Michèle Lowrie is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Service Professor of

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

and the college at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. She is a specialist in

Roman literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literatur ...

and political thought.

Education

Lowrie completed a bachelor's degree at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1984, followed by a PhD at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1990. Her doctoral thesis was entitled '

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

's Lyric Exempla' and she was supervised by Richard Tarrant.

Career

Lowrie began teaching at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

in 1990 after the completion of her doctorate, as Assistant and Associate Professor of Classics. She was awarded a Presidential Fellowship by the university while writing her first monograph, ''Horace's Narrative Odes''. During the period of 2000–2001, she was a member of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

and held the Burkhardt Fellowship from the

American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...

. This was while she was working on ''Writing, Performance, and Authority in Augustan Rome'' (published 2009). In late 2005, she held a visiting research professorship at the Warburg-Haus in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. She moved to the University of Chicago in 2009. She held a fellowship at the Research Center for Cultural Theory and Theory of the Political Imaginary at the Universität Konstanz in 2010–11, and visited the Center for Advanced Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2018 to collaborate with Barbara Vinken on a book entitled ''Civil War and the Collapse of the Social Bond: The Roman Tradition at the Heart of the Modern'', which came out in 2022. Lowrie was granted a

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

fellowship and made the Dirk Ippen Fellow for spring 2016 at the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and German ...

, while working on a project entitled 'Safety, Security, and Salvation in Roman Political Thought,' which explored the Roman origins of concepts like

national security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...

or emergency and their relationships with societal values. She also gave the J.H. Gray Lectures at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 2018. While completing her book project on

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercion). Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or ...

as a Roman metaphor, Lowrie was awarded a

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

Fellowship in the 2018-19 cycle, during which she also held an Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship at St. Aidan's College,

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

in spring 2019.

Selected publications

* ''Horace's Narrative Odes'' (1997). Oxford: Clarendon Press. * ''Writing, Performance and Authority in Augustan Rome'' (2009). Oxford: Oxford University Press. * (ed.) ''Oxford Readings in Classical Studies: Horace, Odes and Epodes'' (2009). Oxford: Oxford University Press. * (ed., with Susanne Lüdemann), ''Exemplarity and Singularity: Thinking through Particulars in Philosophy, Literature and Law'' (2015). London: Routledge. * ''Civil War and the Collapse of the Social Bond: The Roman Tradition at the Heart of the Modern'', jointly authored with Barbara Vinken (2022). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bibliography

External links

* Public lecture at the American Academy in Berlin (2016): 'Security, a Roman Metaphor' https://www.americanacademy.de/videoaudio/security-roman-metaphor/ * 'Beyond the Lecture' podcast appearance at the American Academy in Berlin: https://soundcloud.com/american-academy-berlin/beyond-the-lecture-michele-lowrie * Gray Lectures (University of Cambridge, 2018): ** 'Salus: hierarchy, reciprocity, and embodied safety' https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/2751816 ** 'Cura: anxiety and tending in Vergil and Horace'https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/2751839 ** 'Securitas: emperor and citizen' https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/2751851 * Public lecture at Durham University (2019) - 'Security and the caring leader in Vergil's Aeneid and Roman Imperial Ideology' https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/ias/audio/Lowrie.mp3 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowrie, Michele Women classical scholars Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American classical scholars Harvard University alumni University of Chicago faculty Yale University alumni New York University faculty Institute for Advanced Study faculty Fellows of the Institute of Advanced Study (Durham)