About

I work on issues of identity formation processes in Classical Athens and, increasingly, the broader Mediterranean. My primary interests are on imperialism and issues of foreignness, geography, environmental determinism theories and the relationship between such theories and the history of race and ethnicity. I have also published on the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and citizenship in Classical Athens. I run a blog called “Classics at the Intersections” that focuses on issues of race/ethnicity and gender/sexuality in antiquity at their modern receptions. I also maintain there a database of syllabi and modules for teaching race and ethnicity in classical antiquity and a continually growing bibliography on the same subject.

Education

The Ohio State University; Ph.D.  Greek and Latin, 2003
The Ohio State University; M.A. Greek and Latin, 1999
UC-San Diego; B.A. Classical Studies; 1997

Other Publications

Monographs:

 Edited Volumes:

 Translations/Primary Texts Sourcebooks:

Journal Articles and Chapters in Edited Volumes:

  • “’Western Civilization’, White Supremacism and the Myth of a White Ancient Greece” in Polarized Pasts: Heritage and Belonging in Times of Political Polarization, edited by E. Niklasson (Berghahn, forthcoming Jan 2023).

  • “Classics and ‘Western civilization’: the troubling history of an authoritative narrative” in Authority: Ancient Models, Modern Questions edited by F. Santangelo and J. Bastos Marques (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).

  • “Fear of Foreign Women in Aeschylus’ Suppliants” for The Companion to Aeschylus. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022) 99-113.*

  • “Teaching Race in Greco-Roman Antiquity: Some Considerations and Resources” Classical Outlook 97.1: 1-8 (2022).

  • “Racist Reactions to Black Achilles” in Screening Love and War in Troy: Fall of a City, edited by M. Cyrino and A. Augostakis (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022)

  • “Otis Mason and Hippocratic Environmental Theory in Early Smithsonian Anthropological Displays” in E. Varto ed. Classics and Early Anthropology: A Companion (2018, Brill Academic Publishers).

  • “Airs, Waters, Metals, Earth: People and Environment in Archaic and Classical Greek Thought” in The Routledge Handbook of Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds (2015).

  • “Citizen Elite Women and the Origins of the Hetaira in Athens” Helios 42: 61-79 (2015).

  • “A Tale of Two Kings: Competing Aspects of Power in Aeschylus’ PersiansRamus 42: 64-88 (2013).

  • “Justice, Geography and Empire in Aeschylus’ EumenidesClassical Antiquity 25: 35-72 (2006).

  •  Other Contributions:

  • Encyclopedia entries: “Celts” (250 words), “Climate” (1500 words), “ethnicity” (1500 words), “justice” (1000 words), “Deioces” (500 words), “judges” (500 words), “Tomyris” (500 words), “Bactrians” (250 words), “Massagetae” (250 words), “Miltiades, son of Cimon” (1500 words), “Sacae” (250 words), “Spargapises (100 words), for C. Baron (ed.) The Herodotus Encyclopedia (Wiley-Blackwell) forthcoming.

  • Essay for The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C., 2nd edition. Reacting to the Past. (W.W. Norton, 2015). Contributions: “The Other Athenians: Women, Metics, and Slaves” (3500 words) and select characters.

  • Encyclopedia Entries: “Geography in Greek Tragedy” (2000 words) in H. Roisman (ed.) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).

Blog Posts

    Projects

    Current Projects:

    • Author: Ancient Identity/Modern Politics (working title; Johns Hopkins University Press

    • Co-author, co-translator, and editor, Ancient Greek and Roman Women: An Anthology of Primary Sources, trans. and ed. by R.F. Kennedy and M.L. Goldman (under contract, Hackett)

    Memberships


    • Society for Classical Studies (SCS; formerly the American Philological Association)

    • Association of Ancient Historians (AAH)

    • Women’s Classical Caucus (WCC); life-member

    Rebecca Kennedy

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