Grant Parker
Associate Professor of Classics, of African and African American Studies and, by courtesy, of Comparative Literature
Bio
Grant Parker joined Stanford from Duke University in 2006. He teaches Latin and other topics in Roman imperial culture; he has worked on the history of collecting and on historical maps. His books include The Making of Roman India (2008) and The Agony of Asar: a former slave's defence of slavery, 1742 (2001). He has edited a major volume, South Africa, Greece, Rome: classical confrontations (forthcoming 2016/7). Current research projects focus on memorialization and public history, in both Rome and South Africa (including comparison).
Academic Appointments
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Associate Professor, Classics
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Associate Professor, African and African American Studies
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Associate Professor (By courtesy), Comparative Literature
Administrative Appointments
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Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2008 - 2009)
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Resident Fellow, Toyon Hall, Stanford University (2010 - Present)
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Assistant to Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Stanford University (2006 - Present)
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Honorary appointment, Department of History, Duke University (2005 - 2006)
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Hunt Family Assistant Professor of Classical Studies, Duke University (2004 - 2006)
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Assistant Professor of Latin, Department of Classical Studies, Duke University (2001 - 2006)
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Assistant Professor, Department of Classical Studies, University of Michigan (1999 - 2001)
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Assistant in Instruction and Lecturer in Latin, Princeton University (1998 - 1999)
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Junior Lecturer, Department of Classics, University of the Witwatersrand (1989 - 1991)
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Postdoctoral Fellow, Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan (1999 - 2001)
Honors & Awards
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Nominated as one of ten 'Standout Scholars' under the age of forty, Black Issues in Higher Education (2003)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Chair, Department of Classics (2019 - Present)
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Chair, Department of Classics (2015 - 2018)
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Co-Director, Center for African Studies (2014 - 2015)
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Member of Bing Overseas Studies Program Oversight Committee, Stanford University (2013 - Present)
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Academic Press Referee, Cambridge University Press (2013 - 2013)
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Chair of Tenure Review Committee, Stanford University (2013 - 2013)
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Journal Referee, Historia (2013 - 2013)
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Faculty Library Committee, Stanford University (2012 - 2015)
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Member of Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Committee, American Philological Association (2012 - 2015)
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Academic Press Referee, Cambridge University Press (2012 - 2012)
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Chair of Search Committee, Stanford University (2012 - 2012)
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Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Classics, Stanford University (2011 - 2015)
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Academic Press Referee, I.B. Tauris (2010 - 2010)
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Journal Referee, Comparative Studies in Society and History (2010 - 2010)
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Journal Referee, Classical Journal (2010 - 2010)
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Journal Referee, Journal of Roman Studies (2010 - 2010)
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Journal Referee, Arethusa (2010 - 2010)
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Academic Press Referee, Oxford University Press (2009 - 2009)
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Academic Press Referee, Palgrave MacMillan (2009 - 2009)
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Academic Press Referee, Cambridge University Press (2009 - 2009)
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Journal Referee, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (2009 - 2009)
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Journal Referee, Classical Antiquity (2009 - 2009)
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Journal Referee, Classical Receptions (2009 - 2009)
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Academic Press Referee, Princeton University Press (2008 - 2008)
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Journal Referee, Art Bulletin (2008 - 2008)
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Academic Press Referee, Blackwell Publishers (2007 - 2007)
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Academic Press Referee, Witwatersrand University Press (2007 - 2007)
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Journal Referee, American Journal of Philology (2007 - 2007)
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Member of Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Committee, American Philological Association (2006 - 2008)
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Academic Press Referee, Yale University Press (2004 - 2004)
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Academic Press Referee, Blackwell Publishers (2004 - 2004)
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Journal Referee, Comparative Studies in Society and History (2001 - 2001)
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Academic Press Referee, Markus Wiener Publishers (2000 - 2011)
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Journal Referee, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (2000 - 2000)
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Journal Referee, American Journal of Philology (2000 - 2000)
Professional Education
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B.A., University of Cape Town, English and Latin (1987)
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B.A. (Honours), University of Cape Town, Latin (1988)
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M.A., University of Cape Town, Latin (1991)
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Ph.D., Princeton University, Classical Philology (1999)
Projects
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Museum of South African Museums, Stanford University
Relational database of South Africa's museums, hosted by CESTA
Location
Stanford, California
Collaborators
- Dillon Gisch, Project manager, Stanford University
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Egypt in South Africa
Location
Stanford, California
2024-25 Courses
- Alexander and Asoka: Empire-building, Myth-making and Memory
CLASSICS 274, CLASSICS 374, RELIGST 273, RELIGST 373 (Aut) - Alexander and Asoka: Readings in the Sources
CLASSICS 374G, RELIGST 373G (Aut) - Berlin StoryMaps
OSPBER 92 (Win) - Foundations of African Studies I: Africa in the 20th Century
AFRICAAM 145B, HISTORY 145B (Aut) - Introduction to African Studies I: Africa in the 20th Century
HISTORY 45B (Aut) -
Independent Studies (4)
- Directed Reading in Classics (Graduate Students)
CLASSICS 298 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Directed Readings (Undergraduate)
CLASSICS 198 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum) - Dissertation Proposal Preparation
CLASSICS 297 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Undergraduate Thesis: Senior Research
CLASSICS 199 (Aut, Win, Spr, Sum)
- Directed Reading in Classics (Graduate Students)
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Prior Year Courses
2023-24 Courses
- Ancients and Moderns: Africa and South Asia
COLLEGE 116 (Spr) - Classical California
CLASSICS 17SC (Sum) - Narratives of Enslavement
AFRICAAM 145, CLASSICS 145, CLASSICS 245, COMPLIT 145C (Win) - Reading Greek and Roman Slavery
CLASSICS 142, CLASSICS 242 (Win) - Why College? Your Education and the Good Life
COLLEGE 101 (Aut)
2022-23 Courses
- Advanced Latin: Communication is Key. Cicero's De oratore
CLASSICS 101L (Aut) - Arts of Change
OSPCPTWN 55 (Sum) - Classical California
CLASSICS 17SC (Sum) - Great Books, Big Ideas from Ancient Greece and Rome
CLASSICS 37, DLCL 11, HUMCORE 112 (Aut) - Latin Core II: Age of Nero
CLASSICS 202L (Win) - Narratives of Enslavement
MLA 371 (Win) - Why College? Your Education and the Good Life
COLLEGE 101 (Aut)
2021-22 Courses
- Classical California
CLASSICS 17SC (Sum)
- Ancients and Moderns: Africa and South Asia
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Verity Walsh -
Orals Chair
Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin, Kyle Harmse -
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
Sinead Brennan-McMahon
All Publications
- Mobile monumentality: the case of obelisks Approaching Monumentality in Archaeology edited by Osborne, J. Buffalo: SUNY Press. 2014
- Tarda solacia: liminal temporalities of Statius' Silvae The Roman Paratext edited by Jansen, L. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2014: 112–128
- Ashoka the Greek, converted and translated Volume on King Ashoka in history and historical memory edited by Olivelle, P., Leoshko, J., Ray, H. P. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2012: 310–326
- Capitein, Jacobus Elisa Johannes Dictionary of African Biography edited by Gates, Jr., H. L., Akyeampong, E. W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and Oxford University Press. 2011
- Heraclitus on the Highveld: the universalism (ancient and modern) of T.J. Haarhoff Classics and National Cultures edited by Stehens, S. A., Vasunia, P. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2010: 217–234
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India cartographica Some Roman sightings
NEGOTIATING CULTURAL IDENTITY: LANDSCAPES IN EARLY MEDIEVAL SOUTH ASIAN HISTORY, 2ND EDITION
2020: 13–33
View details for Web of Science ID 000547961800003
- Inflections of myth in Ausonius' Epigrams Mythos im Alltag-Alltag im Mythos. Die Banalität des Alltags in unterschiedlichen literarischen Verwendungskontexten edited by Schmitz, C. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink. 2010: 161–174
- Can the subaltern speak Latin? The case of Capitein Latinity and Alterity edited by Haskell, Y., Ruys, J. F. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies and BREPOLS. 2010: 241–258
- Obelisks Harvard Guide to the Classical Tradition edited by Grafton, A. T., Most, G., Settis, S. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 2010
- India Harvard Guide to the Classical Tradition edited by Grafton, A. T., Most, G., Settis, S. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 2010
- Geography Harvard Guide to the Classical Traditions edited by Grafton, A. T., Most, G., Settis, S. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 2010
- East and West Harvard Guide to the Classical Traditions edited by Grafton, A. T., Most, G., Settis, S. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 2010
- Barbarians Harvard Guide to the Classical Tradition edited by Grafton, A. T., Most, G., Settis, S. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 2010
- Highways into byways: travels of Tiberius Antichthon 2009; 43: 64-78
- Isis Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome edited by Gagarin, M. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009
- Cleopatra Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome edited by Gagarin, M. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009
- The gender of travel: Cynthia and others Materiali e Discussioni per analisi del testi classici 2009
- Ancient India in its Wider World edited by Parker, G. R., Sinopoli, C. Ann Arbor: Center for South and South East Asian Studies, University of Michigan. 2008
- Images of Mediterranean India: representing the subcontinent in ancient Greek and Roman art Ancient India and its Wider World edited by Parker, G. R., Sinopoli, C. 2008: 106–126
- Mediterranean Passages: readings from Dido to Derrida edited by Cooke, M., Göknar, E., Parker, G. R. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2008
- The Making of Roman India Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008
- Topographies of taste: Indian textiles and Mediterranean contexts Ars Orientalis 2007; 34: 19-37
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Mapping the Mediterranean
JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES
2007; 37 (1): 1-7
View details for DOI 10.1215/10829636-2006-008
View details for Web of Science ID 000243650100001
- Hellenism in an Afghan context Memory as History: the legacy of Alexander in Asia edited by Ray, H. P., Potts, D. T. New Delhi: Aryan Books International. 2007: 170–191
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Obelisks still in exile: Monuments made to measure?
3rd International Conference of Isis Studies
E J BRILL. 2007: 209–222
View details for Web of Science ID 000246166900010
- Narrating monumentality: the Piazza Navona obelisk Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 2003; 16 (2): 193-215
- Breyten Breytenbach Encyclopaedia of African Literature edited by Gikandi, S. London: Routledge. 2003: 77–79
- Ex oriente luxuria: Indian commodities and Roman experience Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 2002; 45 (1): 40-95
- The Agony of Asar: a thesis on slavery by the former slave, Jacobus Eliza Johannes Capitein, 1717-1747 Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers. 2001
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Crossings: Early Mediterranean contacts with India (Book Review)
JOURNAL OF ROMAN STUDIES
2001; 91: 197-197
View details for Web of Science ID 000174293200013
- Sitting down with the Barrington Atlas Journal of Roman Archaeology 2001; 14: 454-461
- Porous connections: the Mediterranean and the Red Sea Thesis Eleven 2001; 67: 59-79
- The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world of Borden and Purcell Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 2000; 13 (2): 228-232
- Review of Taprobane: Ancient Sri Lanka as known to Greeks and Romans - D.P.M. Weerakkody Scholia 1999; 8: 115-120
- Review of The Jews in Late Ancient Rome: evidence of cultural interaction in the Roman Diaspora - Leonard Victor Rutgers Scholia 1997; 6: 118-122
- Intimations of immortality: a study of perennis Acta Classica 1993; 36: 119-127
- The physical being and circulation of ancient literature: an introduction Akroterion 1992; 37 (3-4): 114-133
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ORPHEUS IN THE 18TH-CENTURY, THE USE OF MYTH IN GLUCK 'ORFEO ED EURIDICE'
ENGLISH STUDIES IN AFRICA
1992; 35 (2): 25-38
View details for Web of Science ID A1992KY57400002
- Patronage of letters in the early Roman Empire Akroterion 1991; 36 (4): 140-152
- Euhoe, parce Liber: Horace on wine and poetic inspiration South African Journal of Folklore Studies 1991; 2: 40-50
- The 'divine machinery' of the Aeneid Akroterion 1989; 34 (2): 181-190