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Kathy L. Gaca

Associate Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies

Research Area Interests

Major research interests in Greek and Roman philosophy, mainly Platonic, Stoic, Pythagorean, and Peripatetic ethics; Greek, Roman, and biblical history and social values; socially normative ideas in the Greek biblical traditions (Septuagint and New Testament); Philonic and patristic ethics; all of which are related to my main driving interest in historically grounded ethics, that is, concerns of social injustice rooted in antiquity that remain problematic in the present day and need a clearer philosophical and historical understanding.  This includes my current book research on the sexual trajectory of ravaging warfare against women and girls, which is rooted in antiquity, was recognized as problematic by the Peripatetics and Peripatetic-influenced historians and biographers, and remains a modern-day problem.  Philology and comparative historical linguistics are among my research tools for approaching ethics historically.

Teaching interests in all of the above, as well as teaching and secondary research interests in Presocratic philosophy; Greek tragedy; Greek and Roman myth, epic, and lyric; women in antiquity; and material culture.

Current Research

Women, war, and emergent humanitarian concerns in antiquity and the modern day.

Current and Recent Appointments

Vanderbilt University, Associate Professor of Classics
Princeton University, Hannah Seeger Davis Post-doctoral Fellow in Hellenic Studies, 1996-97