C. Michael Sampson
C. Michael Sampson, Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics
(has taught at St. Olaf since 2009)
B.A. (Classics and Early Modern Studies), 2001, University of King's College, Dalhousie University
M.A. (Classics), 2003, Dalhousie University
Ph.D. (Classics), University of Michigan, 2009
A specialist in archaic and classical Greek poetry and religion, Mike Sampson recently completed a dissertation entitled "Themis in Sophocles"--a study which, despite the title, considers the semantic range of themis in a wide variety of literary and religious appearances. He has two forthcoming articles, one on Archilochus' fable of the fox and the eagle, the other on Aristotle's Poetics. He has just finished co-editing a monograph on a group of Michigan papyri containing (among other things) new fragments of Greek lyric poetry in the style and language of Euripidean 'new music'.
At Michigan Sampson co-organized a graduate student conference on the topic "Wandering But Not Lost: Apodemia and Peregrinatio in the Ancient World." He also served on the Executive Committee of the Sweetland Writing Center and co-edited the 2009 volume (devoted to Greek tragedy) of Animus, an online journal of philosophy and humanities.
An avid ice hockey and soccer fan, Sampson spends his spare time promoting Canadian pronunciations and extolling the virtues of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Courses in 2009-2010: Semester I = Classics 241 (Greek and Roman Myth), Greek 111A (Beginning Greek I), Latin 111B (Beginning Latin I); Interim = Classics 121 ('Western' Greeks and Eastern 'Barbarians' in Antiquity); Semester II = Greek 112A (Beginning Greek), Greek 374 (Greek Drama)
