture at Princeton University
2012 June, “Books and the Idea of Publication in Classical Antiquity,” invited keynote address at a conference, “Writing Europe before 1450,” at the University of Bergen, co-sponsored by the University of Leicester. Blog.
2012 April, “Imagining the Great Library of Alexandria: Cultural History and the Reconstruction of Antiquity,” invited lecture at Franklin and Marshall College
2011 October, “Publishing without Publishers: Books, Publication, and Community in Ancient Rome and Today,” invited lecture at Harvard University
2011 September, “Two Things” invited response at the Roberts Lecture, Dickinson College, Pennsylvania
2010 October. “Teaching and the Literary Papyri.” Invited lecture at a conference, “Teaching Papyri: the Legacy of Traianos Gagos” at the University of Michigan.
2010 October. “Libraries and Reading Culture in the High Empire.” Invited lecture, JHU Philological Society, at Johns Hopkins University.
2009 December. “Herodotus and his Readers.” Invited lecture at Cornell University.
2009 October. “Publication, Text, and Community,” Invited lecture at a conference, “Reclaiming the Past, Envisioning the Future.” University of California, Irvine.
2008 September. "Libraries and Reading Culture in the High Empire," Invited lecture at a conference, Ancient Libraries. University of St Andrews, Scotland.
2007 November. "Constructing Elite Reading Communities in Rome." Invited lecture at the American School for Classical Studies, Athens, Greece.
2007 October, "Constructing Elite Reading Communities in Rome." Invited lecture at Indiana University, Bloomington.
2006 November. “Scholars’ Texts and Reading Communities,” Invited lecture, Classics Lecture Society (annual speaker elected by the Classics graduate students). University of Chicago.
2006 October. "Constructing Elite Reading Communities in Rome." Invited lecture, Distinguished Classics Alumnus Lecture, Oberlin College.
2006 April. "Constructing Elite Reading Communities in the High Empire." Semple Symposium, Constructing Literacy among the Greeks and Romans. Cincinnati.
2003 October. "The Posidippus Papyrus: Bookroll and Reader." "Seminar: Ancient Greek Music." Invited lecture and seminar at the University of California, Berkeley.
2003 April. "The Posidippus Papyrus: Bookroll and Reader." Invited lecture at the University of Illinois (Champagne-Urbana).
2002 November. "Bookrolls, readers, and the Posidippus papyrus." Invited lecture at The New Posidippus, a Semple Symposium at University of Cincinnati.
2002 January, "Commentary on Plato," at the panel, Plato as a Literary Author, presented at the American Philological Association meeting (Philadelphia, PA).
2001 October "Scholars and readers in Greco-Roman Egypt," invited lecture at the conference, Editing Ancient Texts, at the University of Toronto.
2000 October "From papyrus to song: the discovery of two new fragments of ancient Greek music," invited lecture at Ohio University (Athens, Ohio).
2000 April "New discoveries in ancient Greek music," invited lecture at Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, Ohio).
1999 February "Did the Greeks and Romans read silently or aloud?" seminar presentation at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ).
1998 December "A New Greek Musical Papyrus (Beinecke CtYBR inv. 4510)," presented at the American Society of Papyrologists session at the American Philological Association meeting (Washington D.C.).
1998 November "Musical Evenings in the Early Empire: New Evidence from a Greek Papyrus with Musical Notation," invited lecture at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York).
1998 October "Reading Cultures and Education," invited lecture at a national conference, Transformations: Technology, Foreign Languages, and Undergraduate Education, sponsored by Yale and MIT (Cambridge, Mass.).
1998 September "Paradigm Shifts: The Sociology of Reading in Ancient Greece and in Today's Computer Age," invited lecture at a conference, Anthos: A Symposium in honor of Nathan A. Greenberg, Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio).
1996 December "A new papyrus with musical notation: P. CtYBR 4510," Greco-Roman lunch, Calhoun College, Yale University (New Haven, Conn.).
1996 February "When is a poem a poem? The Augustan poetry book and problems of poem division in Propertius and Ovid," invited lecture at Douglass College, Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ).
1995 November "Greek Electronic Resources and the Lexicographical Function," invited lecture for the panel on Resources for Biblical Lexicography at the annual meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature (Philadelphia, Penn.).
1994 May "Oral Performance and the Composition of Herodotus' Histories," Classics Department colloquium, University of California, Irvine. An earlier and oral version of the paper published in GRBS (supra).
1993 December "Towards an Electronic Greek Historical Lexicon," invited lecture at the Conference on Greek and Latin Lexicography, University of California, Irvine. An oral version of the paper published in Emerita (supra).
1993 October "The Aesthetic of the Luxury Book Roll," invited lecture at the Conference on the Greek and Roman Book, University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minn.).
1992 August "Is Oratory Written on Narrower Columns? A Papyrological Rule of Thumb Reviewed," presented at the 20th International Congress of Papyrology (Copenhagen, Denmark).
1989 April "A Computer for the Classics: The Design Philosophy of the Ibycus Scholarly Personal Computer," invited lecture at Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio).

Panels, Conferences, Labs organized

Co-PI (with Jenny Knust and Andy Armacost of a three-year Humanities Lab, The Manuscript Migration Lab, supported by the Franklin Humanities Institute (Duke University).
Co-Organizer of a pair of workshops/conferences at Duke University and St Mary's University, "Reading Cultures in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Jews, Christians, Greeks, Romans" (Durham NC, October 2019; the Twickenham, London, May 2020 workshop was postponed to May 2021 and then canceled)
Co-Organizer of APA/SCS panel, “Ancient Literacy Reprised” (New Orleans, January 2015)
Organizer of AAH panel, “The History of ‘Books’ and Reading in Greco-Roman Antiquity” (Durham, May 2012)
Organizer of a Semple Symposium, Constructing Literacy among the Greeks and Romans (Cincinnati, April 2006)
Organizer of APA panel on "Classics, Computers, and Pedagogy" (New York, December 1996)
Organizer of APA panel on "Classics and the Internet" (San Diego, December 1995)

Contributions to Electronic Resources in the Classics (selected)

Co-developer (1984-1987, with David Packard) of the Ibycus Scholarly Personal Computer, the first computer to allow the editing, search, and retrieval of classical texts in a fully integrated desktop package; and one of the first two companies in the United States to market an application to CDROM technology.
Co-designer (1984-1992, with David Packard and Wilkins Poe) of the indices and other subsystems which permit rapid and discerning selection and retrieval of TLG and PHI texts on CDROM.
Co-developer (1981-1984, with David Packard) of the intelligent, Greek-specific software which managed the correction of the TLG data bank.

Teaching

Courses and seminars

Graduate seminars: Herodotus and Ethnography (2009), Villa Culture (2008), Hesiod (2007), Pliny the Younger and the Construction of Culture (2005, 2000), Lucian and Historiography (2003), Ancient Libraries (2002), Herodotus the Traveler (2001), Greek Papyri and the early Transmission of Greek Texts (1995), Books, Readers, and Reading in ancient Greece (1994), Classics and Computing (1993)
Graduate courses: Plato and the Written Word (2013), Literary Papyrology (2018, 2015, 2013), Greek Survey (2012), Greek Historiography (2016, 2012), Roman Comedy (2007), Plato, Protagoras (2003), History of Greek Prose (2001), Lucretius (2001), Tacitus (2001)
Graduate and advanced Undergraduate courses: Plato, Republic (2016), Plato, Symposium (2012), Euripides (2010), Quintilian (2006, 2004, 1999), Introduction to Plato (2002), Homer: Odyssey (2002), Homer: Iliad (2017, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2003, 2001, 1994), Herodotus (2011, 2008, 2003), Attic Prose (1999, 1998, 1995), Latin Epistolography (2001), Roman Elegy (2002), Cicero (2001), Sophocles (1998), Documents illuminating the History of the Early Church (1999), Vergil (1996), Roman Comedy (1995)
Introductory language courses: Intensive Greek (2017); Elementary Greek (regularly); Elementary Latin (regularly earlier in the career)
Civilization courses: Birth of the West (2019, 2016); Ancient Greece and the Origins of Western Culture (2014, DKU); Origins of Literate Culture in the West (2011), Greek civilization (2011, 2010), Myth, Reason, and Faith (1998), Ancient Epic: Tales of Heroes (1998), Classical Mythology (1997, 1995), Greek Tragedy (1997, 1996), Word Etymology (1996), Greek Civilization (1995)
Private readings and graduate special topics: Plato: Theatetus, Euthyphro, Sophist, Statesman, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (2020), Imperial Performance (2019-20), Conventions of the Absurd in the Ancient Novel (2019-20), Greek Paratexts (2019-20), Historiography and Genre (2019), Greek Tutorial (2018), Scribal Education in Antiquity (2016-17), Ancient Books and Literacy (2016-17), Lucian (2015), Plato, Republic (2014 bis), Plutarch (2012-13), Greek Prose Composition (2012, 2011), Ancient Literary Criticism (2011), Greek Historiography (2011-12), Soranus (2010-11), Herodotus (2012-13, 2012, 2010, 2002, 2001), Ancient Music (2010), Thucydides (2010), Catullus (2007), Plato’s Phaedrus (2005), Pliny the Younger (2001), Plato’s Gorgias (1998)

Theses

Senior Theses Directed at Duke

Amol Sura, "'Rhetoric, Tradition, and Socio-Cultural Context in Soranus’ Gynecology.” Highest Distinction. Winner of Taggart Prize (best thesis in Classical Studies). 2011.
Darius Brown, "'The Scythians of Herodotus: Culture and Battle at the Edge of the World.” High Distinction. 2013.
Cord Peters, "'The Trent Rubenstein Aldine Galen: Examination of the Text and Annotations.” Highest Distinction. 2016. Winner of Taggart Prize. Winner of Middlesworth Award (Rubenstein library’s prize for top undergraduate research paper)
Zach Heater, “The Value of Polemarchus in Plato’s Republic.” Highest Distinction. Winner of Taggart Prize, 2017.
Gabrielle Stewart, "Rostovtzeff and the Yale Diaspora: How Personalities and Communities Influenced the Development of North American Papyrology." Highest Distinction. Winner of Taggart Prize. Winner of Middlesworth Award (Rubenstein library’s prize for top undergraduate research paper). 2018.
Sean Rafique, "From Ekphrasis to Tsunami: Longus and his Readers." High Distinction. 2020.

MA Thesis and PhD Dissertation Committees

Peter Anderson, "'Fame is the Spur': Memoria, Gloria, and Poetry among the Elite in Flavian Rome (PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2002) Chair
Gary Berkowitz, "Narrative Problems in Apollonius' Argonautica" (PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2002)
Elizabeth McNearney, "Domitian: The Making of a Tyrant" (MA, University of Cincinnati, 2005)
Mark Atwood, "Trajan's Column: The Construction of Trajan's Sepulcher in Urbe" (MA, University of Cincinnati, 2006)
Joel Hatch, "Propertius' Elegiac Voice and Hellenistic Poetry" (PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2006)
Brian Sowers, "Eudocia: The Making of a Homeric Christian" (PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2008)
John Ryan, "Rhetoric and Characterization in Sallust's Bellum Jugurthum" (MA, University of Cincinnati, 2008) Chair
Valentina Popescu, "Paradoxography, Paradoxology, and the Aesthetics of Paradox in Lucian" (PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2009)
Alan Mugridge, "Stages of Development in Scribal Professionalism in Early Christian Circles” (PhD, University of New England, 2009) External Examiner, University of New England, Australia
Jason Soenksen, "Paenitentia, Patientia, Profectus: Penance, Endurance, and Moral Progress in Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition of Interpretation of Pss 37-38 (LXX)" (PhD, 2010, Hebrew Union College) External Examiner, Hebrew Union College
Alex Loney, "Narrative Revenge and the Poetics of Justice in the Odyssey: A Study on tisis" (PhD, Duke University, 2010)
Carrie Galsworthy, "Language and Intent in Empedocles' Cosmic Cycle" (PhD, 2010) External Examiner, University of Cincinnati
Akira Yatsuhashi, "In the Bird Cage of the Muses: Archiving, Erudition, and Empire in Ptolemaic Egypt" (PhD, Duke University, 2010)
C. Jacob Butera, “‘The Land of the Fine Triremes:’ Naval Identity and Polis Imaginary in 5th Century Athens” (PhD, Duke University, 2010)
Laury Ward, "Philosophical Allurements: Education and Argument in Ancient Philosophy" (PhD, Duke University, 2011)
Robinson, Clifford, “The Politics of Immortality in Classical Consolation Literature” (PhD, Duke University, 2014)
Langenfeld, Kathryn, “Contextualizing the Historia Augusta in the Literary Landscape of the Fourth Century” (PhD, Duke University, 2017)
Young, Carl Tripp, “Cicero and Plato's Laws” (PhD, Duke University, 2016)
Graham, Theodore, “The Tyrant and Greek Drama” (PhD, Duke University, 2017)
Dudley, Robert, “Rhetoric, Roman Values and the Fall of the Republic in Cicero’s Plato” (PhD, Duke University, 2016)
Zalin, MacKenzie, “Studies in Aitiology and Historical Methodologies in Herodotus” (PhD, Duke University, 2016), Chair
Aldrup-MacDonald, John, “Democracy on Paper in Athens” (PhD, Duke University, 2018)
Stifler, David, “Lucian and Atticism: A Barbarian at the Gates” (PhD, Duke University, 2019), Chair
Cole, Thomas J. B., “Republican Rhetoric and Its Limits in Tacitus” (PhD, Duke University, Dec. 2019)
Wagner, Nicholas E. “The Grammarian’s Bible: Scholarship in the Margins of the Septuagint.” (PhD, Duke University, May 2021), co-Chair
Kinkade, Clinton, "The Afterlives of a Classic: Documenting Sophocles’ Reception in the Ancient World" (PhD, Duke University, Dec. 2021)
Adeline Harrington, "Heterodoxia: Christian Literary Culture and Diversity in Oxyrhynchus" (PhD, Religious Studies, University of Texas at Austin, in progress). External Examiner.
Freeman, Michael. "The Life and Training of Scribes in Greece and Rome" (PhD, Duke University, 2023), Chair.
Küppers, Sinja. "Ancient 'Academic' Culture: Higher Education in the Roman Empire" (PhD, Duke University, Aug. 2023), Chair
Christopher Londa, "Paraliterary Labor and the Social Conditions of Roman Authorship from Cicero to Pliny the Younger" (PhD, Yale University, May 2023). External Examiner.

Selected Professional Service

Professional Societies
•Society for Classical Studies olim  American Philological Association (life member)
•American Society of Papyrologists
•Association internationale de papyrologues
•Egypt Exploration Society
•Phi Beta Kappa

National Service (selected)
•Board of Directors, Packard Humanities Institute (1996- )
•Board of Directors, Secretary-Treasurer, American Society of Papyrologists (2001- )
•Associate Editor, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies (2010- )
•Advisory Editor, Book History, the journal of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (2018- )
•Interim Director, Kea Excavations (2007-09)
•American Philological Association/ Society for Classical Studies
   ◦L'Année philologique Advisory Board (1999-2002, 2006-2009, 2011-2017)
    ◦DCB Advisory Board (1998-2005)
    ◦APA Research Committee (1997-2000)
    ◦APA Committee on Computer Activities (1994-96; Chair, 1995-96)
    ◦APA Education Committee (1995-6)
    ◦APA Committee on Non-print Publications (1995-6)
    ◦Classics, Teaching, and Technology subcommittee (1995-6)
    ◦Subcommittee to oversee development of an APA web site (1996)

University Service (highly selected)
•Dean of Humanities and the Arts (2020- )
•Department Chair, Classical Studies (2017-2020 )
•University Priorities Committee (2016-19)
•DKU Faculty Appointment Committee (2015-19)
•Library Council (2016-19)
•DKU Humanities Research Council Advisory Board (2018-19 )
•DKU Arts and Humanities Search Committee, Humanities co-Chair (2017)
•DKU Tenure Committee (2017-18)
•FHI Director Search Committee (2017)
•Academic Council (2016-17)
•Liberal Arts in China Committee (2014-16), LACC Steering Committee (2014-16)
•DKU Faculty Chair (2014-15)
•DKU EVC Search Committee (2015)
•Humanities Writ Large committee (2012-2014)
•Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. of Classical Studies (2011-2014, 2017)

Publication and Project Review
•Panelist, National Endowment for the Humanities (2006, 2011, 2013)
•External reviewer for Classics Departments
◦Oberlin College
◦Indiana University Bloomington
•External reviewer for tenure and promotion cases (several times)
•Grants review:
    ◦National Endowment for the Humanities (several times)
    ◦American Council of Learned Societies
    ◦Wellcome Trust
    ◦Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
•Publications review:
    ◦Oxford University Press (regularly)
    ◦Cambridge University Press
    ◦University of Chicago Press
    ◦University of North Carolina Press
    ◦Classical Philology
    ◦Classical Antiquity
   ◦American Journal of Philology
    ◦Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
    ◦Classical Journal
    ◦Illinois Classical Studies
    ◦Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies (Associate Editor)
    ◦Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (regularly)
    ◦Communication Review
    ◦P. Tebtunis
    ◦American Studies in Papyrology
    ◦International Congress of Papyrologists