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	Michael Nerdahl Bowdoin College
Department of Classics 11 Sills Brunswick, ME, 04011		mnerdahl[at]bowdoin[dot]edu Phone (C): 336.301.4552 Phone (W): 207.725.3403

Areas of Interest
     · Plutarch
     · Roman Republican Politics
     · Latin & Role-Immersion Pedagogy

Education        

University of Wisconsin-Madison                            Ph.D. 2007, Classics
Dissertation Title:  Homeric Models in Plutarch’s Lives

University of Wisconsin-Madison                            M.A. 2002, Classics

University of Wisconsin-Madison                            B.S. 1996, Classics

Employment

Bowdoin College, Classics Department
           Lecturer                                                   2012-Present
           Visiting Assistant Professor                    2010-2012

University of Richmond, Department of Classical Studies
           Visiting Assistant Professor                    2009-10

Bowdoin College, Department of Classics:
            Visiting Assistant Professor                   2008-09

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Classical Studies:
            Visiting Assistant Professor                   2007-08

University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Classics:
            Assistant in Instruction                          2001-04, 2006

Publications

"Exiling Achilles: Reflections on the Banished Statesman in Plutarch's Lives," forthcoming, Classical Journal 107.3 (February-March 2012)

"Flattery and Platonic Philosophy: The Limits of Education in Plutarch's Life of Dion," forthcoming, Classical World 104.3 (2011).

"Pouring the Wrong Wax in the Literary Mold: Plutarch's Marius and Homer's Odyssey," College Literature 35.4: 110-126 (Fall, 2008).

Reviews

D. Studdard, Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens. (Cambridge, MA, 2018); New England Classical Journal (Forthcoming)

M. Beck, ed. A Companion to Plutarch. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. (Malden, MA; Oxford; Chichester, 2014); New England Classical Journal 41.4 (November 2014): 339-342.

N. Humble, ed., Plutarch's Lives: Parallelism and Purpose. (Swansea, 2010), BMCR 11.26 (2011).

M. Tröster, Themes, Character, and Politics in Plutarch's Life of Lucullus: The Construction of a Roman Aristocrat (Stuttgart, 2008), BMCR 9.44 (2008).

Invited Lectures

“Role-Immersion and the Roman Constitution: Students as Senators in the Second Century BCE”
Maine Classical Assocation, October 2016

Respondent, “Identity and Politics in the Peloponnesian War”
Massachusetts and Connecticut Junior Faculty Forum, Trinity College, November, 2015.

“Effecting Hope and Change through the Power of Example in Tacitus’ Agricola”
Maine Classical Association, October 2012 & Round-Table invitation, University of Southern Maine, April 2013

"Homeric Remakes: Achillean Cameos in Plutarch's Lives"
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, February 2010

Selected Conference Papers and Lectures

“The Encounter between Roman Virtue and Platonism in Plutarch’s Cato the Elder”
XIth International Congress of the International Plutarch Society (Fribourg, Switzerland); May, 2017

“Role-Playing, Twitter, and Roman Senators: Post-Punic War Rome in the Classroom”
Classical Association of the Midwest and South (Williamsburg, VA); March, 2016.

“Plutarch’s Romans: Civilized and Civilizing Barbarians”
Inaugural Meeting of the North American International Plutarch Society (Banff, Alberta), March 2014

"Tacitus, Pliny, and the Politics of Regime Change"
Forthcoming, CANE (Needham, MA), March 2012

"Parallel Athenians: Themistocles, Alcibiades and Plutarchan Syncrisis"
APA (Philadelphia, PA), January 2012

“War and the Lawgiver: The Transformative Role of Religion in Plutarch's Lycurgus-Numa,” (book chapter; accepted, publication pending)

“The Encounter between Roman Virtue and Platonism in Plutarch’s Cato the Elder,” (part of edited volume; submitted)

The Roman Republican Senate, 190-187 BC (pedagogical role-immerson game for up to 45 students; has undergone two external playtestings & one at Bowdoin in its current iteration).

“Plutarch’s Romans: Civilized and Civilizing Barbarians” (article; in progress)

Epic Role-Immersion: The Trojan War (pedagogical role-immerson game for up to 55 students; recently updated and playtested at Bowdoin in April 2018).

Sample Courses Taught

Bowdoin College:
Elementary Latin I (LATN 1101)
Elementary Latin II (LATN 1102)
Homer (GREK 2204)
Classical Myth (CLAS 1101)
Reacting to Democracy (CLAS 2210/HIST 2144); co-taught with Patrick Rael)
Leadership and Morality: The Lives of Plutarch (CLAS 3306)
The Republic of Rome and the Evolution of Exeuctive Power (CLAS 2214/HIST 2008)

Honors Projects Supervised

“The Transformation of the Roman Army in the 2nd Century BC,” Matt Liptrot, 2016

Aristophanes' Acharnians: an Adaptation for Production Brittany Johnson, 2012)

Tacitus: Tiberius and the Senate, Stephen Shennan, 2012)