Adam Serfass, who arrived at Kenyon in 2002, teaches a variety of courses in Greek and Latin as well as rhetoric and ancient history. For his work in the classroom, Serfass was awarded a teaching fellowship from the Whiting Foundation in 2005 and Kenyon’s Trustee Teaching Excellence Award in 2007. He has delivered papers, reviewed books and written essays on the history of ancient Rome, especially the diffusion of Christianity in late antiquity. His scholarship and teaching are intertwined: his book Views of Rome: A Greek Reader (2018), an annotated anthology of Greek-language writings about the Romans, originated in a course he first offered as a visiting professor at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome and later taught again at Kenyon. In 2019, Views of Rome received the Classical Association of the Middle West and South's Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award.
Education
— Doctor of Philosophy from Stanford University
— Bachelor of Arts from Williams College
Courses Recently Taught
CLAS 111
Greek History
CLAS 111
This course surveys the history of ancient Greece from its occluded origins in the pre-Homeric past to the widespread diffusion of Hellenic culture that accompanied the conquests of Alexander the Great. At the heart of the course will be a careful study of the emergence and development of the Greek city-state in its various incarnations. The course will provide a solid grounding in political history but also will explore aspects of the cultural milieu -- for example, religion, sexual mores and the economy -- that fostered some of the greatest literary and artistic works produced by Western civilization. We will read from the celebrated Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, as well as from a variety of other sources, ranging from the familiar to the recondite. No prerequisite. Offered every other year.
CLAS 112
Roman History
CLAS 112
This course surveys the history of the ancient Romans from their early years as a negligible people in central Italy, to their emergence as the supreme power in the Mediterranean, and, finally, to the eve of their displacement as rulers of the greatest empire in antiquity. The course combines a chronological account of the Romans' remarkable political history with an examination of Roman society, including subjects such as gender, demography and slavery. We will read from a variety of ancient sources, including the historians Polybius, Livy and Tacitus and the poets Horace and Vergil. We also will mine the evidence offered by coins, inscriptions, papyri and even graffiti, which provide invaluable insight into the realia of daily life. No prerequisite. Offered every other year.
CLAS 255
Rhetoric in Antiquity
CLAS 255
Training in rhetoric -- the art of public speaking -- was a cornerstone of education in antiquity. The techniques developed in Greece and Rome for composing and analyzing speeches remain invaluable today, but the formal study of these techniques has all but disappeared from undergraduate curricula. This course seeks to fight this trend. In the opening weeks, we will read ancient handbooks on rhetoric, which anatomize the strategies and tropes available to the public speaker, and will engage in classroom exercises in speechmaking developed millennia ago. We will then examine the crucial role that rhetoric played in three venues: the assembly of democratic Athens, the criminal courts of republican Rome and the cathedrals of Christian bishops in late antiquity. We will read and analyze extant speeches delivered in these three venues, by figures such as Pericles, Cicero, and the Cappadocian Fathers, as well as comparable speeches delivered by more contemporary figures such as Churchill, Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. It is hoped that the academic study of ancient rhetoric will aid students in developing their own skills as public speakers. No prerequisite. Offered occasionally.
CLAS 471
Senior Seminar in Classics
CLAS 471
In this capstone course, the content of which will change on a regular basis, students will study closely a particular topic in classics that benefits from an investigation based on a wide range of approaches (e.g., literary, historical, archaeological). The course seeks to further students' skills in written and verbal communication. Each student will write a major research paper on a subject related to the topic of the seminar and will outline the results of his or her inquiry in an oral presentation. This course is required of and restricted to classics majors and minors in their senior year. Offered every year.
GREK 111Y
Intensive Elementary Greek
GREK 111Y
This yearlong course prepares students to read Ancient Greek literature in its original form. The first semester and the first half of the second semester will consist of readings and exercises from a textbook designed to help students build a working vocabulary and learn the extensive and subtle grammar of this language. In addition, twice a week students will translate a short piece of authentic Greek, appreciating its artistry and situating it in its cultural context. After spring break, the hard work of the preceding months will be rewarded with the opportunity to read Plato's dialogue "Crito" or another text written in Attic prose. The course is taught in English and does not presuppose any knowledge either of Ancient Greek or of grammatical terminology. Students enrolled in this course will be automatically added to GREK 112Y for the spring semester. No prerequisite. Offered every year.
GREK 112Y
Intensive Elementary Greek
GREK 112Y
This yearlong course prepares students to read Ancient Greek literature in its original form. The first semester and the first half of the second semester will consist of readings and exercises from a textbook designed to help students build a working vocabulary and learn the extensive and subtle grammar of this language. In addition, twice a week students will translate a short piece of authentic Greek, appreciating its artistry and situating it in its cultural context. After spring break, the hard work of the preceding months will be rewarded with the opportunity to read Plato's dialogue "Crito" or another text written in Attic prose. The course is taught in English and does not presuppose any knowledge either of Ancient Greek or of grammatical terminology. No prerequisite. Offered every year.
GREK 202
Intermediate Greek: Homer
GREK 202
It is a great pleasure to read Homer in Greek, and this course seeks to help students do so with accuracy and insight. Students will acquire a working knowledge of Homer's vocabulary and syntax and will explore some of the key literary and historical questions that have occupied his readers. Offered every spring.
GREK 301
Advanced Greek
GREK 301
Students will improve their skills in reading Greek and discuss scholarship on the author or authors being read that semester. Each semester the readings change, so that GREK 301 and 302 can be taken, to the student's advantage, several times. Students are encouraged to inform the instructor in advance if there is a particular genre, author or theme they would especially like to study. The list of authors taught in this course includes, to name just a few, the lyric poets; the playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes; and great prose stylists such as Plato and Thucydides. Offered every fall.
GREK 302
Advanced Greek
GREK 302
Students will improve their skills in reading Greek and discuss scholarship on the author or authors being read that semester. Each semester the readings change, so that GREK 301 and 302 can be taken, to the student's advantage, several times. Students are encouraged to inform the instructor in advance if there is a particular genre, author or theme they would especially like to study. The list of authors taught in this course includes, to name just a few, the lyric poets; the playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes; and great prose stylists such as Plato and Thucydides. Offered every spring.
GREK 393
Individual Study
GREK 393
Individual study in Greek allows students to study texts not covered or minimally covered in existing courses. To be eligible for an individual study, a student must also concurrently enroll in the advanced Greek course offered during the semester in which the individual study is to take place. If this is impossible, the student must petition for an exemption in the proposal to the department. To enroll in an individual study, a student should meet with an appropriate faculty member for a preliminary discussion of the project. If the faculty member is willing to supervise the study, then the student must submit a proposal by email to all members of the department on campus. Departmental approval is required for the individual study to proceed. If the proposal is approved, the student should take the initiative in designing the course and, in consultation with the supervisor, develop a syllabus. The student and supervisor should meet at least one hour each week. For an individual study worth 0.5 units, the workload must be equivalent, at minimum, to that encountered in an advanced Greek course. For individual studies worth 0.25 units, the work should be approximately half that encountered in such a course. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval before the registrar's deadline.\n
LATN 201
Intermediate Latin: Prose
LATN 201
The goal of this course is to cultivate students' skills as readers of continuous Latin prose. To this end, students will expand their vocabulary as well as review and refine their understanding of the morphology and syntax of classical Latin. Upon completing this course, students will read Latin prose with greater precision, nuance and speed. Authors read with some regularity in this course include Caesar, Cicero and Sallust; however, the particular text or texts will vary from year to year and may be complemented with a selection of poems, for example those of Catullus. Offered every fall.
LATN 301
Advanced Latin
LATN 301
In this course, students will improve their skills in reading Latin and discuss scholarship on the author or authors being read during the semester. Each semester the readings change, so that LATN 301 and 302 can be taken, to the student's advantage, several times. Students are encouraged to inform the instructor if there is a particular genre, author or theme they would especially like to study. The list of authors regularly taught in this course includes, to name just a few, Horace and Ovid, the comic poet Plautus, and great prose stylists such as Livy, Tacitus, Petronius and Augustine. Offered every fall.
Academic & Scholarly Achievements
2018
Views of Rome: A Greek Reader. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
2018
2014
“Unraveling the Pallium Dispute between Gregory the Great and John of Ravenna.” In Dressing Judeans and Christians in Antiquity, edited by Kristi Upson-Saia, Carly Daniel-Hughes, and Alicia F. Batten, 75-96. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.
2019
“Maxentius as Xerxes in Eusebius’ Accounts of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.” Paper delivered at the XVIII. International Conference on Patristic Studies. Oxford, England. 2019.