Classics and Letters Faculty and Staff

Richard Beck is an instructor whose primary responsibility is introducing students to the ancient Greek language during their first year and preparing them for further study. More…

Email: rbeck@ou.edu | Phone: 325-6921 | Office: CARN 206

Kevin Butterfield, Assistant Professor of Classics and Letters, is the first core faculty member of the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage. He is a historian of the early American republic, studying the legal and political culture of the Revolutionary and early national periods of the United States. He is currently working on his first book manuscript, a study of the changing meanings of the concepts of voluntary association and voluntary membership in the post-Revolutionary era. More…

Email: butterfield@ou.edu | Phone: 325-2234 | Office:CARN 219 | Full CV

Jack Catlin, Professor Emeritus. Dr. Catlin received B.A. in Classics from OU in 1958, an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1965, and a Ph.D. in Classics from UNC-CH in 1969. He returned to OU's Classics Department as a faculty member, and he became Chair of the Department of Classics and Director of the Letters Program in 1978. After a long and distinguished career as the department's leader and a beloved teacher, he retired in 2008. To celebrate his career and his devotion to his students, the department has established a scholarship in his name. We invite his friends, colleagues, and former students to make a donation in any amount to the Jack Catlin Scholarship Fund through the University of Oklahoma Foundation. We hope to begin giving the scholarship to deserving students in the near future.

Peggy Chambers, Instructor and Academic Advisor, is the author of four Latin textbooks: Latin Alive and Well, An Introductory Text; The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, An Intermediate Reader/Grammar Review; The Natural Histories of Pliny the Elder, An Intermediate/Advanced Reader and Grammar Review; Pliny the Youngers’ Characters as Revealed through his Letters, An Intermediate/Advanced Reader and Grammar Review. All her texts have been published or are under contract to be published by the University of Oklahoma Press. She teaches regular and Honors Latin courses as well as online courses on Greek and Roman Civilization. She is the recipient of seven teaching and advising awards. More…

Email: pchambers@ou.edu | Phone: 325-4931 | Office: CARN 106 | Full CV

Sara Coodin, Assistant Professor, specializes in literature of the English Renaissance, particularly Shakespearean drama. Her current research centers on questions of moral agency in Shakespeare, and focuses on the importance of virtue ethical concepts like eudaemonia (happiness) and ethos (moral character) to Shakespeare’s art of characterization. She recently published “What’s Virtue Ethics Got To Do With It: Shakespearean Character as Moral Character” in the volume of essays Shakespeare and Moral Agency (Continuum 2010).

Email: coodin@ou.edu | Phone: 325-6921 | Office: CARN 117 | Full CV

Ralph Doty, Professor of Classics and Letters. After receiving a B.A. in Letters from OU, he went to Columbia University, where he received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Philosophy. He joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma in 1986 and was promoted to the rank of full professor in 2002. The focus of his research is the textual tradition of Xenophon. Dr. Doty teaches Classical Mythology, Plato and the Platonic Tradition, and intermediate and advanced courses in Greek. More…

Email: rdoty@ou.edu | Phone: 325-6921 | Office: CARN 118 | Full CV

J. Rufus Fears, was David Ross Boyd Professor of Classics and the G. T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty. His many awards for teaching include being chosen Professor of the Year on three occasions by students at the University of Oklahoma, the Medal for Excellence in College and University Teaching from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) Great Plains Region Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the UCEA's National Award for Teaching Excellence. Full CV.

Professor Fears passed away on October 7, 2012. Read about him on our memorial page.

Ellen Greene, Joseph Paxton Presidential Professor of Classics and Letters. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1992. Greene’s published books include: The Erotics of Domination: Male Desire and the Mistress in Latin Poetry, Reading Sappho, Re-Reading Sappho, Women Poets in Ancient Greece and Rome, Gendered Dynamics in Latin Love Poetry (with Ronnie Ancona), and The New Sappho on Old Age. She is currently working on a study of Sappho for Blackwell. Greene teaches courses on Greek and Latin poetry, Greek drama, and Virgil and Dante. More…

Email: egreene@ou.edu | Phone: 325-6921 | Office: CARN 105 | Full CV

John Hansen, instructor and academic advisor, teaches freshman- and sophomore-level courses of Latin. Trained as a world language teacher, he is active in both the Oklahoma Foreign Language Teachers’ Association and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Supporting Latin in Oklahoma high schools continues to be a high priority for him. On campus, he has served as the Faculty Fellow for Sigma Phi Epsilon. More…

Email: jhansen@ou.edu | Phone: 325-8156 | Office: CARN 108 | Full CV

Kyle Harper, Assistant Professor, is a historian of the high and late Roman empire. His first book, Slavery in the Late Roman World, will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. A second project, From Shame to Sin: Christianity and the Making of Western Sexuality, is under contract with Harvard University Press. He teaches a range of courses on Roman history and early Christianity. Dr. Harper is also the director of OU's Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage. More…

Email: kyleharper@ou.edu | Phone: 325-4063 | Office: CARN 215 | Full CV

Rebecca Huskey, Assistant Professor, has a background in 19th and 20th Century European thought, with a concentration in ethics and theology. Her scholarship includes a book on Paul Ricoeur's concept of hope and articles and presentations on religious imagery in poetry and fiction and the intersections of religion and literature. She is currently working on an extended study of the poetry and fiction of the Native American writer Sherman Alexie.

Email: rhuskey@ou.edu | Phone:325-6921 | Office: CARN 120 | Full CV

Samuel J. Huskey, Associate Professor and Chair, is a Joseph Paxton Presidential Professor. His research interestes include Latin poetry (particularly Ovid's exile poetry), textual criticism, and digital humanities. His current projects include a translation of Boccaccio's Latin poetry for Harvard University Press' I Tatti Renaissance Library and an edition and commentary on Ovid's Ibis. He teaches Introduction to Classical Studies, Classical Mythology, and a number of courses on Greek and Roman literature. He also teaches advanced Latin courses, including Latin Prose Composition. More…

Email: huskey@ou.edu | Phone: 325-0490 | Office: CARN 109 | Full CV

Eric Lomazoff, Assistant Professor (B.A. University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D. Harvard) is affiliated with the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage. A political scientist by training, he is currently at work on his book manuscript, Reconstructing the Hydra-Headed Monster: The Bank of the United States and the Constitutional Politics of Change. His research interests include the Constitution outside the Supreme Court, American constitutional history, mechanisms of institutional development, and contemporary fiscal and monetary politics. Several of these will figure prominently in his Fall 2011 Honors colloquium, "The Constitution and the Economy." In the Spring 2012 semester, he will teach a specialized course on constitutional controversies involving the state of Oklahoma.

Email: lomazoff@ou.edu | Phone: 325-2043 | Office: CARN 214 | Full CV

Andrew Porwancher, Assistant Professor (B.A. Northwestern, A.M. Brown, Ph.D. Cambridge) is a historian currently working on a book entitled The Devil Himself, a narrative study of two murder trials in Gilded Age Pennsylvania. His articles have appeared in Journal of Supreme Court History, History of Education, Journalism History, and Paedagogica Historica. Dr. Porwancher is a core faculty member of the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage. In spring of 2013, he is teaching "Famous Trials in American History" and "Shakespeare Moot Court."

Email: porwancher@ou.edu | Phone: 325-2030 | Office: CARN 213 | Full CV

Farland Stanley, Professor of Classics and Archaeology and a Gusi Peace Prize Laureate in archaeology and teaching (Manila: 2007). Over a twenty year period he has developed numerous excavation projects in the Mediterranean world among which have been projects in Israel and Italy. He currently cooperates with the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Archaeology Project at Pompeii and Stabiae in Italy. He came to the University in 1985 and has developed 24 courses. He currently teaches courses relating to Roman and Greek art and archaeology, the ancient city of Rome, and Roman culture. His publications and research relate to his archaeological projects and studies in Israel, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. He is a contributor to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (Princeton Univ. Press, 2000) and his current research gives focus to Roman archaeology and excavation projects, urban Rome, Roman Portugal and Roman society. More…

Email: fstanley@ou.edu | Phone: 325-6921 | Office: CARN 121 | Full CV

Stephen Wagner, Instructor, teaches both first- and second-year Latin and also a wide variety of courses in classical culture. More…

Email: swagner@ou.edu | Phone: 325-6921 | Office: CARN 115

Cheryl Walker-Esbaugh, Instructor of Classics and Faculty Advisor, edited and extensively revised Dunmore and Fleischer's Medical Terminology, which was released in a new edition by F.A. Davis in 2004.  She currently represents the Department of Classics and Letter’s on the EPD committee in the College of Education and on the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee on Academic Advising (CASACAA).  She is an affiliate faculty member in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.  She has developed and teaches Medical Vocabulary as an online class and is currently at work on a project to develop online course offerings in beginning Latin.   For the last fifteen years she has organized Classics Day which brings hundreds of High School students to the University of Oklahoma campus every year. More…

Email: Walker-Esbaugh@ou.edu | Phone: 325-3478 | Office: CARN 107 | Full CV

Cyndy Adams, Managerial Associate and Aministrative Coordinator.

Email: coadams@ou.edu | Phone: 325-6921 | Office: CARN 110

Rachelle Barteau, Marketing/PR Specialist for the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage, received her B.A. in Advertising at the University of Oklahoma in May 2012. Native to Oklahoma, she was born and raised in Duncan. She has held two internships, one in New York City at one of the top advertising agencies in the country, Wieden+Kennedy, and one at Publicis Dallas prior to graduation. Her focus is now directed towards all marketing and design efforts for the Institute.

Email: rachelle_barteau@ou.edu | Phone: 325-2059 | Office: CARN 232

Angie Gauthier, Pre-law Advisor and Academic Advisor. Angie assists pre-law students with course recommendations, successful navigation of law school requirements, and providing resources and guidance in selecting a career path. She also advises Classics and Letters majors. More …

Email: angieg@ou.edu | Phone: 325-5933 | Office: CARN 111

Laura Birkett, Office Manager for the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage, graduated from OU with a Bachelor of Arts in Letters in 2006 and a Master's in Library and Information Studies in 2008. She is from Bartlesville, OK.

Email: LauraBirkett@ou.edu | Phone 325-7697 | Office: CARN 210