I have been at the University of Missouri since 2000, moving to Mizzou from Tufts University where I began my professional career in 1989, the year I received my PhD from Duke University. I chaired the Mizzou Department of Classical Studies between 2008 and 2014 and am now the chair of the Department of Classics, Archaeology, and Religion. I am primarily interested in the history and literature of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. I served as the President of the North American Patristics Society in 2010-2012 and am currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Late Antiquity and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Early Christian Studies.

Select Awards

2019-20: Archie K. Davis Fellowship; National Humanities Center, North Carolina

2019: Arthur and Joyce Gordon Fellowship; Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Study, Ohio State

2017: Visiting Scholar; American Academy in Rome

2014-15: Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship

2013: Visiting Scholar American Academy in Rome

2007-08: University of Missouri Faculty Council Award for Research Leave

2002-03: National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers

1992-93: Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellowship in Classics, Harvard University

1990: National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar; Columbia University (Alan Cameron)

Select and Recent Publications

Books

The Lives of Saint Constantina: Introduction, Texts, Translations, and Commentary. Oxford University Press, 2020. Coauthored with Marco Conti and Virginia Burrus

Damasus of Rome: The Epigraphic Poetry. Introduction, Texts, Translations, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Paulinus of Nola: Life, Letters, and Poems. The Transformation of the Classical Heritage XXVII. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999

Articles and Chapters

“Augustine and the Classical Latin Literary Tradition.” In Augustine and Tradition: Influences Contexts Legacy. Ed. David G. Hunter and Jonathan P. Yates, 204-29. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2021.

“(Re)Founding Christian Rome: The Honorian Project of the Early Seventh Century.” In Urban Developments of Late Antique and Medieval Rome: Revising the Narrative of Renewal. Ed. Gregor Kalas and Ann van Dijk, 149-75. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021.

“Sagax animo: Jonas of Bobbio and the Verse Epitaph of Pope Honorius.” Early Medieval Europe 29 (2021): 161-80.

“Poets and Readers in Seventh-Century Rome: Pope Honorius, Lucretius, and the Doors of St. Peter’s.” Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought, and Religion 75, 39-85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

“Peter Beyond Rome: Achilleus of Spoleto, Neon of Ravenna, and the Epigramma Longum.” In Leadership and Community in Late Antiquity: Essays in Honour of Raymond Van Dam. Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages 26. Ed. Young Richard Kim and A.E.T. McLaughlin, 141-60. Turnout: Brepols, 2020.

“ICUR 8.20757: Poetry and Ambition at S. Agnese fuori le mura.” In Fide non Ficta: Essays in Honor of Paul B. Harvey. Jr. Biblioteca di Athenaeum 64. Ed. John D. Muccigrosso and Celia E. Schultz, 147-63. Bari: Edipuglia, 2020.

 “Pictures with Words: Reading the Apse Mosaic of S. Agnese f.l.m. (Rome).” Studies in Iconography 40 (2019): 1-26.