Penn State Penn State: College of the Liberal Arts

Department ofClassics and Ancient
Mediterranean Studies

Stephen Wheeler

Stephen Wheeler
Associate Professor of Classics
320 Weaver Building University Park, PA 16802
Pronouns: He/Him

Biography:

Prof. Wheeler teaches and writes about Greek and Latin literature. In his early career, he published two books and several papers on Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He then spent two years at the Freie Universität Berlin as a Humboldt Fellow, where he embarked on two new research projects: one on the reception of Ovid’s poetry in antiquity and the Middle Ages; the other on the late antique Latin poet Claudian who created a new tradition of panegyric epic that flourished in Europe until the early nineteenth century. One of the results of Prof. Wheeler’s research on Ovidian reception is his recently completed book, Accessus ad auctores: Medieval Introductions to the Authors (Codex Latinus Monacensis 19475), which will appear at the end of 2013 in the new TEAMS Secular Commentary Series published by Medieval Institute Publications. This medieval handbook illustrates the central position that Ovid occupied in the medieval school curriculum in the twelfth century. Prof. Wheeler is now finishing a new book, The Name of Rome: Etymological Myths and Contested Meaning, which is a study of the historical and literary usage of Rome’s name as it evolved from a simple place name into the dynamic cosmic concept that animates Claudian’s political poetry. Wheeler’s future research plans include the launching of a Digital Humanities initiative to found an open access online library for Neo-latin literature of the Renaissance that makes available digital editions, commentaries, lexical support, and tools for research.

Education Details:

B.A. 1984, Yale College, Classics (Greek)
M.A. 1988, Princeton University, Classics
Ph.D. 1992, Princeton University, Classics
Stephen Wheeler

Courses