Samuel J. Huskey

Professor of Classics and Letters

Email: huskey@ou.edu | Office: CARN 116 | Full CV (pdf)

Research

I have written articles and delivered papers on the poetry of Lucretius, Vergil, Tibullus, Ovid, and Lucan. My main interest in Latin poetry is the allusive technique of the poets of the Augustan age, particularly Ovid. Most of my publications concern Ovid's Tristia, but I have recently switched my focus to my other interests in textual criticism, palaeography, neo-Latin, and medieval Latin.

This combination of interests recently led to two publications on a 15th-century manuscript of Lucan's De bello civili. In one of them, I used digital image enhancement and manipulation to uncover the deleted text of the colophon. In the other, I published my transcription of portions of the manuscript's marginalia and scholia that had never before appeared in print. I am also collaborating with my colleague Jason Houston on a translation of Boccaccio's minor Latin works for Harvard University Press I Tatti Renaissance Library.

My major project is the Digital Latin Library, a collaborative effort of the Society for Classical Studies (formerly the American Philological Association), the Medieval Academy of America, and the Renaissance Society of America. The DLL was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and hosted at OU.

Teaching

I particularly enjoy teaching general education courses such as Classical Mythology, Greek Literature in English Translation, Latin Literature in English Translation, Ancient Drama, and Ancient Epic because it's fun to introduce students to the subject of Classical culture. I also cherish the time that I spend with my advanced Latin students discussing everything from grammar and syntax to rhetorical and literary technique. Every other year I get to teach the Latin prose composition course, which always culminates with the students writing their autobiographies in Latin.

Service

I served as chair of the department from 2009 until 2019. I am also an academic advisor for Classics and Letters majors, and I serve on numerous committees at the college and university levels.

For several years I was the Webmaster and a member of the Executive Committee of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, and I chaired the local committee when the University of Oklahoma hosted that organization in the spring of 2010. In 2011 I began serving as Information Architect for the Society for Classical Studies, and I am involved in several of that organization's committee by virtue of that position.