Valeria Spacciante
Graduate Student
vs2716@columbia.edu
Pedagogies of Race and Oppression
Fall 2024 Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 5-6 p.m., and by appointments
Interests
Imperial Greek literature
The Ancient Novel
Lucian of Samosata
Critical Ancient World Studies
Classical Receptions
Public Humanities
Feminist Theory
Postcolonial Theory
Embodiment and Phenomenology
Valeria Spacciante is a PhD candidate in the Classics Department and in the Institute for Comparative Literatures and Societies. Originally from Southern Italy, Valeria was trained in Classical Philology and Comparative Literature at the University of Pisa and Scuola Normale Superiore, where she earned a BA in Classics and an MA in Classical Philology. Her research combines rigorous textual analysis with critical theory and ranges from postclassical literature to contemporary classical receptions in the anglophone world. Valeria's scholarly agenda is driven by the question of how societies exploit the social capital associated with classical antiquity for social exclusion and how this affects the social categories who are left out. Her research appears in international academic journals such as "Classical Philology,"“Classical Receptions Journal," "Dioniso," and "Whatever" and in public-facing venues like "Public Books."
Her dissertation, tentatively entitled "Bodies of Knowledge: Literary Norms and Resistance in the Ancient Novel," explores the tensions between identity formation and literary canonization in the ancient novels in the first and second century AD. Analyzing repeated narrative situations across the novelistic corpus which portray a character’s physical suffering—for example, a woman’s apparent death or a character’s lovesickness—she argues that the ancient novels use well-established narrative patterns to promote the Greek educated elite at the expense of all other identities which populated the Roman empire. Her project thus offers a critical rethinking of the Greek canon formation practices from its margins, both because it foregrounds what scholars usually consider trite literary tropes, and because it focuses on whom these tropes suppress.
Valeria's commitment to deconstructing well-established narratives also extends to the contemporary world. Her second project, tentatively titled “Pop Classics: Mainstream Classical Receptions in Contemporary Anglophone Culture,” explores the complicated relationship between Graeco-Roman antiquity, classical receptions, and mainstream culture. In particular, she is interested in what she calls “Mainstream Classical Receptions,” namely those cultural products engaging Graeco-Roman antiquity which have recently received public recognition from mainstream platforms like Netflix, The New York Times, Amazon, etc. In her project, Valeria explores how these mainstream venues endorse and advertise specific reception pieces using radical labels like “feminist,” “progressive,” and “anti-racist” to secure a wider audience while “rehabilitating” the Classics vis-à-vis the public discourse. She argues that through these marketing strategies, mainstream platforms rather utilize the progressive aura of radical movements to rebrand the classical canon as “inclusive,” without in fact addressing the power imbalances which such canon contributed to creating. Valeria's deep commitment to Classical Reception as a methodology brought her to organize the tenth Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in the Reception of the Ancient World (AMPRAW), making Columbia the first department to ever host it in North America.
Valeria has taught Greek and Latin at all levels and has been collaborating with the Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) for five years. This academic year, Valeria is serving as a Literature Humanities preceptor for Columbia's Center for the Core Curriculum as well as a Teaching Consultant for CTL.
In her free time, Valeria enjoys traveling and exploring New York City's art scene. Naturally curious, she is always eager for new encounters and experiences!
Selected Publications
Spacciante, V. (forthcoming, 2025). "(Un-)Learning Tragedy; The Costs of Conformity in On the Syrian Goddess." Classical Philology.
Spacciante, V. (2024). “Circe, the Female Hero: First-Person Narrative and Power in Madeline Miller’s Circe.” Classical Receptions Journal. Volume 16, Issue 4. 405-418.
Spacciante, V. (2021). “The successful impotent. Deconstructing Platonic Eros in Walter Siti’s Scuola di nudo”. “Whatever. A Transdisciplinary Journal of Queer Theories and Studies” 4.125–160.
Spacciante, V. (2016). "Autoaffermazione e metaletteratura: l'"Histoire di Tityre" del Prométhée mal enchaîné di André Gide". "Dioniso," 6.125–151.
