Alex Purves
Assistant Professor of Classics, UCLA
100 Dodd Hall, 405 N. Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1417
Phone: (310) 825-1101, FAX: (310) 206-1903
purves@humnet.ucla.edu

 

EDUCATION
Ph.D. Classical Studies. University of Pennsylvania, PA. 2002
MA. Classical Studies. University of Pennsylvania, PA. 1999
MA with Distinction. Classical Studies. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K. 1995
BA (Hons.) English and Classical Studies. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K. 1993

DISSERTATION
Telling Space: Topography, Time, and Narrative from Homer to Xenophon. 2002.
Ralph M. Rosen (supervised)

TEACHING 2002–Present. Assistant Professor of Classics, UCLA
Introduction to Ancient Greek: Fall 02; Winter 03; Fall 03; Winter 04
Classical Mythology: Spring 03; Spring 05; Spring 07
MA Survey – Greek Literature of the Classical Period: Spring 03; Spring 05;
MA Survey – Greek Literature of the Archaic Period: Winter 07
Intermediate Greek: Xenophon’s Oeconomicus: Fall 03
Intermediate Greek: Homer’s Odyssey: Spring 07
Honors Collegium Seminar – The Fantastic Journey From Homer to 2001 A Space Odyssey: Winter 04
Graduate seminar – Aristophanes: Spring 04

RESEARCH & TEACHING INTERESTS
Archaic Greek epic; classical prose including historiography; Greek mythology and religion; conceptions of space and time; cartography; travel; geography.

PUBLICATIONS
“Falling Into Time in Homer’s Iliad.” Classical Antiquity 25.1. 2006, 179–209.
“The Plot Unravels: Darius’s Numbered Days in Scythia (Herodotus 4.98).” Helios 33.1. 2006, 1–26.
“Unmarked Space: Odysseus and the Inland Journey.” Arethusa 39.1. 2006,1-20.
Entries on Genesis 17–19, Exodus 19–20, Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers, Sophocles’ Antigone, ‘Belief Systems of Greece and Rome,’ Virgil’s Aeneid I, Ovid’s Metamorphoses 1, and complete revisions for Instructor’s Manual to accompany W. G. Thalmann (ed.) The Norton Anthology of Western Literature: The Ancient World. Forthcoming 2006.
“Topographies of Time in Hesiod.” In R. Rosen (ed.) Time and Temporality in the Ancient World,
Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum Press. 2004, 147-68.
“Empowerment for the Athenian Citizen: Philocleon as Actor and Spectator in Aristophanes’ Wasps.” In B. Zimmermann (ed.) Griechish-römische Komödie und Tragödie (DRAMA vol. 5). 1997, 5-22.

BOOK PROJECTS
Lost and Found: Making Sense of Place in Archaic and Classical Greek Narrative (manuscript close to completion).
Bodies of Gods: Corporeality and Divinity in Archaic Greek Epic (in progress).

PAPERS & LECTURES
[title TBA]: Columbia University Graduate Colloquium, November 2006 (invited paper)
On Legs and Feet: Anthropomorphism from the Waist Down.
- “Bodies Between Boundaries: Human, Animal, Divine,” conference at the Center for Hellenic
Studies, Washington D. C., April 2006 (conference co-organizer).
Blown in the Wind: Moving Through Time and Space in Homer.
- Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, April
2006 (invited paper).
Dead Weights: Homer’s Heavy Gods
- Department of Classics, Oberlin College, OH, November 2005 (invited paper)
From Muse to Map: The Use of Cartography in Archaic and Classical Greek Literature.
- Tod Spieker Colloquium Series, Dept. of Geography, UCLA, May 2004 (invited paper)
Falling Into Time in Homer’s Iliad
- Dept. of Classics, Scripps College, CA., March 2005 (invited paper)
- Dept. of Classics, Princeton University, February 2005 (invited paper)
- Newnham College, Cambridge University, November 2004 (invited paper)
- Dept. of Classics, University of California at Irvine, May 2004 (invited paper)
- Temporalities Conference. Dept. of Classics, UCLA, April 2004 (invited paper)
Place, Order, and Memory in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus.
- Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, San Francisco, Jan. 2004
Re-viewing the Muse: Cartography and Visual Enquiry in Early Greek Thought.
- Visual Knowledges Conference. University of Edinburgh Centre for the Humanities, Sep. 2003
Unmarked Space: Odysseus and the Inland Journey.
- Conference on Redrawing the Boundaries: Literal and Metaphorical Borders in the Ancient World,
Yale University, Sep. 2002
Topographies of Time in Hesiod’s Theogony.
- Conference on Time and Temporality in the Ancient World, University of Pennsylvania, April 2002
(invited paper)
Map and Narrative in Herodotus’ Histories.
- Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association, Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 2002
- Space and Locale in Classical Antiquity Graduate Conference, University of Virginia, Feb. 2001
A Story Fitting for Alcinous? Plato’s ‘Myth of Er’ and the Tradition of the Ancient Journey.
- Graduate Conference on the Journey in Antiquity, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sep. 2000
Dark Pastoral: ‘Umbra’ in Aenied 6.
- Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association. Dallas, TX, Dec. 1999
Programmatics and Performance in Herodas’ Mimiamb 1.
- Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association. Washington DC, Dec. 1998

GRANTS & AWARDS
UCLA Faculty Research Grant. 2006-2007; 2005-2006; 2004-2005
Junior Fellow, Center for Hellenic Studies. 2005-2006
Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies. 2005-2006
National Endowment for the Humanities. Summer Stipend. 2005
UCLA Assistant Professor Career Development Award. Sabbatical Supplement. 2004
Dean’s Scholar, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania. 2002
Benjamin Franklin Dissertation Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania. 2001-2002

SERVICE
APA Lionel Pearson Fellowship Committee. 2005-2008.
UCLA Department of Classics Job Search Committee. 2006–2007.
UCLA Department of Classics Graduate Affairs Committee. fall 2002–present.
UCLA Honors Collegium Committee. 2003–present
Center for Hellenic Studies. Conference on Boundaries Between Bodies: Human, Animal, Divine.
Co-organizer. April 2006.
USC/UCLA Annual Greek Seminar. Performing Identity in Greek Drama. Co-organizer. March 2004
UCLA Career Center. Panelist “The Academic Job Market.” Nov. 2002; Nov. 2003

STUDENTS: Summer Research Mentorship: Emily Rush (Homer/vase painting); Senior Honors Thesis: Kyle Erickson (Homer/Herodotus/dreams); Dissertation Committees. UCLA: Stephen Pigman (Xenophon); Bryan Lockett (Aristophanes/stagecraft); Lorenzo Garcia (Homer/space & time). External committee member, UT Austin: Christopher Lovell (Homer/geography)