Department Homepage
The College of Arts & Sciences
Jacques Bailly, Ph.D. ’97, a doctoral alumni of Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences, is the longtime head pronouncer for the iconic Scripps National Spelling Bee. He won the competition in 1980 at age 14 and began working as a pronouncer in 2003.
Seniors in the Humanities Scholars Program (HSP) in the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell University will showcase their research at an all-day conference May 1 at the A.D. White House. Their work spans across humanities fields and also highlights intersections with science, technology, business, law and other disciplines.
Annetta Alexandridis, classical archaeologist and art historian in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences, died April 13. Known for her hands-on approach, she was associate director of the Harvard-Cornell Exploration of Ancient Sardis, Türkiye and co-curated the Cornell Plaster Cast Collection.
Cornell admits the Class of 2030 emphasizing real-world impact, enrolling 5,776 students from 102 countries. At Cornell University, the diverse cohort reflects the land-grant mission and applied learning goals across multiple colleges.
For the ancient Greeks, an image could be understood as a seal pressed on a material to leave a mark, as opposed to an inferior imitation (mimēsis), scholar Verity Platt argues in a new book.
In early February, classics professor Mike Fontaine tapped the expertise he gleaned from writing How to Tell a Joke to address a very modern phenomenon: the current push by many companies for a return to the office.
Based on a 2018 conference co-organized by Caitie Barrett, professor of classics, and Jennifer Carrington, Ph.D. ’19, the book focuses on houses and households during a period when Egypt was ruled by Greeks and then by Romans.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers determined that organic residues of plant oils are poorly preserved in calcareous soils from the Mediterranean, leading decades of archaeologists to likely misidentify olive oil in ceramic artifacts.
A collaboration between Cornell and Harvard has continuously excavated the ancient city.
In a new paper, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow Davide Napoli argues that public speeches in ancient Greece aimed not to express personal views, but to undermine entrenched ideas and challenge common-sense conclusions.
This month’s featured titles include the latest by a National Book Award winner and a classical history of Jewish resistance to Rome.
Ten students who participated in this summer's Nexus Scholars Program share their stories..
Barry Strauss ’74 shines a light on the resilience the Jews of Judea showed in their rebellion against the Romans.
“How to Have Willpower: An Ancient Guide to Not Giving In,” edited and translated by professor Michael Fontaine, brings together a pair of works by Plutarch and Prudentius that show how people can overcome pressures that encourage them to act against their own best interests.
Projects spanned topics from Confederate cemeteries to Korean textiles.
Cornell’s newest Ph.D.s found success even through the unexpected events of the last few years, President Michael I. Kotlikoff reminded nearly 400 doctoral graduates at the 2025 Ph.D. Recognition Ceremony on May 23 at Barton Hall.
Sarah Stephenson is majoring in English and classics.
Cristina Kiefaber is a Classics major.
The award carries a stipend of $300,000; Strauss will receive the award at a ceremony on May 29 in Washington, D.C.
An event with translator Emily Wilson and a daylong community reading of portions of Homer’s epic poem highlighted the Arts Unplugged event.
Cornell experts comment on the restoration of Syria's damaged and looted historical sites.
A scholar of Greek and Roman epic and drama and the intellectual history of Greece and Rome, Ahl was a member of the Cornell faculty for more than 52 years.
Fellows will pursue research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.
Sturt Manning, received the P. E. MacAllister Field Archaeology Award at the Annual Meetings of the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) in Boston in November.
The Nov. 2 conference will focus on an interdisciplinary approach.
“We felt this is an important resource that should be available to our humanists at all levels, whether they have the resources to pay for membership or not,” said Peter John Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences.
Cornell researchers have received a $150,000 NEH Digital Humanities Advanced Grant to create a 3D virtual modeling project based on the Casa della Regina Carolina, a large Pompeian house.
Cornell, the only institution offering regular multilevel instruction in all six of the major Southeast Asian languages – Burmese, Indonesian, Khmer, Filipino (Tagalog), Thai and Vietnamese – will host a conference on the teaching of these languages on Sept. 19-21.
"Cornell alumni are generous with their time and efforts to assist students, to answer questions from students, or connect them to people and places."
The Humanities Scholars Program welcomes Verity Platt, professor of classics and history of art in the College of Arts & Sciences, as the program’s incoming director
Peter John Loewen says he's excited to support faculty in their research, meet students and showcase the value of a liberal arts education.
Assistant professor Toni Alimi traces the connections between Augustine’s understanding of slavery and his broader thoughts.
More students can afford to stay on campus to work in faculty labs during the summer thanks to generous alumni.
This month’s feature titles include an ancient guide to romance and “the first book authored by a geological formation,” both by A&S faculty.
The Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory identified the likeliest timeline of the Hellenistic-era ship's sinking as between 296-271 BCE, with a strong probability it occurred between 286-272 BCE.
How to Get Over a Breakup is Michael Fontaine’s latest entry in a series that mines modern wisdom from classical works
Coming from the University of Toronto, where he was the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Loewen began his five-year appointment as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Aug. 1.
“This year’s Humanities Scholar Program conference was spectacular. The range of topics covered, the diversity of approaches, and the level of mastery demonstrated by the students were inspiring,” said interim director Lawrence Glickman.
Kim Haines-Eitzen, the Paul and Berthe Hendrix Memorial Professor of Near Eastern studies, and Mostafa Minawi, associate professor of history and director of Critical Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies, will pursue research projects in residence in Durham, North Carolina.
Kim Montpelier is a classics and philosophy major.
The collection “Households in Context: Dwelling in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt” shifts the archaeological perspective from public and elite spaces such as temples, tombs and palaces to everyday dwellings and interactions of families.
Pietro (Piero) Pucci, an influential classical scholar who spent more than 50 years in the Department of Classics in the College of Arts and Sciences, died in Paris on April 7. He was 96.
As a new faculty fellow in the Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity, Adam T. Smith co-developed the new course this spring.
