Robert Gurval

Associate Professor
Roman Politics and Culture
Roman Numismatics
Dodd 240B
310-825-6744
gurval@humnet.ucla.edu

Professor Gurval graduated with a B.A. in Classics at Brown University (1980) and later earned his M.A. at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1982) and his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley (1988). He is the author of Actium and Augustus: The Politics and Emotions of Civil War (The University of Michigan Press, 1995). His research interests converge on issues of politics, literature and culture in the Roman world of the Caesars. His current book project, Tokens of Authority: Politics, Culture and Ideology on the Coins of Augustus, will examine the imagery and political language found on early imperial Roman coinage.

He has served as Chair of the Department (2000-2005), Undergraduate Advisor (1991-1993; 1995-1996) and Post-Baccalaureate Advisor (1997-1998; 1999-2000).

At the undergraduate level, he teaches a wide range of lower and upper division Classical Civilization and Latin language courses. His Classical Civilization courses have included Discovering the Romans (CL 20); Cinema and the Ancient World (CL 42); Ancient Epic (CL 142); Ancient Lives: The Art of Biography (CL 144); The Female in Roman Thought (CL 150B); and the Senior Seminar (CL 197). He also teaches seminars for the Honors Collegium program, including Male Identity and Sexuality in Ancient Rome (HC 43). In 2000, he was recognized for his teaching and contributions to the Honors Program.

At the graduate level, he regularly teaches the Latin Literature Survey of the Augustan age (LA 200B). His seminars have focused on political culture and literature of the Principate of Augustus and his successors. He has taught a topics course in Roman history (CL 201B).

His university service includes the Undergraduate Council (1998-2001) and the Honors, Awards, and Prizes committee that selects the freshmen and transfer Regents Scholars (Chair, 1999-2002). He was inducted as an honorary member of the UCLA Golden Key Society in 1993.