Associate Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
Joel Christensen is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Classical Studies at Brandeis University. He taught previously at the University of Texas at San Antonio (2007-2016). He received his BA and MA from Brandeis (’01) in Classics and English and his PhD in Classics from New York University (2007) where he also received an Advanced Certificate in Poetics and Theory.
Professor Christensen has been a Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies (2013) and has received the Society for Classical Studies’ Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Collegiate Level (2013). In addition to articles on language, myth and literature in the Homeric epics, he has published a Beginner’s Guide to Homer (One World, 2013) and also a Homer’s Thebes (CHS, 2019) with Elton T. E. Barker as well as A Commentary on the Homeric Battle of Frogs and Mice (Bloomsbury, 2018) with Erik Robinson. In 2020, He will publish "The Many-Minded Man: the Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic" with Cornell University Press.
What Homer's 'Odyssey' can teach us about reentering the world after a year of isolation
Apr 23, 2021 12:04 pm UTC| Life
In the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey, Homers hero, Odysseus, describes the wild land of the Cyclops as a place where people dont gather together in public, where each person makes decisions for their own family and care...
The ancient Greeks had alternative facts too – they were just more chill about it
Feb 25, 2020 12:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views
In an age of deepfakes and alternative facts, it can be tricky getting at the truth. But persuading others or even yourself what is true is not a challenge unique to the modern era. Even the ancient Greeks had to...
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