Shadi Bartsch

Shadi Bartsch is a scholar of the classics and of their reception in the modern world. She is also interested in the historical interaction of the sciences and humanities.

As founding Director of the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge from 2015-24, Bartsch oversaw a cross-divisional postdoctoral program, started the journal KNOW, established a new MA track and two new pedagogical initiatives (KNOW, XCAP), and brought faculty together for intellectual exchange from all the divisions of the University.

Bartsch has published works on ancient Rome, on rhetoric and philosophy, and on the reception of the western classical tradition in contemporary China, a challenge that involved learning Mandarin. Her book Persius: A Study in Food, Philosophy, and the Figural, won the 2016 Goodwin Award of Merit, and her translation of Vergil’s Aeneid was one of the Guardian’s notable books of the year. She has edited 7 wide-ranging essay collections (two of them Cambridge Companions) and the “Seneca in Translation” series from the University of Chicago. A Guggenheim fellow and member of the British Academy, she has held visiting scholar positions in St. Andrews, Taipei, and Rome. Her current book project is entitled Alchemies of Thought: Ten Essays on the Humanities and Scientific Innovation.