A.A. Santa Fe College, 2004
B.A. (Classics and Philosophy), University of Florida, 2008
M.A. (Classics), University of Iowa, 2010
M.A., Ph.D. (Classics), University of Cincinnati, 2013, 2016
Kyle Helms joined the St. Olaf Classics department in 2018. He teaches Latin and Greek at all levels, courses in English on the Greeks and Romans, and a First Year Seminar that uses Reacting to the Past historic role-immersion games. He also leads a January Term course, Classical Studies in Italy, that takes students to Rome and the Bay of Naples.
In his research, Helms has published on Latin, Greek, and Safaitic (Old Arabic) graffiti from Pompeii and Herculaneum, Greek papyri from Roman Egypt, and the rhetorical works of Marcus Tullius Cicero. From 2014-2019, he collaborated with the Ancient Graffiti Project (ancientgraffiti.org), working in field teams on the Bay of Naples and editing over 250 inscriptions for the Epigraphic Database Roma. His peer-reviewed artices have appeared in The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, Chronique d'Égypte, The Journal of Roman Studies, Arctos, and Rhetorica. His reseach has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and covered in The Daily Beast.
His current project is a translation of medieval Latin literature about the lives and miracles of St. Olaf of Norway, St. Cnut of Denmark, and St. Erik of Sweden. This volume, Royal Martyrs of Scandinavia: Saints and Miracles in the Medieval North, is under contract with the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library.
When not reading Latin and Greek or traveling in Italy, Helms enjoys exercise, fresh air, and, above all, spending time with his wife, Caitlin, their children, Hattie, Phoebe, and Wally, and their dog Cherry Blossom.
Courses taught in 2024-2025: On sabbatical.
Publications:
Refereed papers
Helms, Kyle. 2024. "Cicero, Eloquentia, and Justifying Rhetoric in Republian Rome," Rhetorica 42: 107–129. https://doi.org/10.1353/rht.2024.a937097
Helms, Kyle. 2021. “An Unread Safaitic Graffito from Pompeii,” Arctos: Acta Philologica Fennica 55: 51–3
Helms, Kyle. 2021. “Pompeii’s Safaitic Graffiti,” The Journal of Roman Studies 111: 203–14 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435821000460
Helms, Kyle and Michael Zellmann-Rohrer. 2017. “A Pearl of Great Price? (P. Mich. inv. 4086),” Chronique d’Égypte XCII fasc. 183: 129–36. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.CDE.5.114285
Benefiel, Rebecca R., Jacqueline DiBiasie, and Holly Sypniewski, with contributions from Erika Zimmermann Damer, Kyle Helms, Matthew Loar, Karen Lundqvist, and Fanny Opdenhoff. 2016. “The Herculaneum Graffiti Project: Initial Field Season, 2014,” Fasti On Line Documents & Research: 1–23. Open access: http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2016-361.pdf
Helms, Kyle. 2013. “Guarding Grapes in Roman Egypt (P.Mich. inv. 438),” The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 50: 135–43. Open access: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.0599796.0050.001:08
Digital critical editions
Helms, Kyle. 2014–2020. Principal editor for over 250 critical editions of Latin and Greek graffiti from Pompeii and Herculaneum, published in Epigraphic Database Roma, the Ancient Graffiti Project, and Italia Epigrafica Digitale:
2020. Italia Epigrapfica Digitale II. Regio I – Latium et Campania: Fascicolo V. Pompeii – Tituli Scariphati. 1,325 pages. (See p. 9 for Helms contributions.)
2017. Italia Epigrafica Digitale II. Regio I - Latium et Campania: Fascicolo III - Pompeii et Herculaneum: Graffiti. 856 pages. (See p. 9 for Helms contributions.)