Dr. Joseph Howley

Biography

Joseph Howley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at Columbia University. He holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and previously earned an M Litt in Ancient History and a BA in Ancient Studies from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). His teaching focuses on Latin, history books, and the Literature Humanities as part of Columbia’s Core Curriculum. Howley's scholarly work encompasses imperial Latin prose and Greek literature of the second sophistic, and his research notably explores the intersections of Roman intellectual reading cultures, textual materiality, and the evolution of classical literature through early modern printing. He has contributed significantly to the field with the publication of his book, "Aulus Gellius: Roman Reading Culture: Text, Presence Imperial Knowledge Noctes Atticae," published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Additionally, he is a founding co-chair of Columbia University's Seminar on Material Texts and serves as the secretary of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows. He is currently involved in projects concerning Roman literature's fate, remediation of texts, and the role of enslaved labor in book production.

Research Interests