The Blinded Eye

Matthew Fox

Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

(Classics Dept. home page: find me under People/Faculty)

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EDUCATION
1997-2004 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Ph.D. Comparative Literature, concentration in Classics
Dissertation: “A Natural History of Music: Inventions of Instruments, Origins of Organs.”
Qualifying exams:
May 2000 Special authors general exam: Homer and Virgil, the classical epic tradition
May 2001 Special topic general exam: the mythology of music

1992-1996 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
B.A. summa cum laude, Classical Languages and Literatures/Clark Honors College
Honors Thesis: “Semitis Temporis Fabulae: An Ethnographic Mythopoesis of History.”

PUBLICATIONS

Lucan’s Civil War. New verse translation edition, under contract with Penguin Books for the Penguin Classics series. Forthcoming 2009.

A Natural History of Music: Inventions of Instruments, Origins of Organs. Dissertation being revised, under contract with University of California Press. (nat hist music pdf)

Review of Maurizio Bettini, Voci: antropologia sonora del mondo antico, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.12.09.

Review of Glenn Most (ed.), Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.10.44.

“Stars in the Fasti: Ovid’s astronomy and Ideler (1825) revisited.” American Journal of Philology 125.1 (2004). (Project Muse) (pdf AJP 2004)

PAPERS
“Archaic oral epos and ritual manufacture of musical instruments.” Conference paper at “The Ties that Bind and Build: Networks of Production in the Ancient Mediterranean,” USC, Los Angeles, CA, February 24-25, 2006.

“Social Formation and Intergroup Competition in archaic Greece and ancient China.” Conference paper at “Ancient Song in cross-cultural perspective: ritual, performance, and history,” Emory University, Atlanta, GA, March 3-5 2006.

“Antique Ruins in Bob Dylan’s Masked and Anonymous.” Conference paper at “Ancient and Modern Narrative: Intersections, Interactions, and Interstices,” Dept. of Comp. Lit. CSU Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, March 9-11, 2006.

“The Empire’s New Texts: A Lucan-Centered Syllabus for Roman Literature and History.” Conference paper at CAPN Annual Meeting, Reed College, Portland, OR, March 24-26, 2006.

“Tortoises, Lyres and Eros Amechanos: the irresistible sex appeal of musical instruments.” Conference paper on panel “Affective Arts and the Production of Subject,” at the 2005 CACW/CAPN Conference “(Ir)rationality in Antiquity,” Victoria, British Columbia, February 18-19, 2005. (CAPN 2005 talk pdf)

“Orpheus: Thracian bard, student of Moses, or mosaic villa decor?” Conference paper, UNC-Duke graduate student colloquium, Chapel Hill, NC, March 27, 2004. (UNC talk abstract pdf) (UNC 2004 ppt, UNC 2004 handout pdf)

“Paronomasia and riddling speech in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes.” Conference paper, APA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, January 4, 2004. (APA 2004 talk pdf, apa 2004 handout pdf)

“Orpheus the Shaman?” Conference paper, CAPN Annual Meeting, Eugene, OR, March 16, 2002. (abstract at conference proceedings website)

TRANSLATION AND EDITING

Barchiesi, Alessandro. 2001. Speaking Volumes, narrative and intertext in Ovid and other Latin poets. Translated and edited by Matt Fox and Simone Marchesi. London: Duckworth.

Clark-Deces, Isabelle. 2005. No One Cries for the Dead: Tamil Dirges, Rowdy Songs, and Graveyard Petitions. Berkeley: University of California Press. Copy and style edited for the author, 2003.

Tilley, Helen, and Robert J. Gordon (eds.). 2007. Ordering Africa: anthropology, European imperialism, and the politics of knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Copy and press-style edited volume chapters for the editors, 2003.

Clark-Deces, Isabelle. 2007. The Encounter Never Ends: a return to the field of Tamil rituals. Albany: SUNY Press. Copy and style edited for the author, 2005.

Frassica, Pietro. Unpublished monograph on Italian actress Marta Abba and playwright Luigi Pirandello. Worked with author to update and translate from Italian for an English edition, 2003-2005.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Fall 2007 – Fall 2008
Visiting Assistant Professor in Classics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Courses Taught: Elementary Attic Greek (2x), Greek and Roman Mythology (230-student lecture, 2x), Graduate Reading Seminar on Greek Tragedy, Intermediate Latin (Ovid Metamorphoses), Greek and Roman Religion, The Classical World in Cinema (a new course I developed for Spring 2008, will repeat Spring 2009), Roman Drama in Translation: Plautus & Terence, Latin Poetry: the Roman Civil War (Spring 2009)

Fall 2005 – Spring 2007
Robert B. Aird Chair in Humanities (Long-Term Humanities Appointment), Deep Springs College, Deep Springs CA

Courses Taught: Freshman Composition (both years), What is Justice?, Intensive Classical Greek, Intensive Latin, Latin Poetry Seminar, Anthropology of Oral Poetry and Performance, Old English
Directed Independent Studies: Introduction to Classical Chinese Language and Literature, Introduction to Vedic, Hindu and Buddhist Traditions, Advanced Greek (2 semesters: Plato’s Republic and the Odyssey), Beginning Sanskrit

Fall 2004 – Spring 2005
Full-time Visiting Instructor, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, NJ

Courses taught: Elementary Latin, Intermediate Latin, Introduction to Attic Greek (tutorial), Classical Civilization, Ancient Epic, Greek and Roman Mythology, Classics and Film, Latin Authors Tutorial (Caesar’s De Bello Gallici)

Spring 2004
-Part-time Lecturer, Comparative Literature, Rutgers University, Introduction to World Mythology: Storytellers, Singers, Prophets, and Visionaries

-Adjunct Professor of Classics, St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, NJ, Ancient Greek Theater (a literature in translation survey)

Fall 2003
-Adjunct Professor of Classics, St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, NJ, Elementary Latin, Intermediate Latin, Elementary Attic Greek, Latin Authors (Virgil’s Aeneid)

-Half-time Assistant in Instruction (5 sections), Introduction to Anthropology (ANT 201), Professor Isabelle Clark-Deces, Princeton University

Spring 2003
Assistant in Instruction (2 sections), The Other Side of Rome (CLA/CHV 214), Professor Andrew Feldherr, Princeton University. Delivered course lecture on Lucan’s Civil War.

Fall 2002
-Assistant in Instruction (2 sections), Classical Mythology (CLA/HUM 212), Dr. Kathryn Chew, Princeton University (now Professor at CSU, Long Beach, see references below)

-Assistant in Instruction (2 sections), Introduction to Anthropology (ANT 201), Professor Isabelle Clark-Deces, Princeton University

LANGUAGES
Expertise: Classical Greek, Latin
Reading knowledge: Spanish, Italian, French, Old English, German
Familiarity: Vedic/Classical Sanskrit, Old Norse, Old/Classical Chinese

SERVICE AND ACTIVITIES
2007-08 Rutgers University
Faculty Advisor for Graduate Teaching Assistants (T.A.) in 1st Year Latin Program
Faculty Advisor for Rutgers Collegium, an undergraduate Classics Club
Advisor, B.A. honors theses: Ruthann Gerrard, Michael Sobota
Reader, Ph.D. dissertation: Christopher Marchetti “Aristoxenus’ Elements of Rhythm:
Text, Translation, and Commentary with Translation and Commentary on P.Oxy 2687”

2005-07 Deep Springs College
Student Applications Committee (2006-07)
Curriculum/Hiring Committee (2005-06)
Faculty Committee (2005-07) – Researched and reported on the possible establishment of
A.A. degree requirements

2004-05 St. Peter’s College
With Prof. Anna Brown, coordinated and advised students on several campus performances
of scenes from classical tragedies

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
1999 Summer Funding Fellowship, Princeton University
1998 Croft Summer Fellowship Award, Princeton University
1996 Phi Beta Kappa, Oregon Six, University of Oregon
1996 President’s Award, for Senior Honors Thesis, University of Oregon
1995 Bowerman Award Scholarship, University of Oregon
1994 University Award Scholarship, University of Oregon