Byron MacDougall
Byron MacDougall teaches courses on ancient and medieval literatures—especially Ancient and Byzantine Greek literature—and their modern reception. Before coming to RISD, he taught at Brown University, the University of California Davis and Salve Regina University, and he has held research fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks, the University of Vienna and Princeton University. His research focuses on Greek literary, philosophical and religious culture of Late Antiquity and Byzantium. In addition to his first book, Philosophy at the Festival: The Festal Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus and the Classical Tradition (Brill 2022), his work has also been featured in academic journals including Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, American Journal of Philology, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, The Medieval Review, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Journal of Early Christianity, Journal of Late Antiquity, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik and Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies.
Academic areas of interest
ancient, late antique, and medieval literature and book culture, Byzantine Studies, ancient and medieval philosophy, reception studies (especially the reception of ancient philosophy, rhetoric and the Ancient Greek Novel), Early Christianity
Fall 2022
- LAS-E101-23 First-year Literature Seminar
- LAS-E101-29 First-year Literature Seminar
- LAS-E209-01 Epic
Spring 2023
- LAS-E325-02 Writing The Climate Crisis: Justice, Identity, and Environment In American Literature
- LAS-E352-01 Of Ethiopia: A Greek Novel Of Antiquity and Its Reception From Byzantium To The Harlem Renaissance
- LAS-E352-02 Of Ethiopia: A Greek Novel Of Antiquity and Its Reception From Byzantium To The Harlem Renaissance
- LAS-E548-01 Haunting Tolkien: Ghosts Of The West