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Curriculum Vitae

Walter Robert Connor
b. August 30, 1934 in Worcester, Massachusetts
Married to Carolyn Loessel Connor, children: Christopher and Stephan


North Carolina address:
127  W. Queen Street
Hillsborough, NC 27278
P: (919) 732-5827

Summer phone: 508 564 5919 OR 207 882 4754


[email protected]

Earned Degrees



    • BA, Hamilton College, 1956
    • PhD in Classics, Princeton University, 1961


    Awards, Honors, etc. 


      • Phi Beta Kappa, Woodrow Wilson, Danforth, ALCS, and NEH fellowships
      • Fulbright Fellow, University College, Oxford, 1956-57
      • Howard Behrman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities, 1986
      • LHD, Hamilton College, 1991
      • LHD, Knox College, 1993
      • Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1992
      • Fellow, American Philosophical Society, 1996
      •  Allen P. Splete Award,from the  CounciL of Independent Colleges, 2016 




    • Employment
        • Instructor, University of Michigan, 1960-63
        • Junior Fellow, Center for Hellenic Studies, 1963-64
        • Assistant Professor, Princeton University, 1964-70
        • Associate Professor, Princeton University, 1970-72
        • Professor, Princeton University, 1972-89
        • Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics, 1978-89
        • Professor of Classics, Duke University, 1989-2000
        • Director, National Humanities Center, 1989-2003
        • President, The Teagle Foundation, 2003-2009
        • Senior Advisor, The Teagle Foundation, 2010 -  2013


        Administrative Serve at Princeton University
          • Summer sessions at the University of Michigan, the University of Colorado, the Breadloaf School of English
          • Visiting Special Research Fellow, American School of Classical Studies, Athens, 1977-78
          • Fulbright Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia, 1982
          • Visitor, The Institute of Advanced Study, 1985-86


          Professional Activities and Public Service

            • Chair, Department of Classics, 1972-77
            • Chair, Committee on Hellenic Studies, 1979-85
            • Chair, Council on Humanities, 1982-89
            • American Philological Association: Chair, Committee on the State of Classical Studies, 1969-77; Chair, Nominating Committee, 1975-77; Director, 1980-83; President-elect, 1986-87; President, 1987-88


               Books:
              • Harvard University: Overseers' Committee to Visit the Classics, 1976-84; Chair, 1979-84; Committee to Visit the Memorial Church, 1995
              • Yale University: University Council Committee on Literature, 1979-83
              • American School of Classical Studies in Athens: Managing Committee, 1973-89; Executive Committee, 1976, 1980, 1985-89
              • University of North Carolina at Asheville: Board of Visitors, 1990-92
              • National Humanities Alliance: Board of Directors, 1991-94
              • Princeton University: Alumni Trustee, 1993-97
              • North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation: Board of Directors, 1994 - present
              • Athens College: Trustee, 1995-1998
              • Institute for Advanced Study: Trustee, 2002 - 2006
              • Environmental Defense: North Carolina Regional Board, 2004 - present
              • New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability: Board of Directors, 2009 - present
            • Greek Orations (University of Michigan Press, 1966; re-issued with a new preface, Waveland Press, 1987)
            • Theopompus and Fifth Century Athens (Harvard Press for the Center of Hellenic Studies, 1968)
            • The New Politicians of Fifth Century Athens (Princeton University Press, 1971; re-issued, Hackett Publishing Company, 1992)
            • Thucydides (Princeton University Press, 1984; issued in a paperback edition, 1987)
            • (with Carolyn L. Connor) The Life and Miracles of Saint Luke of Steiris (Hellenic College Press, 1994)
            • Articles on Classics, etc.: ​
            • ​
              "Women Poets and the Origin of the Greek Hexameter"   Arion 27.2, pp. 85 -104.

            • “When Hyperbole Enters Politics: What Can Be Learned From Antiquity and Our Hyperbolist-In-Chief” Arion 26.3 Winter 2019, pp. 15 – 32.
              ​
            • “Populist or Demagogue?  A Vacuum at the Center”  American Scholar  87,2 Spring 2018 pp. 20- 31.

            • "Pericles on  Athenian Democracy." Classical World 111, no. 2 (2018): 165-175. 
            • "Scale Matters:  Expansion, Contraction and Vividness in Thucydides" Oxford Handbook of Thucydides, Oxford Press, 2017, pp.  211-  224. 

            • "Classics Now: Changing Discourses, Emerging Opportunities" has now appeared in Classical World, 109,3. Spring 2016  pp. 413 -18.  
              ​
              • We Must Call the Classics before a Court of Shipwrecked Men
                Classical World 104 (2011) pp. 483 --493


              • The Pygmies in the Cage: The Function of the Sublime in Longinusin D. Heiland and L. Rosenthal, editors,  Literary Study, Measurement, and the Sublime: Disciplinary Assessment, The Teagle Foundation 2011 http://www.teaglefoundation.org/disciplinaryassessment/chapters/connor.pdf
              • "Reading Thucydides in the Post-Cold War World."Acta: First Panhellenic and International Conference on Ancient Greek Literature in J.Th.A Papademetriou, Hellenic Society of Humanistic Studies (Athens, 1997): 479-493.
              • Civil Society, Dionysiac Festival, and the Athenian Democracy, in J. Ober and C. Hedrick, eds., Dêmokratia: A Conversation on Democracies, Ancient and Modern (Princeton 1996)
              • Festival and Democracy in M. Sakellariou, ed., Democratie athenienne et culture (The Academy of Athens, Athens, 1996): 79-89.
              • Theses and his City in P. Hellstrom and B. Alroth, eds., Religion and Power in the Ancient Greek World, Boreas 24, Uppsla Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilization (Uppsala, 1996): 115-120.
              • The Histor in History, Nomodeiktes (Greek Studies in Honor of Martin Ostwald), Ralph M. Rosen and Joseph Farrell, eds. (The University of Michigan Press, 1994): 3-15.
              • The Problem of  Athenian Civic Identity in Alan L. Boegehold and Adele C. Scafuro, eds., Athenian Identity and Civic Ideology (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994): 34-44.
              • The Ionian Era of Athenian Civic Identity, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 37, No. 2 (1993): 194-206.
              • Polarization in Thucydides in Richard Ned Lebow and Barry S. Strauss, eds., Hegemonic Rivalry from Thucydides to the Nuclear Age (Boulder, 1991): 53-69.
              • The Other 399: Religion and the Trial of Socrates, Georgica: Greek Studies in Honor of George Cawkwell: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (London, Sup. 58, 1991): 49-56.
              • The City Dionysia and Athenian Democracy, Classica et Medievalia 40 (1989): 7-32.
              • Seized by the Nymphs, Classical Antiquity 7 (1988): 155-189.
              • Early Greek Land Warfare as Symbolic Expression, Past and Present 119 (May 1988): 3-29. Reprinted in Studies in Ancient Greek and Roman Society, ed. Robin Osborne, Cambridge University Press 2004.
              • Sacred and Secular, Ancient Society (1987): 161-188.
              • Tribes, Festivals and Processions: Civic Ceremonial and Political Manipulation in Archaic Greece, Journal of Hellenic Studies 107 (1987): 40-50.
              • Commentary on the Conference: Herodotus and the Invention of History, Arethusa 20 (1987): 155-162.
              • Historical Writing in the Fourth Century BC and in the Hellenistic Period, Cambridge History of the Greek Literature.
              • Narrative Discourse in Thucydides, The Greek Historians (Papers presented to AE Raubitschek) (Stanford, 1985): 1-17.
              • The Razing of the House in Greek Society, Transactions of the American Philological Association 115 (1985): 79-102.
              • Thyucydides in TJ Luce, ed., Ancient Writers: Greece and Rome Vol. 1 (New York, 1982): 267-289.
              • Pausanian 3.14.1: A Sidelight on Spartan History, Transactions of the American Philological Association 109 (1979): 71-78.
              • Thucydides 2.65.12, Arktouros: Hellenic Studies to BMW Knox (Berlin, 1979): 269-271.
              • A Post-Modernist Thucydidies? Classical Journal 72 (1977): 289.
              • Tyrannis Polis in J D'Arms and J Eadie, ed. Ancient and Modern Essays in Honor of GF Else (Ann Arbor, 1977): 95-109.
              • Nicias the Cretan? American Journal of Ancient History 1 (1976): 61-64.
              • Homo Lucrans? Arion NSI (1974): 731-739.
              • The Thenian Council: Method and Focus in Some Recent Scholarship, Classical Journal 70 (1974): 32-40.
              • Lycomedes Against Themistocles, Historia (1972): 569-574.
              • Charinus' Megarean Decree Again, Revue des Etudes Grecques 83 (1970): 305-308.
              • The Theseus Myth in Classical Athens, Quest for Theseus (London, 1970): 143-174.
              • (With JJ Keaney) Throphrastus on the End of Ostracism, American Journal of Philology 90 (1969): 313-319.
              • Two Notes on Cimon, Transactions of the American Philological Association 98 (1967): 67-75.
              • History Without Heroes: Theopompus' Treatment of Philip of Macedon, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 8 (1967): 133-153.
              • Vim Quandam Incredibilem, A Tradition Concerning the Oratory of Pericles, Classica et Mediaevalia 23 (1963): 23-33.
              • Theopompus' Treatment of Cimon, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 4 (1963): 107-114.
              • Two Notes on Diopeithes the Seer, Classical Philology 58 (1963): 116-188.
              • Charinus' Megarean Decree, American Journal of Philology 58 (1962): 25-246.
              • Articles on Higher Education  (See also entries under "Provocations" and "Publications" on  the wrobertconnor.com web site).

                  • "Please Don't Make the Case for the Humanities" ( published under the  title "No More Op Eds)  in  InsideHigherEd for April 22, 2016.
                  • After Smashing the Wedgwood, The American Scholar (Autumn 1989): 533-541.
                  • Why Were We Surprised? The American Scholar (Spring 1991): 175-184.
                  • The Future of the American University, The Modern University: Its Present Status and Future Prospects (Papers from the Sixth Kenan Convocation, April 22-24, 1993).
                  • Moral Knowledge in the Modern University, Ideas, vol. 6, no. 1 (1999): 56-67. [nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ideasv61/connormoral.htm]
                    • Give Majors an Overhaul, Slate (November 15, 2005). [www.slate.com/id/2130324]
                    • Where Have All the Big Questions Gone? Inside Higher Ed (December 12, 2005). [www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/12/12/connor]
                    • From Foxes to Hedgehogs, Inside Higher Ed (March 31, 2006). [www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/03/31/connor]
                    • The Right Time and Place for Big Questions, The Chronicle Review (June 9, 2006). [chronicle.com/article/The-Right-TimePlace-fo/8806]
                    • Last Bastion of Liberal Education?, Inside Higher Ed (July 24, 2006). [www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/07/24/connor]
                    • Watching Charlotte Climb: Little Steps Towards Big Questions, Liberal Education, vol. 93, no. 2 (Spring, 2007): 6-13. [www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-sp07/le-sp07_featureone.cfm]
                    • Searching for Islands of Success, Inside Higher Ed (October 4, 2007). [www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/10/04/connor]
                    • Looking Ahead: Letters to the Next President of the United States, Change, vol. 40, no. 5 (September-October 2008): 15. [www.changemag.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/September-October%202008/full-looking-ahead.html]
                    • Second Adolescence" Two Big Questions and Where they Belomg. Journalf College and Character 9 April 2008.
                    • Trifecta, or Three Bets Teagle is Making to Improve Student Learning, The Teagle Foundation Annual Report (2008). [www.teagle.org/about/ar08/essays/trifecta.aspx]
                    • What's Happened to the Major in Liberal Education?, Liberal Education, vol. 95, no. 2 (Spring, 2009). [www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-sp09/le-sp09_GuestMessage.cfm]
                    • Talking the Talk, Then Walking the Walk, Inside Higher Ed (September 25, 2009). [www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/09/25/connor]
                    • When Hope and History Rhyme: Good Work in Hard Times, The Teagle Foundation Annual Report (2009). [www.teagle.org/about/ar09/essay]
                    • Do Majors Matter?
                • Inside Higher ED, June 2011

                  Navigating a Perfect Storm
                  National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, June 2011
              • Miscellaneous  Publications
                Most encyclopedia articles, studies on the classical profession, reviews in classical journals, newspaper, TLS, op-ed pieces, etc., are omitted.  The following are probably the ones of most interest:
                Revised  May 2018
                • The New Classical Humanities and the Old, Classical Journal (1986): 337-347.
                • Humanistic Research, The Humanities in the University, ACLS Occasional Paper no. 6 (New York, 1988): 21-24.
                • Leadership: A View from the Fifth Century BC, Humanitas, vol. 16, no. 2 (1991-92): 19-27.
                • Scholarship and Technology in Classical Studies, in May Katzen, ed., Scholarship and Technology in the Humanities (British Library, 1992): 55-62.
                • Introduction to the Everyman edition of Thucydides, trans. by Richard Crawley (JM Dent, London, 1993).
                • Participatory vs. Representative Democracy, A Challenge to Democracy, Transcripts from the Symposium held on April 22-23, 1994 (Society for the Preservation of the Greek Heritage, Washington DC, 1994).
                • Why We Need Independent Centers for Advanced Study, The Chronicle Review (January 17, 2003). [chronicle.com/article/Why-We-Need-Independent-Cen/11477]