Rebecca Futo Kennedy

Professor

Chair of Classical Studies, Ancient Greek & Roman Studies

Classical Studies

Ancient Greek & Roman Studies

Sustainability & Environmental Studies

Women's & Gender Studies

kennedyr@denison.edu

740-587-8675

Position Type

Faculty

Links

View CV (PDF)

Specialization

Greek and Roman History, Languages, and Culture

Pronouns

She / Her / Hers

Biography

Since arriving at ��ɫ��Ƶ 2009, Professor Kennedy has taught a wide range of courses on the ancient world including both Greek and Latin language courses from the beginning to advanced levels as well as courses in Greek and Roman history, Greek tragedy, Greek and Roman art, women and gender, and race/ethnicity in the classical world. Professor Kennedy enjoys teaching courses that allow her to bring her research into the classroom. She is also currently experimenting with role playing pedagogies.

Professor Kennedy’s research interests include the intellectual, political, and social history of Classical Athens, Athenian tragedy, and identity formation (both gender/sexuality and race/ethnicity) and immigration in the ancient world. She is the author most recently of “Immigrant Women in Athens: Gender, Ethnicity, and Citizenship in the Classical City” (Routledge, 2014) and editor of the “Handbook to Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds” (with M. Jones-Lewis; Routledge, 2015). She is a translator and editor (with S. Roy and M. Goldman) of “Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World: An Anthology of Primary Sources” (Hackett, 2013) and editor of the “The Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus” (Brill 2017). She is currently writing a book on race and ethnicity in antiquity and its entanglements in modern white supremacy and is co-translating a sourcebook of ancient texts on women in ancient Greece and Rome.

Degree(s)

PhD Greek and Latin (Ohio State, 2003); MA Greek and Latin (Ohio State, 1999); BA Classical Studies (UCSD, 1997)

Learning & Teaching

Courses

AGRS 201: Ancient Greeks and Persians
AGRS 202: Ancient Rome
AGRS 311/WGST 351: Gender and Sexuality in Antiquity
AGRS 312/ENVS 290: Ancient Identities
AGRS 340: Athenian Democracy and Law
GREK 111-112: First-year Ancient Greek
LATN 111-112: First Year Latin
GREK 211: Reading Ancient Greek
GREK and LATN 361-362: Directed Studies in Advanced Greek and Latin

Research

Political, social, and intellectual history of classical Athens; Athenian Tragedy; Ethnicity, gender, and identity formation in the ancient Mediterranean; Modern reception of ancient theories of human diversity; Immigration in antiquity

Works

Publications

Books:

Monograph: Immigrant Women in Athens: Gender, Ethnicity, and Citizenship in the Classical City (Routledge USA, May 2014)
Monograph: Athena’s Justice: Athena, Athens, and the Concept of Justice in Greek Tragedy (Peter Lang, 2009).
Editor, Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus (Brill Academic Publishers, 2018).
Co-editor, The Routledge Handbook to Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds (with Molly Jones-Lewis; Routledge UK, 2016).
Co-author, co-translator, and editor, Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World: An Anthology of Primary Sources, trans. and ed. by R.F. Kennedy, C.S. Roy, and M.L. Goldman (Hackett, 2013).

Articles and Book chapters:

“Fear of Foreign Women in Aeschylus’ Suppliants” for The Companion to Aeschylus. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023) 99-113.
“Classics and ‘Western civilization’: the troubling history of an authoritative narrative” in Authority: Ancient Models, Modern Questions edited by F. Santangelo and J. Bastos Marques (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023) 87-108.
“’Western Civilization’, White Supremacism and the Myth of a White Ancient Greece” in Polarized Pasts: Heritage and Belonging in Times of Political Polarization, edited by E. Niklasson (Berghahn, 2023) 88-109.
“Teaching Race in Greco-Roman Antiquity: Some Considerations and Resources” Classical Outlook 97.1: 1-8 (2022).
“Racist Reactions to Black Achilles” in Screening Love and War in Troy: Fall of a City, edited by M. Cyrino and A. Augostakis (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).
“Otis Mason and Hippocratic Environmental Theory in Early Smithsonian Anthropological Displays” in E. Varto ed. Classics and Early Anthropology: A Companion (Brill Academic Publishers) 2018.
“Airs, Waters, Metals, Earth: People and Environment in Archaic and Classical Greek Thought” in The Routledge Handbook of Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds (2016).
Citizen Elite Women and the Origins of the Hetaira in Athens” Helios 42: 61-79 (2015).
“A Tale of Two Kings: Competing Aspects of Power in Aeschylus’ Persians” Ramus 42: 64-88 (2013).
“Justice, Geography and Empire in Aeschylus’ Eumenides” Classical Antiquity 25: 35-72 (2006).

Other Publications:

Oxford Classical Dictionary online: “environment” (co-authored with Katherine Blouin; 2021).
Encyclopedia entries (invited): “Celts” (250 words), “Climate” (1500 words), “ethnicity” (1500 words), “Deioces” (500 words), “judges” (500 words), “Tomyris” (500 words), “Bactrians” (250 words), “Massagetae” (250 words), “Miltiades, son of Cimon” (1500 words), “Sacae” (250 words), “Spargapises (100 words), for C. Baron (ed.) The Herodotus Encyclopedia (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021).