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Sulochana Asirvatham
Professor, Classics and General Humanities, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Office:
- Dickson Hall 134
- Email:
- asirvathas@montclair.edu
- Degrees:
- BA, Barnard College
- MA, Columbia University
- PhD, Columbia University
- vCard:
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Profile
Hello! My name is Dr. Sulochana R. Asirvatham (asirvathas@montclair.edu). I received my PhD from Columbia University in Classics (ancient Greek and Latin language and literature) in 2000 and have taught at MSU full-time since 2002. My research specialty is Greek historiography--that is, the study of not only "what happened" in Greek history but also how ancient writers chose to present their past--and more specifically the early historiography of Alexander the Great, the extant examples of which were produced by Greek writers living in the Roman empire, and on Greek-language historiographies of imperial Rome. I also enjoy teaching more general history and humanities courses that attempt to see "the big picture": such as Greek Civilization, Roman Civilization, and General Humanities I and II. But my first love is teaching Latin and Greek: there is no better way of building general language and writing skills, and it's so much fun to explore etymological connections between the ancient languages and modern ones, especially English, Spanish, and Modern Greek. I have taught one or both languages every semester from the Beginning to Advanced level since I arrived at MSU.
Specialization
My main focus in Classics has been on the reception of Alexander the Great and the Macedonians, especially in imperial Greek literature, the subject of my forthcoming book with Oxford University Press, MAKING ALEXANDER GREAT: GREEK LITERATURE AND THE MACEDONIAN PAST IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. My interest in Alexander historiography has also led me to work on the Greek Alexander Romance and its Persian, Arabic and Ethiopic offshoots; this work makes a major contribution to my second book, under contract with Bloomsbury and entitled ALEXANDER THE GREAT: A SOURCEBOOK OF HISTORY AND LEGEND. Alexander's involvement in questions concerning Greek identity or self-identification in Roman Greek literature (from 1st century BCE- 3rd century CE) has, furthermore, led me to consider such questions outside of the context of Alexander and in a variety of authors ranging from Plutarch to Cassius Dio (who show wildly different perspectives on the matter). I am also broadly interested in Greek historiography from the Classical through the Imperial periods, and have published commentaries for Brill's New Jacoby, a massive compilation of fragments from ancient history written in Greek, on a number of Hellenistic Jewish authors, writers on Hellenistic Syria, and Greek mythographers. Here is a link to many of my publications! https://montclair.academia.edu/SulochanaRAsirvatham