Sarah G
- Research Program Mentor

MPhil at Oxford University

Expertise

Classics, Latin, Ancient Greek, Late Antiquity, Early Religions, Early Christian Church, Animal Behaviour, Ancient Philosophy, Literature

Bio

I am a total language and literature nerd. From a young age I spoke French, but when I started learning Latin, I discovered where my true loyalties lay. I graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Classics, where I focused especially on history of philosophy, religion, literature, and ancient cultural concepts. From there, I spent a year in Germany as a Fulbright scholar, where I honed my Latin, Greek, and German as I studied the Late Roman Republic and its Greek speaking parts. Finally, I spent two years as a MPhil student at Oxford, where I studied Near Eastern Classics (i.e., Syriac) and wrote my thesis on the rationality of animals according to ancient writers and how animals can act as a foil to the human condition! I am really interested in discovering ways to make Classics more modern, such as analyzing ancient science in light of modern empirical cognitive science. But I also like to kick back and read the Odyssey and Aeneid for the utter beauty they can provide!

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Vergil's Aeneid

The perfection of Roman literature, the Aeneid has shaped the literary tradition for millennia. Together we will work through some of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching parts of the epic, from Juno's rage, to the star-crossed romance of Dido and Aeneas, to the hero's descent into the Underworld. We will explore questions such as Vergil's historical intentions as a poet under the emperor Augustus, poetic meter, and literary devices.

Plato's dialogues

The student can choose from any of the following Platonic dialogues, and depending on language expertise, we will work through it reading in either English or Ancient Greek (or a mix of the two): Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Republic. Open to other dialogues. Some of the most elusive concepts will be explored and their definitions attempted: justice, love, the soul, death, home, and divinity.

Lore and World Making

The greatest fantasy authors weave their worlds from a long line of folk and mythological tradition. At the student's choosing, we will look at some of the literary traditions and ancient mythologies that inspired the likes of JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling, and Lloyd Alexander. Possible works will include the Norse Poetic Edda, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d'Arthur, Arthurian Romances, and various cultural folktales.

Languages I know

Latin, Ancient Greek, German, French, Japanese

Teaching experience

As a college freshman, I mentored two separate groups of high school students in Komatsu, Japan, for a summer school. I taught them a course based on a freshman class I had taken that year on the psychology of talented musicians. I mentored a group of high school girls for a summer philosophy program in Princeton. I helped with facilitating discussions about Plato and other ancient authors. I have tutored Latin at an advanced level in the past. I tutor Latin regularly to high school students.