Brett Evans

Brett Evans is a scholar of ancient Greek literature, epigraphy, and cultural history. His research focuses on the social status and function of Greek poets who worked in the far-flung royal courts of the Hellenistic Greek world after Alexander the Great. Hellenistic poets have long been considered the epitome of socially-isolated, ivory tower intellectuals; yet the cultural centers to which they gravitated were the courts of the most powerful kings and queens of their day. In his current book project Evans examines how poets positioned themselves at court and competed for status against courtiers whose gifts to their patrons were far more tangible than their own: admirals’ victories, diplomats’ treaties, scientists’ inventions, and everyone’s wealth and luxuries. In particular, he applies sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas of cultural capital and distinction to the Hellenistic world by using a broad array of historical evidence, including coins, papyri, and inscriptions.

Brett enjoys teaching all levels of ancient Greek and Latin as well as a variety of thematic courses in Classical Studies. The Greeks and Romans are still very much alive in our cultural bones; indeed, they often appear where we least expect them. What do the stories they told themselves about gods and mortals, men and women, individuals and social structures reveal about their values, their problems, and the human experience?

Outside the classroom, Brett has over ten years’ experience advising students in all fields applying to nationally competitive fellowships for their academic and professional development, including Fulbright, Marshall, Mitchell, Rhodes, Boren, Gilman, Truman, Goldwater, Udall, Luce, Humanity in Action, and Davis Projects for Peace. As a Faculty Fellow in the Walter Commons, Brett shares his knowledge of these awards with students and mentors them as they apply from their first years at Conn to their last. In 2023 he earned Georgetown University’s Career Champion award for his dedication to helping his students as they applied to jobs, fellowships, and graduate programs.

Born in Virginia, Brett studied classics and chemistry at the College of William and Mary, then did his graduate study at the University of Bristol, where he was a Fulbright scholar, and the University of Virginia, where he earned his Ph.D. He taught at Georgetown University and UVA before coming to Conn in 2023.

Publications

Evans, B. forthcoming. “Hesiod, Euripides, and Noumenios in Armenia: Paideia and Intercultural Poetics in the Greek Inscriptions of Hellenistic Armavir (IEOG 9-15).” In Klooster, J.J.H., et al., eds. Beyond Alexandria (Hellenistica Groningana). Leuven.

Evans, B. forthcoming. “Ritual, Meter, and Cultural Memories of Megatheism: A New Case for Sarapis as the God of Hyssaldomos’ Verse-Inscription from Mylasa.” In Panoussi, V., Hutton, W., eds. Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Greece and Rome. Berlin and Boston.

Evans, B. 2024. “Two Beginnings: Acrostic Commencements in Horace (Epod. 1.1–2) and Ovid (Met. 1.1–3).” Classical Quarterly 73: 699-713.

Evans, B. 2023. “Callimachus vs. Conon: Competing Agents of Change for the Lock of Berenice.” In Castelli, S., Sluiter, I., eds. Agents of Change in the Greco-Roman and Early Modern Periods: Ten Case Studies in Innovation, 91-110. Leiden.

Evans, B. 2021. “Courting the Queen: The Power Dynamics of Marriage as Metaphor in Callimachus’ Victoria Berenices.” In Harder, M.A., et al., eds. Women and Power in Hellenistic Poetry (Hellenistica Groningana 25), 95-120. Leuven-Paris-Bristol, CT.

Evans, B. 2020. “Distinction, Centrality and Cultural Appropriation in Pre-Alexandrian Court Poetry: The Case of Lycia.” Classical Quarterly 70: 558-576.

Evans, B. 2020. “A Conjecture on Aeschylus, Agamemnon 985.” Philologus 164: 2-13.