Sarah E. Olsen

Photo of Sarah E. Olsen

Assistant Professor of Classics

[email protected]
413-597-4710
Hollander Hall Rm 153
At Williams since 2018

Education

B.A. Wellesley College (2008)
M.A. University of California, Berkeley, Classics (2010)
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Classics (2016)

Areas of Expertise

  • Greek drama (tragedy, comedy, satyr play)
  • Archaic Greek poetry
  • The ancient novel
  • Dance and music in antiquity
  • Gender and sexuality

 

Courses

CLGR 101

Introduction to Greek (not offered 2021/22)

CLGR 201

Intermediate Greek (not offered 2021/22)

CLAS 202 / COMP 220 / THEA 220

Greek Tragedy (not offered 2021/22)

CLAS 211 / THEA 211 / COMP 248

Performing Greece (not offered 2021/22)

CLAS 214 / COMP 252

Athletics and Literature in Ancient Greece (not offered 2021/22)

CLAS 226 / COMP 226

The Ancient Novel (not offered 2021/22)

CLGR 401

Homer: The Iliad (not offered 2021/22)

CLGR 404

Tragedy (not offered 2021/22)

Scholarship/Creative Work

Book

2020. Solo Dance in Archaic and Classical Greek Literature: Representing the Unruly Body. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Articles and Book Chapters

2019. “Sappho’s Kinesthetic Turn: Agency and Embodiment in Archaic Greek Poetry.” The Routledge Handbook of Classics and Cognitive Theory, eds. Peter Meineck, William Short, and Jennifer Deveraux, London: Routledge. 281-295.

2019. “Pindar, Paian 6: Genre as Embodied Cultural Knowledge.” Genre in Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry: Theories and Models, eds. Leslie Kurke, Margaret Foster, and Naomi Weiss, Leiden: Brill. 325-346.

2017. “Les danseuses en Grèce antique. Performance, capacité d’agir, et divertissement.” Clio: Femmes, Genre, et Histoire 46: 19-43.

2017. “The Fantastic Phaeacians: Dance and Disruption in the Odyssey.” Classical Antiquity 36: 1-32.

2017. “Kinesthetic Choreia: Empathy, Memory, and Dance in Ancient Greece.” Classical Philology 112: 153-174.

2015.“Conceptualizing Choreia on the François Vase: Theseus and the Athenian Youths.” Mètis: Anthropologie des mondes grecs anciens N.S. 13: 107-121.

2012. “Maculate Conception: Sexual Ideology and Creative Authority in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica.” American Journal of Philology 133: 301-322.

Book Review

Review of The Anatomy of Dance Discourse: Literary and Philosophical Approaches to Dance in the later Graeco-Roman World, by Karin Schlapbach (Oxford University Press). Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

Current Committees

  • Committee on Priorities and Resources