Summary
Bryn Ford is a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Core Humanities program. He received his Ph.D. in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania, and previously taught in Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts at Purdue University. He has broad teaching interests in the humane intellectual tradition from deep antiquity to the 20th century, focusing on using this tradition to help students reflect on their own values and live more meaningful lives in the present. He primarily teaches CH 201 Ancient and Medieval Cultures, exploring texts as wide-ranging as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Dao De Jing, Plato’s Apology, Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Bible, and the Qur’an. He has also taught in CH 202 Modern World. On the research side, he is a historian of ancient Rome with particular research interests in the era of Italian unification in the first century BC. His current work explores how senses of local identity and place in the rural regions of Italy were transformed as Rome united the peninsula into a single political entity. He also has wider interests in ancient geography, landscape, and environmental perception, and in early Christianity.