Matthew Gorey, Eunice Kim, and Adriana Vazquez completed their PhDs in 2017. In Atomism in the Aeneid: Physics, Politicas and Cosmological Disorder, Matthew Gorey combines philosophical and literary studies in his examination of the ways that Virgil responds to and transforms Epicurean ideas about a physical world made of atoms: "Virgil’s appropriation of Lucretian material conflates poetic, political, and cosmic narratives and blurs the boundaries between their respective modes of discourse," says Gorey. He is heading off to a teaching appointment at Bucknell University.
In The Fugitive: Murder and Exile in Ancient Greece Eunice Kim has combined the study of literature with perspectives on legal and social institutions to investigate an important story pattern in early Greek poetry. "A Greek hero kills a kinsman or fellow compatriot, flees his native home, and then successfully reestablishes himself in a foreign land," says Kim. "This fugitive murderer, a figure of remarkable sophistication and narrative power in Homeric poetry, represents a defining element of many Greek stories of city foundations, and mythic cycles." Kim's next step is a Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellowship at Gonzaga University.
Adriana Vazquez combines her study of Roman literature with investigation of private religious experiences known as mystery cults. Her dissertation, Vates and Initiates: Augustan Poetic Manipulation of Greek Mystery Cult demonstrates numerous ways in which poets contruct the production and circulation of poetry as having an dimension of secrecy and intensity that are analogous to mystery cult experiences. Vazquez has accepted an appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor at UCLA.
Congratulations to all!