Richard L. Phillips has been appointed an assistant professor of classics in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

Phillips is one of 16 new faculty members this fall at the college. This year’s hires enhance existing program strengths and increase the college’s national profile across the arts, humanities, and human and social sciences.

“Faculty excellence is at the heart of Virginia Tech’s ability to succeed,” Dean Elizabeth Spiller said. "I am very pleased to welcome such a gifted and transformative group of scholars, artists, and teachers to the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences."

Phillips’ research focus is on the interdisciplinary field of magic and the use of private ritual texts in the ancient Mediterranean. Most recently he has been working on a study for a broader scholarly audience on human invisibility in the ancient world. He will be teaching Greek and Roman mythology as well as courses at all levels in ancient Greek and Latin.

He is the author of “In Pursuit of Invisibility: Ritual Texts from Late Roman Egypt” and has been published in the journals Chronique d’Égypte and Illinois Classical Studies. He has participated in international conferences, including two National Endowment for the Humanities seminars, and has contributed to the subsequent publications.

Phillips holds a Ph.D., a master's degree, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

 

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