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Academics - Classics Faculty & Staff

Academics - Classics Faculty & Staff

Jeremy Hartnett

Professor of Classics, Charles D. and Elizabeth S. LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Dept Chair

CONTACT:

Detchon Center 107
765-361-6107
hartnetj@wabash.edu
Curriculum vitae

Picture of Hartnett, Jeremy

Professor Jeremy Hartnett began teaching at Wabash in 2004 after graduate work at the University of Michigan.  A specialist in Roman archaeology and social history, he studies sites in Italy including Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, and Rome.  In particular, Prof. Hartnett is drawn to everyday life in Roman cities.

His first book, The Roman Street: Urban Life and Society in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2017 -- Winner of 2018 James Henry Breasted Prize from the American Historical Association) breathes life back into urban thoroughfares.  Recapturing the flurry of city activity involves drawing on the evidence of historical and poetic texts, inscriptions, artwork, monuments, and buildings as well as mixing in comparative evidence.

Prof. Hartnett’s second book, The Remarkable Life, Death, and Afterlife of an Ordinary Roman: A Social History (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press), discusses a Roman funerary monument accidentally discovered under St. Peter's basilica iin 1626, which now resides in the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  Intended for students and general readers who desire more depth and nuance about Romans outside the halls of power, the project reconstructs an ancient life in as many dimensions as possible and also traces the sculpture's remarkable odyssey between Rome and Indianapolis.  In the works is another book, tentatively entitled Face to Face with the -PQR, that offers case studies of the daily embodied experience of Rome's lower social strata.

Prof. Hartnett teaches across the discipline of Classics, including both ancient languages as well as the history and archaeology of Greece and Rome.  His Elementary Latin classes are renowned for a combination of jocularity and rigor (daily quizzes!), while special-topics courses have wrestled topics as diverse as Pompeii, Early Christianity, and Wabash's next campus center.

As an undergraduate, Prof. Hartnett studied at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, and he has twice returned to teach at the Centro, most recently as Andrew W. Mellon Professor-in-Charge in 2017-2018.  He now serves as the chief executive of the Centro as its Managing Committee Chair.

One of Prof. Hartnett's greatest joys as a teacher is leading students overseas, especially to Italy – for pleasures intellectual, cultural, artistic, architectural, and definitely culinary.  In addition to his time at the Centro, he has led somewhere around a dozen other groups abroad.

Dr. Hartnett is proud to uphold the Classics Department’s reputation for feeding hungry Wallies in grand style.  Students know his gift for the grill and the pasta pot, but his family (including kids Jessie and Silas) acknowledges that he is a whiz with leftovers.  Prof. Hartnett’s passion for Michigan football and basketball, despite the playful ribbing of his students, still runs strong, but pales in comparison with his love of Wabash sports.  He is a proud member and frequent director of the Wabash College Pep Band; he zealously wields the herald trumpet and also holds the current record for most drums broken due to rabid, insatiable pep (at least 7).

Hartnett speaks of his work inside and outside the classroom.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Classical Art and Archaeology, University of Michigan, 2003
M.A. Latin, University of Michigan, 1999
M.A. Classical Art and Archaeology, University of Michigan, 1999
A.B. summa cum laude, Classical Civilization, Wabash College, 1996

RECENT COURSE OFFERINGS

Latin 101/102 – Elementary Latin
Latin 201 – Intermediate Latin: Insult, Abuse, and Invective in Ancient Rome
Greek 201 – Intermediate Latin: Lysias
Classics 103/Art 103 – Greek Art and Archaeology
Classics 104/Art 104 – Roman Art and Archaeology
Classics 106/History 212 – Ancient Rome (history survey)
Classics 112/History 210 – Houses and Society in the Ancient World
Classics 212/Religion 260 – Early Christianity in Rome (with trip to Italy)
Classics 212/History 310 – Self and Society in Ancient Rome (with trip to Italy)
Classics 212/History 310 – The Art of Empire in Ancient Rome (with trip to Italy)
Classics 212/History 310 – The Ancient Roman City (with trip to Italy)
Freshman Tutorial – Virgil’s Aeneid and Augustan Rome
Freshman Tutorial – Caesar Builds Wabash: How Ancient Rome Can Help Us Design Our Next Campus Center

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

"Copa Campana: Reconsidering a Pompeian Tavern Worker's Social Roles" Symposium Cumanum; Cumae, Italy

“Street Theater: A Pompeian Neighborhood in Five Acts” John Cabot University, Rome; 2018

“Beyond the 1%: How Everyday Romans Lived” The Getty Villa, Malibu; 2017.

Contributing faculty member, NEH summer seminar for school teachers, “Roman Daily Life in Petronius and Pompeii” Gustavus Adolphus College; Matthew Panciera, director; Summers 2016, 2018, 2021.

“Numismatic Caesar: Using Coins in the Latin Classroom” American Classical League, Austin; 2016.

“Sound as a Roman Urban Social Phenomenon” Stadterfahrung als Sinneserfahrung in der römischen Kaiserzeit, Hannover, Germany; 2014

“The Legacy of Rome” Co-presenter at three-day seminar, The Aspen Institute; 2012

“Faces Past: Ancient Imaginations and the Craft of Social History”  The 33rd Annual LaFollette Lecture, Wabash College; 2012

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

The Remarkable Life, Death, and Afterlife of an Ordinary Roman (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)

"Marketing Trajan at the Museo dei Fori Imperiali" Exhibition review of Traiano: Construire L'Impero, Creare L'Europa, American Journal of Archaeology 122.4 (2018)

"Bars (taberna, popina, caupona, thermopolium)" in Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th edition, 2017)

The Roman Street: Urban Life and Society in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

“Flavius Agricola: An Interdisciplinary Model for Senior Capstone Courses" Classical Journal 112.1 (2016): 217-234.

“Sound as a Roman Urban Social Phenomenon" in Stadterfahrung als Sinneserfahrung in der römischen Kaiserzeit (2016), edited by A. Haug and P. Kreuz, Brepolis, 159-178.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Charles D. and Elizabeth S. LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Wabash College; 2022-

Indiana Classical Conference Teacher of the Year; 2019

James Henry Breasted Prize ("best book in English on any field of history prior to the year 1000 CE"), American Historical Association, for The Roman Street; 2018

Anne and Andrew T. Ford Chair in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College; 2014-2022

New Directions Initative Grant, Great Lakes Colleges Association; 2014

33rd Annual LaFollette Lecturer; 2012

McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Research Scholar, Wabash College; 2011-2012

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend; 2011

New Directions Initiative Grant, Great Lakes Colleges Association; 2011

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, “Identity and Self-Representation Among the Sub-cultures of Ancient Rome,” American Academy in Rome; Eleanor Leach and Eve D’Ambra, co-directors; 2008

Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award, University of Michigan; 2003

Associate Fellow, Michigan Society of Fellows; 2001-2002

ET CETERA

Suovetaurilia, a campus-wide Greco-Roman sacrifice in April 2014 (http://www.wabash.edu/news/displaystory.cfm?news_ID=10277)

Coverage of the Spring 2013 Classics senior seminar, dedicated to the funerary monument of Flavius Agricola, on display in the Indianapolis Museum of Art
(http://blogs.wabash.edu/accents/2013/05/20/classics-seniors-present-research/)

Student blog entries from November 2012 trip to Italy for Classics 212/History 310, “Self and Society in Ancient Rome” (http://blogs.wabash.edu/immersionlearning2011/category/hartnett-in-ancient-rome/)

 “$#*! This Dad Says: Reflections on Fatherhood, Learning, and Teaching” Chapel Talk, Wabash College; 2011 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELC9PkQJrsA)

Reflections on an Immersion Trip to Turkey (http://www.wabash.edu/magazine/index.cfm?news_id=8207)

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