Faculty Bio

Hank Blume

Assistant Professor in the Department of World Languages & Cultures – Classics; Leland F. and Helen Schubert Honors Program Co-Director

Education

• B.A., Cornell University
• Ph.D., The Ohio State University

About

Dr. Blume received his Ph.D. in 2017 from The Ohio State University, where he subsequently served as a lecturer of Classics until 2021 when he began teaching at OWU.

Dr. Blume teaches Latin and Ancient Greek at all levels as well as courses (in English translation) on ancient literature, history, and culture, such as: Empire and Ethnicity in the Ancient World, Classical Mythology, The Twilight of Mediterranean Empires, and Gender and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity.

He has recently (2023) taken students abroad to Spain to study classical reception through the OWU Connection via a Theory-to-Practice (TPG) grant. He has also received two additional grants in his years at OWU. The first in 2022, which brought to external speakers to discuss the prejudices against women in capital penalty cases. The second in 2024, to develop a course on the nature of ethnicity and empire as seen in examples from southern Spain (Roman Baetica).

His research is broadly centered around mechanisms of social control in the Roman world. In particular, he studies the ways in which emotions are seen to affect political decision making in the Roman Republic as well as the legal rights of women in the Roman world. He also has an interest in the reception of classical literature which he shares with his colleagues in the Spanish program.

Dr. Blume is interested in innovative and collaborative pedagogical approaches to the study of classics and has developed courses that are meant to facilitate interdisciplinary work with other courses that are being taught at OWU.

He is currently the interim co-director of the Leland F. and Helen Schubert Honors Program.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his animals and traveling.

Areas of Interest/Expertise

• Roman Historiography
• Roman Law (rights and executions of Women)
• Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
• Classical Reception