BRETT L. STINE

GRADUATE STUDENT

bls2187@columbia.edu

Spring 2025 Office hours: TBA

Interests

• Archaic Greek poetry

• Critical theory

• Ancient literary criticism

• Papyrology, manuscript studies, and book history

Brett has a BA from Dallas Christian College (2012), a Master of Humanities from the University of Dallas (2015), and an MA in Classics from Texas Tech University (2019).

Brett is currently in his 6th year at Columbia. He has presented on many topics related to archaic and early classical Greek poetry with a particular interest in the poetics of the body, including recent work on Hesiod, Homer, and the Theognidea. In this vain, he is currently developing an article based on his MPHIL work entitled "Homer and the Chronotope: 'Death Far From Home' (τηλόθι πατρῆς) in the Iliad and Odyssey." Brett is also interested in Hellenistic and Roman receptions of archaic poets and ancient genres, with a focus on Sappho and her relationship to iambic or invective generic modes as found in Demetrius’s On Style. Finally, Brett has a background in book history and text objects, as well as an interest in ancient reading practices, productions, and communities. Recent work in this area includes serving as a Lodge Papyrology Fellow with the Columbia Libraries Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (2023), as well as research presented on enslavement and book labor in the Roman world (2022).

Brett’s dissertation carries forward his enduring interest in archaic Greek poetry and the poetics of bodies, but focuses specifically on the representational and discursive roles of the body’s surface. It is tentatively entitled “Surface Patterns: A Poetics of Bodily Surfaces in Archaic Greek Poetry.” Throughout, Brett utilizes the works of Hesiod, Homer, the Theognidea, Archilochos and Hipponax. Critical to his methodological framework is not only recent work on cultural poetics, as well as genre and performance, but also theories around bodies and embodiment. In his dissertation, he aims to answer how Greek poetry shapes the body’s surface and uses it to communicate. He asks questions such as: how does the body’s surface prove meaningful in Greek archaic poetry? Does tracing bodily surfaces across multiple poetic traditions reveal certain patterns indicative of the ways poetry shapes the bodies it represents? How do these representations speak to broader concerns of aesthetics, thematics, and poetics, as well as the history of bodies and embodiments? Or bringing all these questions together: how does Greek poetry materialize the bodily surfaces it represents through its specific poetic practices and shared patterns of discourse?

At Columbia University, Brett has been instructor of record for first-year Greek, first-year Latin, and Intermediate Latin. He has also served as TA for Intermediate Greek Prose, Augustan Poetry, and a course entitled “Odyssey of Odysseys.” Before coming to Columbia University, Brett served in multiple roles at Texas Tech University, including instructor of record for Intermediate Greek I and II, as well as Classical Mythology, and Ancient Sport and Public Spectacle. Finally, he worked full-time as an academic advisor at Texas Tech University from 2015–17.

Brett has served in various departmental and university roles while at Columbia. He was co-organizer for the Columbia Classics Colloquium from 2020–22. He was the Lead Teaching Fellow and co-organizer of the Team Teaching Pedagogy Colloquium from 2023–24. In a broader university capacity, Brett also served as department representative to the Arts and Sciences Graduate Council (ASGC, 2022-24), as well as ASGC representative and Vice-Chair of Operations for the PhD Council (2022-24). Brett currently serves as graduate representative for the Classics Department (2024-25).

Outside of academia, Brett currently serves as a copyeditor for the journal Helios. In the past, he served as the editorial assistant for the American Journal of Philology (2018–19) as well as the editorial assistant for the journal Intertexts (2018–19).

Outside of Classics, Brett likes to drink coffee, watch movies/television, explore NYC on the weekends, and spend time with his partner Stacie and their dog Tonks.

Please feel free to reach out to Brett about his research or teaching at BLS2187@columbia.edu

Selected Presentations

*”Surface Tensions: Mutability, Sociability, and Bodily Surfaces in the Theognidea.” Columbia Classics Colloquium, Columbia University, April 26, 2024. (*= invited)

“Homer and the Chronotope: Death 'Far from Home' and Divine Vulnerability in Iliad 16 and 24.” 2023 Annual Meeting of the Society of Classical Studies, January 5-8 (New Orleans, LA).

“A Slip of the Tongue: An Exploration of Enslaved Visibility in Roman Book Work.” 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society of Classical Studies, January 5-8 (San Francisco, CA).

“‘A Second Triple-Bodied Geryon’: Gendered Bodies and the Rhetoric of Vengeance in Agamemnon 863–74.” 2019 Annual Meeting of The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, April 3-6 (Lincoln, NE).

“Monsters Must Bear Monsters: Genealogical Continuity and Poetic Awareness In Theogony 287-94 and 979-83.” 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society for Classical Studies, January 4–7 (Boston, MA). 2018

Publications

Stine, Brett L. 2017. Review of Bryan Doerries, 2015, Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today. New York: Vintage. NACADA Journal.

Stine, Brett L. and Louis, Sarah L. (2016). Review of Claudia Rankine, 2014, Citizen: An American Lyric. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press. NACADA Journal.