Emily Austin

Emily Austin is an Associate Professor of Classics and the College at the University of Chicago, where she has taught since 2016. She received a B.A. in Classics from the University of Dallas and a Ph.D. in Classical Studies from Boston University. Her teaching and research focus on Homer, especially emotions, as well as literary depictions of solitude in ancient Greece. Her first book, Grief and the Hero: the Futility of Longing in the Iliad, explores the nexus of grief, longing, and anger in the Iliad. She is currently working on a second book, Solitude and its Powers in Ancient Greece, which identifies surprising moments when ancient Greek poetry conceives of solitude as a good thing. In addition, she has written articles on Homeric similes and their relation to the narrative; meaningful variation in Homeric formulae; and the power of inactivity in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Emily is the happy daughter of two graduates from St. John’s College, Santa Fe, who taught her to love good books and great conversation. She has served as her department’s Director of Undergraduate Studies for several years, where she welcomes the opportunity to think through the whys and hows of liberal education.