Dr. Richard Ellis

Biography

Richard Ellis completed his undergraduate degree in Cambridge, England, and obtained his doctorate from the University of Southern California. He began lecturing at the UCLA Department of Classics in the winter quarter of 2014, teaching a variety of courses including Ancient Greek Philosophy, Greek Culture and Mythology, Ancient Tragedy, and Ancient Athletics. His wide-ranging classes cover elementary to upper-division reading of Latin and Greek authors such as Homer, Hesiod, Lysias, Aeschylus, Plato, and Seneca. His research interests are centered on Archaic and Classical Greek philosophy and literature. His PhD dissertation, titled ‘Heraclitus’ Children: Brains, Bodies, Culture, and Play,’ explores the work of the Pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus. He is currently turning his dissertation into a book focused on the role of the child in philosophical and literary thought from the ancient Greek world to 20th-century Weimar Germany. He is charting the evolution of ideas, genres, and cultures, and is involved in forthcoming articles discussing Heraclitus’ ludic philosophy and his relevance to post-humanism, engaging with dialogues involving contemporary thinkers like Eugen Fink and Gilles Deleuze. He is also collaborating with Dr. Hannah Dawson from the New Institute of the Humanities at the University of London to co-edit a new Clarendon edition for Oxford University Press.

Research Interests