With scholarly volumes that explore the life of Herodotus, deep dives into Greek music on papyrus, seminal work on ancient readers and reading cultures, and an erudite consideration of the print and book culture of Oxyrhynchus – a town in ancient Egypt, now buried under sand – Duke professor William Johnson cuts a wide swath in the classical studies discipline.
Johnson teaches Greek, Latin and cultural history at Duke and has published on topics ranging from archaic Greece to the high Roman empire.
He was the 2000 recipient of the Gildersleeve Prize, which recognizes the best article of the year published in the American Journal of Philology, a journal of classical scholarship.
Johnson’s award-winning, 35-page work, “Toward A Sociology of Reading in Classical Antiquity,” begins with a rather whimsical question that was the subject of scholarly debate in the past century:
“Did the ancient Greeks and Romans read aloud or silently?”
Johnson is perennially recognized for teaching excellence and is one of the nation’s leading classical studies scholars.
Johnson joined the Duke faculty in 2010 and became chair of the Department of Classical Studies in 2017. In 2020 he was appointed tothe senior leadership of Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences asdean of humanities.
He also served for several years as director of graduate studies for Duke’s classical studies program.
In 2019, Johnson said that the ancient world has always had something to say to, or about, the modern world:
“One of the reasons we study antiquity is to see some continuities—as well as differences—in the human condition.”
His current work centers on understanding the ways that “publishing” in antiquity – when there were no publishers but only social networks – can highlight our present-day shift from traditional print to electronic reading materials promoted by social media.
