Dave Oosterhuis joined the
faculty of Classical Civilizations at Gonzaga in the fall of 2010 and is
excited to be part of a growing and dynamic department. He holds a BA
(University of Iowa, 1992) and an MA in Classics (University of Minnesota,
2003), and a PhD from the University of Minnesota in Classical and Near Eastern
Studies (2007). Before coming to Gonzaga he taught at Macalester College and
the University of Saint Thomas, both in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He also taught Latin at Eden Prairie High School. He has spent two
summers in Rome, one studying Latin and the other in the American Academy’s
Summer Program in Archaeology. As part of the latter he participated in the
joint SUNY-Buffalo/Univeritá di Siena excavations at Bomarzo in northern Lazio,
an experience that, although enjoyable, reinforced his vocation as a
philologist, not an archaeologist. As a former high school Latin teacher he
believes strongly in outreach and has continued to visit schools and lecture on
topics related to the ancient world. He has also spent five summers with Upward
Bound programs, teaching disadvantaged high-schoolers the basics of Greek and
Latin. His specialties are Augustan Rome and its reception, the poet Vergil and
the body of literature around him (including biographies, commentaries, and apocrypha), the portrayal of ancient Rome in popular
culture, and musical reception of the Classics.
