Classical Studies Faculty Directory

Tom Sapsford

Assistant Professor

Photo of Tom Sapsford

Tom Sapsford

Ph.D.

Contact

Stokes Hall South 277

Email: thomas.sapsford@bc.edu

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Southern California

Courses

The courses I teach on classical civilization are The Chorus, Ancient and Modern, which looks at group performance from the Athenian tragic stage to contemporary flash mobs, and Greco-Roman Egypt, which explores the cultures of Egypt under the rule of the Ptolemies and Caesars and examines the lives of famous individuals, such as Alexander the Great, Cleopatra VII, as well as the daily lives of the Egyptians, Nubians, Jews, Romans, Greeks, and Arabs who inhabited this multiethnic territory.

In addition, I teach courses on imperial Latin authors in the genres of the Roman novel (Petronius), Satire (Juvenal), and Epigram (Martial).

Profile

Tom Sapsford's research interests include performance, gender, and sexuality in both ancient Greek and Roman contexts with a specialization in imperial Latin verse. His current book project explores a figure called the kinaidos/cinaedus, who is known in antiquity for his outrageous gender performance and sexuality as well as for his distinctive style of song and dance.


Sapsford is also working on ancient writings about Greek and Roman dance and has written on adaptations of ancient literature by contemporary choreographers. Work on these research strands has been possible thorough support from the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU and the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama at the University of Oxford.

Publications

  • Performing the Kinaidos: Unmanly Men in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures. Oxford University Press, (2022).
  • “Epic Poetry into Contemporary Choreography: Two Twenty-First-Century Dance Adaptations of the Odyssey,” in F. Macintosh, J. McConnell, S. Harrison, and C. Kenward (eds.), Epic Performances, from the Middle Ages into the Twenty-First Century. Oxford University Press, (2018) 194–208.
  • “The Erotics of Hybridity: Transgender Representation in Powell and Pressburger’s The Tales of Hoffmann,” Spectator (2017) 37.2: 21–9.
  • “The Wages of Effeminacy? Kinaidoi in Greek Documentary Sources from Egypt,” EuGeStA (2015) 5: 103–23.
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