Professor Matthew C. Farmer will join the Department of Classics in the Fall

The Department of Classics is delighted to welcome Matthew Farmer to the Classics community at Haverford. Matt has been an Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Ancient Mediterranean Studies at the University of Missouri since 2013. His scholarly interests are in Greek drama, and his recent book, Tragedy on the Comic Stage, contextualizes Aristophanes’ approach to tragedy by investigating references and allusions to tragedy in fragments of fifth and fourth century comedy. His most recent project focuses on Theopompus, a comic poet of the late fifth and fourth centuries whose fragments include the earliest external references to Plato and a series of comedies strongly suggestive of programmatic engagement with Homer. Matt also serves as co-editor of a group of online platforms for collaborative translations of ancient Greek scholarship, hosted by the Duke Collaboratory for Classics Computing.

Matt has taught a wide range of courses including intermediate and advanced Latin and Greek, as well as introductory and upper level courses in translation. In 2017 he won the Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award at the University of Missouri. Matt will teach in the Classics Department and hopes to contribute courses to the programs in Comparative Literature, Visual Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies, as well as supervising senior thesis work. In the fall, Matt will teach Elementary Latin and an advanced seminar on Greek Comedy, while participating in the seminar for new faculty. In the Spring he will continue to teach Elementary Latin and also teach a new course on Sex and Power in the Greek World.

Matt began his academic career at Tufts University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics. He then attended Bryn Mawr College where he earned a Master’s Degree in Classical Studies before earning his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. He is excited to rejoin the Bi-Co community by coming to Haverford, and looks forward to teaching in a liberal arts setting that enables working closely with students while still demanding the highest levels of innovative research. He will join his fellow Classicists, Deborah Robert, Bret Mulligan, and Hannah Silverblank.