Tedd Wimperis
Assistant Professor of Classical Languages
Department: World Languages and Cultures
Email: twimperis@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-5312
Brief Biography
I'm Assistant Professor of Classical Languages in the Department of World Languages and Cultures. I enjoy teaching and writing about all things Greek and Roman, as well as the legacy of classical antiquity in later historical contexts. My research centers on Latin and Greek literature, and explores the intersections of storytelling (cultural memory, mythology, etc.), political ideology, and collective identity. My book Constructing Communities in Vergil's Aeneid (University of Michigan Press, 2024) looks at how the fictional world of this Roman epic reflects the politically-charged promotion of Roman identity in contemporary propaganda under the emperor Augustus. My teaching resume includes Latin from the elementary to advanced levels, tutorials in ancient Greek, and various aspects of ancient culture, including race and ethnicity, mythology, and the representation of antiquity in modern movies, shows, and video games.
News & Notes
Education
Ph.D. Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017.
M.A. Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2014.
B.A. Classics, Boston College, 2011. Magna cum laude.
Courses Taught
LAT1010: Elementary Latin 1.
LAT1020: Elementary Latin 2.
LAT2010/3710, LAT2020/3720: Intermediate-Advanced Latin: Livy and Roman Historiography; Cicero and Roman Oratory; Vergil and Roman Epic.
LAT3110/4110: Advanced Latin Tutorial: reading Lucretius; Ovid's Metamorphoses; literature of the Trojan War.
GRK3110: Ancient Greek Tutorial: reading excerpts from Athenian prose; Homer's Iliad.
CLA1100: Classical Mythology.
CLA2250: The Ancient World in Cinema.
CLA3700: Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean World.
CLA3703: Leadership and Power in the Ancient World.
CLA3704: Dark Antiquity: Rage, Revenge, Revolutions.
COR1100: The Global Experience: Storytelling and Communities
GBL2460: Greece: Classics in Context (J-term study abroad; with Hui-Hua Chang)
Current Projects
"Liminal Landscapes and Civic Alienation in Euripides’ Hippolytus." (journal article)
"From Persia to Greece and Back Again: Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus and Transcultural Memory" (journal article)
Identity in Vergil: Ancient Representations, Global Receptions. Proceedings of the 2021 Symposium Cumanum conference. (edited volume)
The Text of Power: Traditions and Receptions of Greek and Latin Encomiastic Poetry (book project)
Publications
Book
Constructing Communities in Vergil’s Aeneid: Cultural Memory, Identity, and Ideology. University of Michigan Press, January 2024.
Peer-reviewed articles and chapters
“The Aeneid and the Politics of National History,” in The Aeneid and the Modern World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Vergil’s Epic in the 20th and 21st Centuries, eds. O’Neill & Rigoni (Routledge), 133-54. December 2021.
“Turnus’ Tota Italia: Italian Solidarity and Political Rhetoric in Aeneid 7-12.” TAPA 150.1, 143-79. Spring 2020.
“A Humanist Autograph Lost and Found: Mattia Lupi’s Annales Geminianenses.” Humanistica Lovaniensia 67.1, 47-68. March 2018.
Book reviews
Review of Joseph Farrell, Juno’s Aeneid: A Battle for Heroic Identity. CJ Online, 2.3.2023.
Review of Jacqueline Klooster and Inger N.I. Kuin, After the Crisis: Remembrance, Re-anchoring and Recovery in Ancient Greece and Rome. CJ Online, 7.2.2021.
Review of Stephanie McCarter (ed. & trans.), Horace: Epodes, Odes, and Carmen Saeculare. Classical Review, 71.1, 104-106. Spring 2021.
Review of Nandini B. Pandey, The Poetics of Power in Augustan Rome: Latin Poetic Responses to Early Imperial Iconography. CJ Online, 1.6.2020.
Review of Hannah Cornwell, Pax and the Politics of Peace: Republic to Principate. CJ Online, 6.26.2018.
Presentations
“An Aeneid for the Borgias: Vergilian Mythmaking in Ercole Strozzi’s Epicedium Caesaris Borgiae Ducis (1507).” CAMWS 2026 Annual Meeting in Mobile Alabama. April 2026.
“Transposable Persians: Xenophon’s Cyropaedia as Transcultural Memory.” CAMWS 2025 Annual Meeting in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. March 2025.
Respondent for SCS panel, “Intertextuality and Greek and Roman Cultural Memory.” SCS 2023 Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. January 2024.
“Generic Subversion and Political Critique in Lucan, Vergil, and American Westerns.” 118th CAMWS Meeting, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. March 2022.
“Liminal Landscapes and Civic Alienation in Euripides’ Hippolytus.” SCS 2022 Virtual Annual Meeting. January 2022.
“Bringing Antiquity to Life with 3D Printing: A Pedagogical Approach.” Virtual CAMWS 2020. May 2020. .
“Constructing Ethnicity in Miniature: Cultural Memory in the World of the Aeneid.” SCS 2019 Annual Meeting, San Diego, California. Vergilian Society affiliated panel.
“Foundation Myths and Identity within the Aeneid.” 98th CAMWS-SS Meeting, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. October 2018.
“Troezen and Athens in Euripides’ Hippolytus: Myth, Politics, and Liminality.” 113th CAMWS Meeting, Kitchener, Ontario. April 2017.
Professional Activities
Member, Board of Trustees of the Vergilian Society. Spring 2026-present.
Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship program through Duke University, graduate student mentor. Fall 2021-Spring 2023; Fall 2025-present.
Organizer and moderator of Latin student panel “Ancient Languages in the Modern World,” at the Undergraduate Conference of Languages and Cultures (UCLC), 51±¬ÁÏÍø. September 19, 2025.
Invited lecture at UNC-Greensboro, “Constructing Communities in the Aeneid and Today.” March 19, 2024.
Co-organizer (with Hans Hansen and Zack Rider) of SCS Organizer-Refereed Panel, “Intertextuality and Greek and Roman Cultural Memory.” January 2024.
Invited lecture at UNC-Chapel Hill, “Politics of the Past: Rome, Vergil, and Today.” September 28, 2022.
Co-organizer (with Ava Crawford) and panelist, “Building Diverse Communities: Past and Present.” Public panel sponsored by Classical Studies, in partnership with CREDE and other university programs, 51±¬ÁÏÍø. September 19, 2022.
Creator of Wine-Dark Sea Stories, YouTube channel and podcast presenting ancient history and mythology for general audiences (6,000+ subscribers). Launched Spring 2021.
Co-director (with David J. Wright), Symposium Cumanum 2021, “Identity in Vergil: Ancient Representations, Global Receptions,” Vergilian Society. June 23-26, 2021.
Organizer, “The Jewish Revolts: Exceptional, or To Be Expected?” delivered by Dr. Mary T. Boatwright of Duke University. 51±¬ÁÏÍø, September 2019.
Co-organizer and presenter, “Contexts, Connections, and Curiosity in the Language Classroom: Perspectives from Classical Language Pedagogy,” at the 16th Annual Teaching & Learning Conference, 51±¬ÁÏÍø. August 2019.
Service Activities
Coordinator of Classical Studies program. January 2025-present.
Chair, Religious and Spiritual Life Committee, 2025-2026.
Chair, ad hoc committee for independent study compensation. 2024-2025.
World Languages and Cultures Working Group for Identity, Vitality, & Visibility in Virtual and Physical Spaces, 2021-present