Professor Christopher Baron of the Department of Classics has been selected to participate in the Scholarly Writing Institute at the National Humanities Center this summer.
The Scholarly Writing Institute is a 9-day writing-intensive workshop granting scholars dedicated time to focus on their research alongside their cohort of fellows from interdisciplinary humanities fields. Scholars have the opportunity to receive mentorship from a professional writing coach, collaborate with their cohort in group writing sessions, and consult with editors from respected academic presses. The program fosters a supportive community to encourage intellectual exchange among participants.
Professor Baron will dedicate this time to his current book project, Greek Historians Under the Roman Empire. Divided into seven chapters, each highlighting a different historian under Roman rule, Baron's book seeks to answer the question of what it means to write a history in Greek, within a tradition spanning back several centuries to Herodotus and Thucydides, while living as a subject of the Roman Empire. Does the power of Rome affect the historians' views of the past? How does Greek culture change under Roman rule?
Baron specifically hopes to make major progress in his chapter on Josephus, a Jewish priest who initially fought against Rome in the Jewish Revolt and witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. before later becoming a Roman citizen. Informed by the course he taught this past semester, "Josephus and Greek Historiography," Baron analyzes the manner in which Josephus chronicles the events of the Jewish Revolt in Bellum Judaicum (The Jewish War), written in Greek. Josephus may have become a Roman citizen, but did he really become Roman?
The award was made possible by a nomination from the Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good. The University of Notre Dame is an institutional sponsor of the National Humanities Center.