Faculty

Curtis Dozier

Associate Professor of Greek and Roman Studies

Profile
Contact
Grants
In the Media
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Curtis Dozier is an internationally recognized expert on how extremists and hate groups invoke Greco-Roman antiquity to promote their politics. He documents examples of such appropriations at his award-winning website Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics, and is the author of the first book-length treatment of this phenomenon: The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate (Yale University Press, 2026).

Dr. Dozier has taught at Vassar since 2008, after receiving his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to his research on the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity by white nationalists, he has published a series of articles on Latin poetry and ancient literary criticism, focusing particularly on the Roman rhetorician Quintilian. His course on Classical Rhetoric and the Presidential Campaign has been featured on Vassar News and his work has appeared in Salon.com, the online journal for Classics and contemporary culture Eidolon, Public Radio’s Academic Minute, and on the BBC’s Radio 4. From 2018–2020 he produced The Mirror of Antiquity, a podcast featuring classical scholars discussing the intersections of their research, the contemporary world, and their own lives. From 2014–2019, Dr. Dozier served as faculty advisor to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans studying at Vassar.

BA, Dartmouth College; MA, PhD, University of California-Berkeley

At Vassar since 2008

Contact

cudozier@vassar.edu

845-437-5604

Eleanor Butler Sanders Hall
Box 539

Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics

The Mirror of Antiquity

Research and Academic Interests

Latin Poetry
Classical Rhetoric
Ancient Literary Criticism
Classical Reception

Departments and Programs

Greek and Roman Studies

Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Courses

AFRS/GRST 301 Seminar in Classical Civilization
GRST 344 Roman Lyric and Elegy

Grants, Fellowships, Honors, Awards

Curtis Dozier is the Recipient of a Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship
Curtis Dozier, Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Studies, received a Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship from Harvard University for the 2023–2024 academic year to support his book project Hateful Classicism: Greco-Roman Antiquity and White Nationalism.

In the Media

Experts in Politics and Government Discuss the Country’s Post-Election Challenges

Political Science major Michelle Itkin ’26 and Associate Professor of Political Science Taneisha Means hosted a daylong conference on what happened in the 2024 elections and where we go from here.

Curtis Dozier, Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Studies, was quoted in a BuzzFeed story about a social media personality who uses an image of a statue of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius as his avatar.

The Welp magazine list of the best podcasts of 2021 includes The Mirror of Antiquity by Curtis Dozier, Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Studies.

The History of Ancient Greece Podcast

Professor Dozier spoke on The History of Ancient Greece Podcast about his Pharos project.

A fascist manifesto is gaining fans on the right, including state Sen. Roger Chamberlain.

Professor Dozier quoted in an article about a MN State Senator's promotion of a book that promotes ancient Greece as a model of violent masculinity."

Who Inspires Me

In celebration of Black History Month, five Vassar professors discuss some of the individuals who made an impact on them.

Cawthorn Takes a Hard-Right Turn

Professor Dozier quoted by Smoky Mountain News regarding a congressional candidate's use of the ancient Roman acronym S.P.Q.R., which is also a favorite symbol of hate groups."

The 2018 Public Scholarship Award from the Women’s Classical Caucus of the Society for Classical Studies

Curtis Dozier, Visiting Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Studies, received the 2018 Public Scholarship Award from the Women’s Classical Caucus of the Society for Classical Studies for his website Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics. Professor Dozier’s Pharos platform documents and responds to hate groups’ appropriations of Greco-Roman antiquity.

Donna Zuckerberg’s Not All Dead White Men and Red Pill Reductionism

Curtis Dozier, Visiting Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Studies, and his website Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics mentioned in a Ploughshares essay.

How Latin Got Woke

—The Nation

Myth Appropriation

Curtis Dozier, Visiting Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Studies and director of “Pharos: Doing Justice to the Classics,” a blog devoted to documenting and responding to appropriations of ancient Greek and Rome by hate groups, was included in a Baffler story about the use of classical references by white nationalists, men’s rights groups, and alt-right leaders.

Photos

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