Richard L. Phillips

Richard L. Phillips Assistant Professor of Classics

Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
303 Major Williams Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-5362 | rphllps@vt.edu

Richard Phillips, an associate professor of Ancient Greek and Latin Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Virginia Tech, has been writing broadly about the motif of invisibility and transformation in antiquity. In doing so he is applying new theoretical approaches to the topic. These projects are helping to inform and frame a larger study of human invisibility in the ancient Mediterranean world (in progress) intended for a broader scholarly audience. Phillips is excited to be teaching a new Pathways course, “Fairytale, Folklore, and Magic: Popular Literature in Ancient Greece & Rome,” that weaves the various threads of his research together.

Principal Areas of Research Focus

Ancient Greek and Latin, Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Invisibility in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Papyrology and Graeco-Roman Egypt
Magic, Mythology, and Religion
Greek and Latin Popular Literature

Education

Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Professional Roles

Phi Beta Kappa, Mu of Virginia Chapter (Past President, 2020–2021)
MCLL Scholarship and Honors Committee
Eta Sigma Phi (Classics Honor Society, Faculty sponsor)
Classics Club Mentor

Awards and Honors

Certificate of Teaching Excellence, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, 2017
Summer Program in Roman Epigraphy, The American Academy in Rome (Director, John Bodel, Brown University), June 30-July 10, 2016
National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Institute (“Mortality: Facing Death in Ancient Greece”; Director, Karen Bassi, University of California at Santa Cruz), The Athens Centre, Summer 2014
National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Seminar (“Roman Religion in Its Cultural Context”; Director, Karl Galinsky, University of Texas at Austin), The American Academy in Rome, Summer 2007

Publications

Books

In Pursuit of Invisibility: Ritual Texts from Late Roman Egypt, American Studies in Papyrology 47 (Durham, NC: American Society of Papyrologists, 2009).

Journal Articles

“Invisibility, Belief, and Narrative,” The Classical Journal 116.3 (2021): 306-330.

“Invisibility and Sight in Homer: Some Aspects of A. S. Pease Reconsidered,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 111 (2020) (forthcoming)

A Fragmentary Account Involving Phylakitai,” Chronique d’Égypte 95 (2020): 87-92.

Dionysios’ Possessions: A List in Name Only,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 216 (2020): 203–206.

“Ritual Evidence and the Art of Going Unnoticed in PGM I 222-231 and 247-262.” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists. 56 (2019): 197-203.

“A Prayer for Justice on the Epitaph of Caecinia Bassa (CIL VI 7898),” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 205 (2018): 96-101.

“On the Outside Looking In: Pliny’s Natural History and the Portrayal of Invisibility in the Latin West.” In “Visibility and Invisibility in the Religions of Rome,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 56/57 (2011/2012): 37-62.

Book Chapters/Contributions

(with Hélène Cuvigny) “Letter belonging to the Archive of Papnouthis and Dorotheos.” In Yale Papyri in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Vol. IV, American Studies in Papyrology, Hélène Cuvigny, Ruth Duttenhöfer, and Ann E. Hanson, eds. (forthcoming).

“A Fragment of a Private Letter Regarding the Care of a Goose.” In Yale Papyri in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Vol. IV, American Studies in Papyrology, Hélène Cuvigny, Ruth Duttenhöfer, and Ann E. Hanson, eds. (forthcoming).

“Traditions of Transformation and Shape-shifting in PGM XIII 270–277.” In Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions, Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, L. Bortolani et al., eds (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019): 208–226.