Julia Dyson Hejduk

Education

• Harvard University Ph.D. in Classical Philology, 1993
• Harvard University M.A. in Classical Philology, 1991
• Princeton University B.A. in Classics, summa cum laude, 1988

Specialties

Latin Poetry; Intertextuality; Roman Religion in Literature; Women in Antiquity; Acrostics

Biography

Dr. Hejduk came to Baylor in 2003 after 10 years on the faculty at the University of Texas at Arlington.

“I came to Baylor both because of the outstanding Classics department (see below!) and because I was thrilled at Vision 2012, the drive to make Baylor a truly Christian research university. This struck me then, and still does now, as the most exciting experiment in Higher Education in the past fifty years. Though the university has certainly undergone some growing pains (which is what happens when you try to make a real change, especially in academia), I feel that it has remained true to this vision and that Classics, especially, becomes stronger every year.”

Research Interests

Dr. Hejduk’s main research interest is Latin poetry, especially as it sheds light on Roman religion and on women in the ancient world; she is particularly fascinated by the phenomenon of intertextuality, both ancient and modern. Her current project focuses on acrostic conversations.

What are the strengths of the Classics Department?

"The Baylor Classics Department is a vibrant community united by its love of the ancient world. We have a national reputation as one of the largest and best departments in the country, with huge undergraduate enrollments in our language classes (for beginning Greek and Latin, often triple or quadruple those at top-ten programs). Our upper-level offerings are correspondingly rich and diverse. The faculty are all extremely dedicated both to their subject and to their students, who tend to be among the brightest and most successful at the university. Many of our graduates have gone on to win choice fellowships at Ivy League and other excellent graduate programs; many have shared their passion for the ancient world by becoming Latin teachers; others have gone on to top law schools and medical schools. And we know how to throw a great party: thousands of high school students and dozens of teachers have enjoyed our annual Latin Day, and in Spring 2014 hundreds of Classicists from all over the country came to our campus for the annual meeting of CAMWS."

Selected Publications

Books and Collections

• 2020. The God of Rome: Jupiter in Augustan Poetry. Oxford University Press.
• 2017. Happy Golden Anniversary, Harvard School! Special issue of Classical World (111.1). Editor and author of introduction.
• 2014. The Offense of Love: Ovid's Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris, and Tristia 2. University of Wisconsin Press.
• 2008. Clodia: A Sourcebook. University of Oklahoma Press.
• 2001. King of the Wood: The Sacrificial Victor in Virgil’s Aeneid. University of Oklahoma Press.

• 2013. “Virgil: The Aeneid.” In Finding a Common Thread: Reading Great Texts from Homer to O’Connor (ed. R. C. Roberts, S. H. Moore, and D. D. Schmeltekopf), 66-80, 325-26. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine Press.
• 2009. “Ovid and Religion.” In A Companion to Ovid (ed. Peter Knox), 45-58. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
• 2007. “The Lesbia Poems.” In A Companion to Catullus (ed. Marilyn Skinner), 254-75. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Journal Articles

• 2018. “Was Vergil Reading the Bible? Original Sin and an Astonishing Acrostic in the Orpheus and Eurydice.” Vergilius 64: 71-101.
• 2017. “Introduction: Reading Civil War” (introduction to Happy Golden Anniversary, Harvard School!). Classical World 111: 1-5.
• 2017. “Gift-Motherhood, the Prius, and the Peace Corps: Reducing Abortion by Incentivizing Adoption.” Public Discourse, 27 September 2017.
• 2017. “A Path to Détente in the War over Abortion.” Public Discourse, 26 September 2017.
• 2015. “Red-handed Apollo: What Martial Might Have Done with ‘Know Thyself’ in Ars Amatoria 2.493-502.” Classical Quarterly 65: 714-18.
• 2013. “The Bough and the Lock: Fighting Fate in the Aeneid.” Illinois Classical Studies 38: 149-57.
• 2012. “Teaching in Paradise.” Classical Journal 108: 95-102.
• 2011. “Facing the Minotaur: Inception (2010) and Aeneid 6.” Arion 19: 93-104.
• 2011. “Death by Elegy: Ovid’s Cephalus and Procris.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 141: 285-314.
• 2011. “Epic Rapes in the Fasti.” Classical Philology 106: 20-31.
• 2010-11. “Phthisical Intimacy: Martial 2.26.” Classical Journal 106: 223-27.
• 2010. “‘To R. B.’: Hopkins’ Ovidian Letter from the Black Sea.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 17: 53-59.
• 2009. “Jupiter’s Aeneid: Fama and Imperium.” Classical Antiquity 28: 279-327.