Aaron M. Seider

seider

Classics Department

Associate Professor
Chair, Department of Classics


Ph.D., University of Chicago
A.B, Brown University

Fields: Latin literature; human landscapes of ancient Italy; gender in antiquity and its reception; constructions of memory in Roman culture

 

Contact Information

Email: aseider@holycross.edu
Office Phone: 508-793-3976
Office:Fenwick 423
PO Box: 117A

 

 

     

Biography

 A member of the Holy Cross Classics Department since 2010, I am delighted to be part of a community where I can explore antiquity with students and colleagues interested in the world of the Greeks and Romans. I enjoy teaching all sorts of courses in Classics, including Latin and Greek language classes; classes in translation on Roman literature and culture; and classes exploring ancient ideas about masculinity or the environment. It’s also been a pleasure to co-lead the department’s Maymester (summer study abroad) in Rome the past few years.

I started college intending to be an English major and took Latin 101 in the hope that it would help me improve my understanding of later literature. Little did I know, the course would spark a life-long engagement with the ancient world. This interest, which began with introductory and intermediate Latin, led to a semester abroad in Rome and the study of Greek. Wanting to improve my understanding of the languages, I studied Greek and Latin for two years at a post-baccalaureate program before attending graduate school at the University of Chicago.
Now in my ninth-year of teaching at Holy Cross, I continue to enjoy learning more about the Classics in my teaching, research, and, most importantly, conversations with students and colleagues. I live in Westborough, MA, with my wife (Erin), two children (Noah and Lailah), and dog (Luna).

Courses

  • Classics Courses

    CLAS 102: Women and Men in Roman Literature and Society
    CLAS 120: Mythology
    CLAS 175: Ancient Manhood Contested (A Community-Based Learning course; also cross-listed with Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies)
    CLAS 199: Literature of Rome: Revolution
    CLAS 233: Nature in the Classical World

  • Greek Courses

    GREK 101: Introduction to Greek 1
    GREK 102: Introduction to Greek 2
    GREK 351: Attic Orators: Demosthenes

  • Latin Courses

    LATN 101: Introduction to Latin 1
    LATN 102: Introduction to Latin 2
    LATN 213: Intermediate Latin 1
    LATN 358: Vergil: Aeneid
    LATN 359: Vergil: Eclogues and Georgics
    LATN 399: Latin Didactic Poetry

  • Maymester

    Rome in History and Imagination (co-taught with Professor Thomas Martin)

Research

My research mainly focuses on Roman literature and culture, with a particular interest in how the Romans think about the past and future. Please find a list of publications below.

Book

Memory in Vergil's Aeneid: Creating the Past (2013 - Cambridge University Press)

Articles

Grief, Distance, and Shadows in Aen. 12.945-52: A Sphragis for the  Book of Vergil The Classical Journal 113: 303-33   2018 (PDF)

Allure without Allusion: Quoting a Virgilian Epitaph in a 9/11 Memorial Interfaces 38: 173-94  2016- 2017

Genre, Gallus, and Goats: Expanding the Limits of Pastoral in  Eclogues 6 and 10” Vergilius 62: 3-23 2016

Catullan Myths: Gender, Mourning, and the Death of a Brother” Classical Antiquity 35: 279-314 2016

"Time’s Path and the Historian’s Agency: Morality and Memory in Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae”   Epekeina: International Journal of Ontology, History and Critics 4: 141-75   [Special volume: Evil, Progress, and Fall: Moral Readings of Time and Cultural Development in Roman Literature ]  2014

The Boundaries of Violence in Horatius’ Battles (Livy 1.22-26)” (New England Classical Journal)  2012

“Competing Commemorations: Apostrophes of the Dead in the Aeneid"  (American Journal of Philology)  2012