Kerry Christensen

Photo of Kerry Christensen

Garfield Professor of Ancient Languages

[email protected]
413-597-2248
Hollander Hall Rm 156

Education

B.A. Swarthmore College (1981)
M.A. Princeton University (1983)
Ph.D. Princeton University, Classics (1993)

Areas of Expertise

  • Greek social and political history
  • Greek and Roman civic identity
  • Ancient historiography
  • Greek cult and ritual

Professor Christensen’s research incorporates into her study of ancient Greek history models and insights from anthropology and cultural and linguistic theory. She is particularly interested in how responses to crisis helped shape or alter civic, social and religious institutions. Her current research includes an article on the concept of ktema and ktemata in Athenian thought and another on the iconography of an eye-cup by Kodros.

Courses

CLGR 101(F) LEC

Introduction to Greek

CLGR 102(S) LEC

Introduction to Greek

CLGR 201(F) SEM

Intermediate Greek

CLAS 222 / HIST 222(S) LEC

Greek History

CLAS 223 / HIST 223 / LEAD 223 LEC

Roman History (not offered 2021/22)

CLAS 323 / HIST 323 / LEAD 323 LEC

From Achilles to Alexander: Leadership and Community in Ancient Greece (not offered 2021/22)

CLLA 405 SEM

Livy and Tacitus: Myth, Scandal, and Morality in Ancient Rome (not offered 2021/22)

CLGR 407 LEC

Rhetoric and Democracy: the Greek Orators (not offered 2021/22)

CLGR 414 SEM

Thucydides (not offered 2021/22)

Scholarship/Creative Work

Selected Scholarship

  • Review of Thucydides’ War Narrative. A Structural Study, by Carolyn Dewald. NECJ 30.3 (2007)
  • “The Theseion: a Slave Refuge at Athens.” American Journal of Ancient History 9 (1988/1984)
  • “Solon’s Mania: Forms of Public Discourse in Archaic Athens.” Bryn Mawr Classics Colloquia, 1987-88. Bryn Mawr College
  • “Kleisthenes, Ajax, and the Athenian Incorporation of Salamis.” 1994 APA/AIA Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA
  • “Ajax, Salamis, and Kleisthenes’ Political Reforms at Athens.” In progress.
  • Athens and the Conquest of Salamis: Crisis, Competition and Innovation in the Saronic Gulf. In progress.

Professional Affiliations

Society for Classical Studies

Association of Ancient Historians

American School of Classical Studies at Athens