海角社区

 

Michelle Zerba 

Maggie B. Martin Professor of Rhetoric and Classical Studies

• B.A., University of California, Irvine (English and Classics)
• M.A., University of California, Berkeley (Comparative Literature)
• Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (Comparative Literature)

Phone: 225-578-3048
E-mail: mzerba@michellezerba.com
Office: 223A Allen Hall

Biography

Michelle Zerba is Maggie B. Martin Professor of Rhetoric and Classical Studies and has a split appointment in the Departments of English and World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. She is the Section Head of Classics and Co-Principal of The 海角社区 Mystery Project Collaborative. Her research explores questions at the intersection of antiquity and modernity; Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and rhetoric; early modern drama and political theory; classical reception/global modernisms; and most recently, the ancient mystery cults. She has held grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the Partnership University Fund of the French Government, and the American Association of University Women. Her publications include Tragedy and Theory (Princeton), Doubt and Skepticism in Antiquity and the Renaissance (Cambridge), Modern Odysseys: Cavafy, Woolf, C茅saire and the Poetics of Indirection (Ohio State University Press), and the Norton Critical Edition of Aristotle鈥檚 Poetics. She is currently writing a book entitled "Lightning in the Soul: Mystery, Secrecy, and the Occult in the Afterlives of the Ancient Mystery Cults."

Area of Interest

• Greek and Roman literature (especially Homer, Cicero, and Greek tragedy), philosophy (especially Aristotle, Plato, and skepticism), and rhetoric
• Renaissance literature (especially Shakespeare and Montaigne), and political theory
• Classical reception and global modernism
• Greek religion and the mystery cults

Awards & Honors

• Grant, Partnership University Fund (French Government), Teaching and Research Collaboration between 海角社区 and University of the Antilles, Martinique, 2017-2018
• Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2016-2017
• 海角社区 Distinguished Research Master Award, 2017
• Robert Amborski Outstanding Faculty Award, 海角社区 Honors College, 2016
• 海角社区 Erich and Lea Sternberg Professorship, Honors College, 2013-2014
• Visiting Scholar, Columbia University, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, 2014
• 海角社区 Regents鈥� Research Grant, 2007, 2014, 2018
• 海角社区 ORED Travel Grants, 2014, 2016-2017
• 海角社区 HSS Travel Grant, 2014, 2016-2017, 2021
• Manship Summer Research Grant, 1999, 2013, 2021
• 海角社区 Teaching Enhancement Fund Grant, 2013
• ATLAS Research Grant, 2010-2011
• Phi Beta Kappa

Books

• Tragedy and Theory (Princeton)
• Doubt and Skepticism in Antiquity and the Renaissance (Cambridge)
• Modern Odysseys: Cavafy, Woolf, C茅saire, and the Poetics of Indirection (Ohio State University Press)

• Aristotle, Poetics, Norton Critical Edition

Articles (Selected)

• 鈥淓leusis at the Intersection of Antiquity and Modernity: The Mysteria, Altered Consciousness, and the Neuroscience of Transformational Experience.鈥� Forthcoming in Beyond Eleusis: The Hybrid History of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Brill.
• 鈥淒iaspora, hell茅nisme, n茅gritude: la sexualit茅 et la race dans la po茅sie de Cavafy et C茅saire.鈥� Forthcoming in M茅diterran茅-Cara茂be: Deux Archipelit茅s de Pens茅es, Garnier.
• 鈥淟a Dialectique M茅diterran茅e-Cara茂be d鈥櫭塪ouard Glissant.鈥� In 脡douard Glissant: l鈥櫭塩lat at l鈥橭bscur. Martinique: Les Presses Universitaires des Antilles, 2021.
• 鈥淩enaissance Homer: Humanist Learning, the Visual Vernacular, and the Socialization of Bodies.鈥� Renaissance Quarterly 70.3 (2017): 831-61.
• 鈥淩eflections on Skepticism in Homer鈥檚 Odyssey and the Poetry of C.P. Cavafy.鈥� Comparative Literature 67.3 (2015): 246-64.
• 鈥淲hat Penelope Knew: Doubt and Skepticism in Homer鈥檚 Odyssey.鈥� Classical Quarterly 59.2 (2009): 295-316.
• 鈥淥dyssean Charisma and the Uses of Persuasion.鈥� American Journal of Philology 130.3 (2009): 313-339.
• 鈥淭he Frauds of Humanism: Cicero, Machiavelli, and the Rhetoric of Imposture.鈥� Rhetorica 22 (2004): 215-240.
• 鈥淟ove, Envy, and Pantomimic Morality in Cicero鈥檚 De Oratore.鈥� Classical Philology 98 (2003): 299-321.
• 鈥淢别诲别补 Hypocrites,鈥� Arethusa 35.2 (2002): 315-37.

Work in Progress

• Book Manuscript, 鈥淭he Origins of Mystery: A Cultural History of the Eleusinian Mysteries.鈥�

• Book Manuscript, 鈥淎im茅 C茅saire and Caribbean Postclassicisms,鈥� for Bloomsbury鈥檚 Studies in Classical Reception series.

Conferences, Lectures, Readings (Selected)

• Invited Paper, 鈥淒iaspora, hell茅nisme, n茅gritude: la sexualit茅 et la race dans la po茅sie de Cavafy et C茅saire,鈥� Conference at the University of Limoges, France, October 2021.
• Invited Paper, 鈥淓leusis at the Intersection of Antiquity and Modernity: The Ancient Mysteries, Initiation, and Secrecy in the 21st Century,鈥� Conference at University of M眉nster, Germany, October 2021.

• Invited Paper, 鈥淢ystery and the Ancient Mysteria: Theorizing Cultural Translatio,鈥� Conference sponsored by August-Herzog Bibliotheck and Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, Wolfenb眉ttel, September 2020.

• Paper, 鈥淓thics and the Orator,鈥滱merican Political Science Association, Boston, September 2018.
• Invited Paper, 鈥�脡douard Glissant: l鈥櫭ヽlat et l鈥檕bscur,鈥� International Transdisciplinary Colloquium, University of the Antilles, Martinique, March 20-23, 2018.
• Paper, 鈥淭he Return Tale in Woolf鈥檚 Orlando and Homer鈥檚 Odyssey,鈥� International Virginia Woolf Society, University of Reading, July 2017.
• Paper, 鈥淩enaissance Homer: Reception at the Crossroads of Humanist Learning, the Visual Vernacular, and the Socializing of Female Bodies,鈥� American Comparative Literature Association, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 2017.
• Paper, 鈥淗omer鈥檚 Odyssey, Humanist Learning, and Renaissance Painting: Rethinking Reception,鈥� Renaissance Society of America,鈥� Boston, March 2016.
• Paper, 鈥溾�楢t the End of Daybreak鈥�: Homecoming and the Journey into Memory in Homer鈥檚 Odyssey and Aim茅 C茅saire鈥檚 Cahier d鈥檜n retour au pays natal,鈥� American Comparative Literature Association, Seattle, March 2015.
• Invited Lecture, 鈥淩eflections on Skepticism in Homer鈥檚 Odyssey and the Poetry of C.P. Cavafy,鈥� Institute for Cultural Inquiry and the Freie Universit盲t, Berlin, Germany, 2013.
• Invited Lecture, 鈥淗omer鈥檚 Odyssey: Exile and Homecoming,鈥� Department of Classics, Yale University, November 2013.
• Paper, 鈥淥dyssean Comparatisms: Women, Sites of Passage, and Concepts of Home in Homer鈥檚 Odyssey,鈥� International Comparative Literature Association, Paris, July 2013.

Courses

• Shakespeare (graduate and undergraduate)
• History of Literary Theory (graduate and undergraduate)
• Tragedy, Ancient to Modern (graduate)
• Rhetoric: Ancient and Modern (graduate)
• Postclassicisms (graduate)
• Ancient Western Civilization (undergraduate)
• Greek Drama (in translation)
• Ancient Epic (in translation)
• Women in Antiquity (in translation)
• Homer, Iliad and Odyssey (in Greek)
• Virgil, Aeneid (in Latin)
• Cicero, Catilinarians (in Latin)
• Aristotle, Poetics and Nicomachean Ethics (in Greek)
• Greek Oratory, Demosthenes and Lysias (in Greek)
• Plato, Phaedrus (in Greek)
• Thucydides, History of Peloponnesian War (in Greek)

Curriculum Vitae