Professor Dr. Rachel Philbrick

Biography

Rachel Philbrick is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia. She specializes in Latin literature, with a focus on the Republican and early Imperial periods, particularly Latin elegy and epic. Philbrick earned her PhD in Classics from Brown University in 2016 and has held teaching positions at several U.S. universities, including Harvard, Georgetown, and Fordham. In 2019-2020, she taught in Rome, Italy, at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies. Her research interests include Latin poetry, textual analysis, and the manipulation of time in literature. She is currently working on a book project that examines the poetry of Ovid, specifically during the poet's exile on the Black Sea coast. Philbrick is engaged in studying how Ovid employs strategies to convey the credibility of his descriptions, especially regarding the place deemed 'Scythia,' a location often viewed with skepticism. Additionally, she is co-editing a volume of essays about the concept of time in the Roman world. Philbrick is supportive of graduate students focusing on linguistic and literary aspects of Latin poetry, aiming to help them refine their own research interests and achieve their academic goals.

Research Interests