Interests
Greek tragedy
Historiography
Reception studies
Public humanities
Emma Ianni is a Ph.D. candidate in Classics/ICLS. Her dissertation, “When Language Fails: Tragedy and Thucydides,” brings together the Greek tragedians, Thucydides, and Anne Carson in a reinterpretation of 5th-century discourses on power, democracy, gender, and the self. Her project explores the different rhetorical strategies whereby the tragedians and the historian Thucydides dramatize the waywardness of language, with an emphasis on how these accounts gender different modalities of discourse within democratic ancient Athens.
Emma's other research interests include reception studies and public humanities, which will culminate in a seminar she designed called “Public Classics: Antiquity, Ideal Publics, and Countercultures” (Fall 2024). Emma has co-organized the 10th Annual Meeting for Postgraduates in the Reception of the Ancient World and the Columbia Classics Colloquium.
She also holds a BA in Classics and Comparative Literature from Cornell University.