Victor Bers (born August 30, 1944) is an American

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

. He serves as Professor Emeritus of Classics at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he taught since 1972 before retiring in 2018. Prior to retiring, he served as a Director of the American Philological Association (now the

Society for Classical Studies The Society for Classical Studies (SCS), formerly known as the American Philological Association (APA) is a non-profit North American scholarly organization devoted to all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization founded in 1869. It is the preemine ...

). Bers is the son of mathematician

Lipman Bers Lipman Bers ( Latvian: ''Lipmans Berss''; May 22, 1914 – October 29, 1993) was a Latvian-American mathematician, born in Riga, who created the theory of pseudoanalytic functions and worked on Riemann surfaces and Kleinian groups. He was also kn ...

Biography

Early life and education

Bers was born on August 30, 1944, in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

; he is the son of the mathematician

, who created the theory of

pseudoanalytic function In mathematics, pseudoanalytic functions are functions introduced by that generalize analytic functions and satisfy a weakened form of the Cauchy–Riemann equations. Definitions Let z=x+iy and let \sigma(x,y)=\sigma(z) be a real-valued functio ...

s. Bers was educated at Albert Leonard Junior High School and

New Rochelle High School New Rochelle High School (NRHS) is a public high school in New Rochelle, New York. It is part of the City School District of New Rochelle and is the city's sole public high school. Its student body represents 60 countries from around the world. I ...

. He matriculated at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where he would graduate with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

with distinction. Afterwards, he attained a

Woodrow Wilson Fellowship The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation) is a nonpartisan, non-profit based in Princeton, New Jersey that aims to strengthen American democracy by “cultivating the talent, ideas, ...

to study at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, where he would obtain a second degree. In 1972, he completed studies for his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. His dissertation was entitled "Enallage and Greek Style." That same year, he joined the faculty of

Career

In 1975, Bers was appointed a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

at Yale. He would spend the majority of his career at the university, becoming a full-time professor in 1989. In 1999, he was named a Director of the American Philological Association.

Publications

Books

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References

External links

Page at Semantic Scholar

Page at Academia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bers, Victor University of Chicago alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Harvard University alumni Yale University faculty 1944 births Living people