Kurt Raaflaub
Professor Emerius of Classics and History:
Wilbour Hall 105
Phone: +1 401 863 1267
Phone 2: +1 401 863 3203
Kurt_Raaflaub@brown.edu
Kurt Raaflaub studies the social and political history of the Roman republic; the social, political, and intellectual history of archaic and classical Greece; and the comparative history of the ancient world. Recently, his research has focused on the society and politics of Homer's epics, on the origins and workings of Athenian democracy, on war and peace in the ancient world, on the purpose of writing history in Greece and Rome, and on the origin and function of Greek political thinking.
Biography
Kurt A. Raaflaub (Greek and Roman History) announces the publication of The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (Chicago: University Press, 2004), for which he received the American Historical Association's James Henry Breasted Prize. Several other research projects (on the origins of democracy in ancient Greece, on war and peace in the ancient world, on archaic Greece) are close to completion. His next major research project will focus on early Greek political thinking in a Mediterranean context. A new course on "Writing History in the Ancient World" (focusing on Greece and Rome but comprising a broad comparative component) was combined in 2005 with a lecture series on the same topic organized by the Program in Ancient Studies, of which Raaflaub is the director. Another new course, on Geography, Ethnography, and Perspectives of the World in Antiquity was combined with a large conference on the same topic in the spring of 2006, organized by Ancient Studies and co-sponsored by a wide range of academic programs. Finally, together with his colleagues in ancient history, Raaflaub has designed a new interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in ancient history that is expected to be initiated next year.
Education and employment: Ph.D. 1970, University of Basel, Switzerland; Asst. Prof. at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany (1972-78); Asst. to Full Professor at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (since 1978); chairman, Dept. of Classics, 1984-89; John Rowe Workman Distinguished Prof. of Classics and the Classical Tradition, 1989-1992; Co-Director (with Deborah Boedeker), Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington D.C. (1992-2000).
Current position: David Herlihy University Professor & Professor of Classics & History at Brown University; Royce Family Professor in Teaching Excellence (2005-8); director, Program in Ancient Studies
Fellowships: 1976/77 Junior Fellowship at the Center for Hellenic Studies; 1983/4 Research Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies; 1989/90 Research Fellowship, National Endowment of the Humanities, and Member, Historisches Kolleg, Munich, Germany; 1996 Faculty Fellowship at the University of New England, Armidale NSW, Australia (summer); 2002 (spring) Research Fellowship at the Sackler Institute for Advanced Studies in Tel Aviv (declined).
Main fields of interest: social and political history of the Roman republic; social, political, and intellectual history of archaic and classical Greece.
Organized several international colloquia and conferences, including the annual meeting of the Amer. Association of Ancient Historians (1989 at Brown University), a conference on city-states in antiquity and medieval Italy (ibid. 1989) and a conference on beginnings of political thought in antiquity: the Near Eastern civilizations and archaic Greece (Munich 1990). Co-founder of the "Center for Hellenic Studies Colloquia" series (1994-2000); organizer (with Deborah Boedeker) of CHS Coll. 2, "Democracy, Empire and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens" (August 1995) and (with Nathan Rosenstein) of CHS Coll. 3, "War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds" (June 1996). Invited lectures at numerous international conferences, universities and colleges in the US and abroad.
Main publications: Books: Origins of Demcocracy in Ancient Greece
(co-authored with Josiah Ober and Robert Wallace, with contributions
by Paul Cartledge and Cynthia Farrar), forthcoming (Berkeley); War and Peace in the Ancient World, ed., forthcoming (Oxford); Dignitatis contentio: Motivation and Political Strategy in Caesar's Civil War (Munich 1974, in German); The Discovery of Freedom (German ed. Munich 1985; revised and updated English ed. Chicago 2004). Books co-authored: Studies in the Delian League (Konstanz 1984, in German); Aspects of Athenian Democracy (Copenhagen 1990); Ancient History: Recent Work and New Directions (Claremont 1997); Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece (Berkeley 2005). Books edited: Social Struggles in Archaic Rome (Berkeley 1986; expanded and updated ed. Oxford, 2005); Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and his Principate (Berkeley 1990, with M. Toher); City-States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy (Stuttgart & Ann Arbor, Michigan 1991, with A. Molho and J. Emlen); Beginnings of Political Thought in the Ancient World: The Near-Eastern Civilizations and the Greeks (Munich 1993, in German); Democracy 2500? Questions and Challenges (Dubuque, Iowa, 1998, with I. Morris); Democracy, Empire, and the Arts in Fifth-Century Athens (Cambridge Mass. 1998, with D. Boedeker); War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (Cambridge Mass. 1999, with Nathan Rosenstein). About 70 articles in journals and volumes of collected essays.
Work in progress: Odysseus in a New World: Homer and Early Greek Society; Early Greek Political Thought in a Mediterranean Context.
Awards: The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece
(Chicago: University Press, 2004) received the American Historical
Association's James Henry Breasted Prize for best book in English on
any period before 1000 CE.
Courses: CL 21: Freshman Seminar: The Meaning of History in the Ancient World; CL 56: War and Society in the Ancient World; CL 70: Individual and Community: Early Greek Political Thought; CL 131: Roman History I, the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Republic; CL 136: The Origins of Freedom in the Ancient World; CL 175: Geography, Ethnography, and Perspectives of the World in Antiquity; CL 208: Graduate Seminar in Ancient History; LA 106: Roman Historians (Livy, Sallust); LA 111: The Civil War Experience in Late Republican Rome.
Interests
Kurt Raaflaub studies the social and political history of the Roman republic; the social, political, and intellectual history of archaic and classical Greece; and the comparative history of the ancient world. Recently, his research has focused on the society and politics of Homer's epics, on the origins and workings of Athenian democracy, on war and peace in the ancient world, on the purpose of writing history in Greece and Rome, and on the origin and function of Greek political thinking.
Degrees
Ph.D. 1970, University of Basel, Switzerland
Awards
Affiliations
American Philological Association
Association of Ancient Historians
Archaeological Institute of America
Funded Research
1989/90 – Senior Research Fellowship, Historisches Kolleg, Munich, Germany
1989 – Research Fellowship for University Teachers, National Endowment for the Humanities
1983/84 – Research Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies
1976/77 – Junior Fellowship, The Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, D.C.
Curriculum Vitae
