Dr. Katharina Volk

Biography

Katharina Volk is a Latinist specializing in the literature of the late Republic and early Empire, with a particular interest in the intellectual history of Roman philosophy. She has been teaching at Columbia University since 2002 and currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Classics. Professor Volk is the author of several influential works, including 'Poetics Latin Didactic: Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Manilius' (Oxford 2002) and 'Manilius Intellectual Background' (Oxford 2009), for which she received the Lionel Trilling Book Award in 2010. Her recent publication, 'Roman Republic Letters: Scholarship, Philosophy, Politics Age Cicero Caesar' (Princeton 2021), was recognized with the Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit in 2022. Her research interests include Latin literature from the late Republican and early Imperial periods, especially focusing on the philosophy of Cicero and the intellectual contexts surrounding his work. She has also co-authored a commentary on Cicero’s 'Laelius de amicitia' with James Zetzel, set to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2024. Her articles cover diverse topics such as Ciceronian philosophy and Senecan dramaturgy.

Research Interests